I’ve spent some time away from social media. Upon returning to it, I immediately felt its negativity sapping away my peace of mind, my niceness. Anchoring yourself in the real world as your source of stimulation, rather than in social media, makes you a greater being.
Do not listen to those ill-thinking men who tell you that withdrawing from social media is a privilege, and that you should feel bad for not tapping your mind into that continuous source of despair and misery. There are people so insufficiently privileged that they do not even possess the means to access social media to begin with. If anything, it is more levelling to reduce, if not discontinue, your use of social media.
“But I may miss out.” On what, exactly? What could you have missed out on that would have disturbed your life if you didn’t hear about it at all? Most of the information we consider important because of its grandeur or potential impact ultimately has little impact on us. Does knowing about the Iran war reduce your gas bill? Absolutely not. Yet there is a world where you do not know about the Iran war while facing its higher gas prices, and in that world you only face the frustration of the price increase, not that frustration AND the despair and dread we feel from a murderous war.
It is good to stay informed, but to stay informed about the things we can act upon. We should ready ourselves to let go of the information we discover we can’t really use, and let ourselves be comfortable with our ignorance of it. Otherwise our minds become filled with noise and our mental health worsens to an unnecessary extent.