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My best friend and I were talking about drowning in information. The 24 hour news cycle. The numbing effect it has. The paralysis. The hopelessness. She told me it was like having a hundred browser tabs open in your brain and said I should give myself permission to close a few.
It was one of the best metaphors I've ever heard. There's just too much information to process. It's impossible to care about it all. It's impossible to do ANYTHING about so much of it.
Social media has tricked our brains. We "spread awareness" and get those sweet sweet reward chemicals for "helping," when we haven't done anything. Maybe just vomited onto other people's timelines.
And there's so much work to do. We either feel like we can't do anything, or we try to help everyone. We spread quarters to a hundred charities or causes. And yes, every little bit does help.
Personally, I've been learning how passionate I am about local community. I can't enact nationwide education reform like I want. But I can work to influence my school district. Or at least my school.
I can't keep Roe v. Wade the law of the land, but I can donate to my local Planned Parenthood. Maybe it's okay to give myself permission to not care about Boris Johnson's brand of fascism. Maybe I can trust the people in the UK to deal him and fight their fight.
Maybe it's selfish or self-centered or American exceptionalism or privilege. I don't know. But we will all be exhausted and numb for the rest of our lives, no use to anyone, if we keep trying to care about EVERY problem under the sun and expecting everyone else too as well.
