Be Your Own Curator & Don’t Feed the Beast
It’s been an interesting week – better, since I shocked myself out of my politically-driven funk. It got bad enough last weekend that I actually deleted the FB app from my phone for a good 24 hours, and when I reinstalled it, I didn’t put a shortcut anywhere easy to get to, so I have to actually search for it when I want to check it. And instead of 10 minute limits, I completely avoid FB now from 10pm to 12noon…nothing late at night or in the mornings. I can’t be starting or ending my day with doom and gloom – especially not without bigger context.
Something interesting I found during my little enforced FB break: when I read the news without other people’s (often very emotional) commentary on it, I tend to have a much healthier perspective. I also tend to *see* more of the good parts, and not fixate on all the crazy/concerning parts. I added a couple of news outlets I trust to my feed reader instead, and now I read the news each day (not first thing) *before* I allow myself on FB, so that I can interpret it for myself (so I look at *all* the articles in the feed that I’ve curated, rather than what FB or others pick to show me), before I’m hit with everyone else’s opinions. This has done a great deal toward keeping myself calm and realizing that there’s more back and forth going on in government right now than a lot of people realize. Those articles don’t get passed around as much, because they don’t elicit the same amount of shock and awe (and thus don’t get as many likes, etc, so they don’t “feed” the social media algorithms). But they are there, if you look for them – often behind paywalls or ad-supported sites (just turn off your ad-blocker if the latter…gotta pay the bills somehow), but the headline and a short blurb are usually sufficient to get the important information across even if you don’t want to pay.
None of this is to say that what’s going on in our government at the moment isn’t serious, because it absolutely is (or I wouldn’t be posting about it). I am neither a Democrat or Republican (I’m an Independent…in pretty much everything), but I’m still concerned about the direction some things are taking, so of course I will keep up with the news and stay abreast of what’s going on. I need to see issues from both/all sides in order to form my own opinions, and my FB feed is often an echo-chamber of extremes (or two, really, since I am connected to people of all different views there), so really not suitable for that purpose.
Social media feeds on strong emotions – things that are divisive and inflammatory and “trainwrecky”. It tends to ignore practicality and wide/rounded perspectives and civil discourse where people are respectful to each other regardless of differing opinions, because DRAMA is what brings in the clicks and money. I got caught up there for a bit, and fed the beast. It bit me, hard. I’m not making that mistake again.
Lesson learned: Be your own curator – don’t get lazy and let social media or even other people do that for you. And don’t feed the beast by playing into the “sky is falling” mentality (at least do some independent research first). Or that’s what I will be doing, anyways (you do you, of course).
Needless to say, this week has been much more productive than last. I’ve been writing, crocheting, puzzling, latch-hooking, I have a new set of stamps on approval that I’m mulling over, and I’ve been taking care of my husband who is sick again (dang it). I am absolutely keeping an eye on the news outside of FB, and largely just scrolling past those highly emotional posts on social media to see what’s new in my fiber, puzzle and other hobby groups.
I also finished reading Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig, which was really good and ended strong. It’s a horror novel, but I’d highly recommend it even if you’re not a horror reader, if you like thrillers. Depending on your perspective, it’s actually kind of appropriate given current events. But it’s an enjoyable and engaging read, either way.
Then I started The Moonflowers by Abigail Rose-Marie, which I suspect is going to be very good, but I’m not far enough into it yet to tell, and it’s written in first person, which is not my favorite perspective to read from (though I am getting more used to it, and have even started using it in my writing more, which is weird, but it’s good to branch out). I actually charged up my Kindle for that one – I started reading in the app, but my phone is really too bright to read on at night for my chronically strained & dry eyes. It’s nice having a book going that I can have with me, though, in case I want to read on a break at work or something. I may start another print book here at home too – we’ll see.
And I’m back to work on writing the Magpie novels, which makes me happy, because I really want to finish at least one draft this year, and possibly two. The ladies I’m writing about fascinate me, and I’m very invested in learning their stories, and how they became who they ended up to be, and how that affected the generations that came after.
This is largely why I continue to write – I like to explore how different people think, and why they make the decisions they make. Doing that in fiction gives me insights not just into how others make choices in “real life”, but ultimately, into my own thought-processes as well.
That, and it’s just fun.
Since I’m on a roll with politics, maybe next week we’ll discuss politics in the late 1800’s, which is when the first Magpie novel is set.
Until then,
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