How Media’s Social Media Has Damaged My Brain

Have you recently tried to just sit still for a moment, basking in the silence and darkness of shut eyes? Have you considered not moving and just lying still without the urge to grab anything, and with the urgency to gather streams of thoughts into a cohesive pattern that can at the very least help you plan the next hour of an unfolding day?

This is a dilemma that I face in private, and it’s basically like the lump that won’t go away, no matter how hard you try to pretend it isn’t there.

The daily routine of being attacked with the avalanche of news items that are configured to push brain cells as far as they can stretch with the laziness of not compartmentalizing for the sake of sanity was taking its toll back in 2014, and five years later, I can verify that the damage is extensive.

Media’s social media isn’t media.

The internalization of data at the rapid pace that’s designated, and with the fear that robotic tendencies will kick in with the middle finger to humanness, that saves you from scrolling past daily goriness of life without being gripped with horror is exactly what the news cycle wasn’t supposed to curate.

And then there’s the mandatory social obligations that can’t be ignored if you desperately need a job in a world that judges bankability based on the number of people that are forced to “like” you.

At first it was exciting, even empowering to have the world at your finger tips, with the endless possibilities of what can be amassed when you get the right kind of attention.

You try various methods of engagement and observe how blue tickers navigate the terrain of popularity with seamless command. You mimic some of those attributes and then when that doesn’t work, you surrender to the task of spending most of your time trying.

The mind is a tricky fucker, and before you realize what’s happening, the suction consumes the elements that used to shield you from losing your shit, just when you need the disciplined thought process that brought you this far — for nothing.

I hoped that prison sentence would pass me by and lock up the ones that belong in that terrorized state of mind, but unfortunately my time is up.