Just UnFollow

Reducing Stress in Our Lives

Social media surrounds and infiltrates our lives, bringing with it an information overload. Every scroll through my personal feed reveals ads, blog posts the platform targeted to my past click history, and ever more posts and articles and videos shared by friends and family. The sheer volume of words and ideas is overwhelming. If it was just information it might not be so bad, but the reality is that much of this “information” is opinions, partial truths, bogus science, and outright lies in the form of clickbait. “Doctors warn this fruit destroys your intestines…” Does it really? You won’t know until you click, and you won’t really even know then because the author probably didn’t cite their sources. So the reader is left vaguely anxious, and probably needlessly concerned about a harmless piece of fruit. 

Headlines scream upsetting things at us, drawing us in, down the swirling vortex of emotional upheaval and manipulation. Time and again I am outraged, angered, scared, and horrified by headlines and news articles, as I read about things that I cannot help or change. The constant emotional rollercoaster is exhausting and leaves me depressed and anxious. I can’t help that poor abused dog. I can’t stop that horrible racist person from hurting their victim. I can’t fix our political system. I can’t heal that sweet little child dying of a freak one-in-a-million infection. But I can emotionally suffer and retreat from my own friends and family, afraid I too might be at risk. The reaction elicited by these headlines and posts is invariably negative, and the negativity starts to enter our souls, changing our perception of the world and our responses to our surroundings. 

Life is full of simple yet important decisions… or they seem simple at first, but the farther down the rabbit hole of the internet and social media you get the more conflicting information you get. Should my family wear sunscreen and get cancer from it or burn in the sun and get skin cancer anyways? Should I vaccinate my child and risk a severe negative reaction or not vaccinate and risk a rare but severe case of the disease? Will meat eventually kill me or is it part of a healthy diet? These impossible choices just keep coming. The best way to doubt every decision you ever make is to ask the internet what it thinks. So don’t.

What if we just make the best decision we can, and then stop listening to the negative voices? I choose to vaccinate my children. I know there is a small chance of a severe reaction, a vaccine injury,  but I believe that it is balanced out by the danger of the disease itself. (And if you don’t think some of these diseases can be very dangerous then try ignoring the internet and reading a history book!) There are risks either way, so I have chosen the risk I will live with.

The problem is, even though I have made my decision, social media and “expert” bloggers are there to erode my confidence and show me all the horrible side effects attributed to whatever I just decided to do or not do. But heres the thing… most of the people writing these posts are not experts. They are people given an outline for an article and paid three cents a word. And we are going to trust them more than the actual professionals who spent years studying and working in their field?? So after living in turmoil I finally decided to simply… unfollow.

Unfollowing is powerful. It has the ability to remove unnecessary turmoil from our lives. It can lower our stress levels and even make us friendlier, happier people. It can improve our relationships. (Imagine a world where we had to ASK people about their political and social views instead of having them shoved down our throats every day!) 

So unfollow. Unfollow that former classmate who is always negative and mean. Unfollow that coworker who shares endless numbers of false political and racially charged memes and blog posts. Unfollow that acquaintance who continuously pushes out pictures and stories of abused animals or children heartbreakingly impacted by products or vaccines or every day life. Just unfollow. Is it important to be informed? Yes. Is it important to know about and participate in important political and social causes? Yes! Can you do this effectively on social media? Probably not.

Please note, I say “unfollow,” not “unfriend.” Don’t cut people off, simply gain some distance. Refuse to give these voices power in your life. Go check their profile occasionally to see how they are doing, but don’t subject yourself to disturbing input every day. And if you are the one giving this disturbing negativity a platform, please stop! If something is really burdening your soul then sharing one time is way more effective than posting every single day. I know who I am going to vote for. I don’t make health decisions based on scary facebook stories. And no, God’s not disappointed if you don’t share that “I love Jesus, and if you don’t share this then obviously you don’t love him too” memes. Really. He’s not. 

Value your peace of mind. Value your sanity. Unfollow!