Hello World

Okay… a new blog (once again)!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about social media’s toxic nature. Even if one goes in not wanting to participate in it, there is a pull. It is the oxygen everyone there breathes, and it affects you. It’s one of the reasons I have to diligently police myself on Reddit (so as not to get caught up in that aggessively confrontational community, while still consuming the content that I do find useful), or watch what I consume on TikTok (as they say, “Never read the comments”). It’s also why I’m not on Twitter any more.

So, today, I’ve withdrawn from the Fediverse. I guess the last straw was when someone misread a post of mine and then jumped into my DMs to insult me (under the pretense of defending someone they thought I was disrespecting). I don’t have any complaints about defending someone who is being disrespected; please do, but make sure you understand the situation first (that what you think is happening is actually happening), or perhaps come into the person’s DMs asking for clarification rather than just slinging insults from the get go.

We all make mistakes (though after some further discussion this person still didn’t seem to think they’d made one). Anyway, I guess I just figured that it’s okay to leave behind one’s impediments to a healthier mental state. We don’t have to keep things in our life that are not good for us (or that drain our energies). And, I, being an anxious person, need to manage my negative self-talk and hampster-wheeling.

I’ve been going through a period of transitions, lately, and it’s not been easy. In talking with my therapist, I’ve been coming around to the idea that the way that I approach some things needs to be changed. It’s okay not to be fully engaged in everything. I mean, who has that much energy? It’s okay to say, “No,” I’m learning. For good measure, I also went ahead and pruned the Reddit channels I follow to reduce my cognitive load there.

Anyway, so here we are. I’ve been setting up this blog for a bit, but today I’m starting to use it. We’ll see how long this one lasts.