Read on Twitter
I wonder what Twitter would be like if I just stopped following people who consistently made me anxious or upset or like I am drowning.
Of course, having asked that question aloud, now I can't unfollow anyone ever again.
Here is the thing: I tweeted that in large part because I thought the follow-up tweet was funny. But, yes, I do get anxious about this kind of thing, especially because I so often feel that most of the world’s ills come from people prioritizing personal comfort at all costs.
It is most likely inappropriately grandiose to rhetorically equate my social media habits with things like climate change and white supremacy and capitalist exploitation, but as with lots of things the difference seems one more of scale than of substance.
Intellectually, I know that the proposition “People should be willing to tolerate some discomfort” does not imply “I must be unhappy all the time.” But I have always had trouble understanding where the lines are with things like this.
I spent a lot of my young life believing I was always right about things. Part of this had to do with i examined privilege and unconscious bias. Nowadays, I find I am skeptical of my own ability to see through my biases, to the point where anything that feels good seems suspect.
I know this is not a healthy or sustainable way to be, but I don’t really know how to fully get past it, either. I have worked on this for many years with my therapist, and I’ve gotten better at asking good questions of myself. But it’s still hard for me to trust myself.
Anyway, now that I’ve fully ruined any humor this thread might have started with, I guess I’ll take a little break and get back to my book.
