Online Obsession

Every day I try to log on to my social media accounts, I see obsession with particular individual or world events.  No, I'm not going to name them because it is secondary to what I am writing.  The obsession online is mind boggling.  It seems to be all that anyone can talk about, focus on or share with everyone.

I just don't get it.  Unless everyone is locked into the trauma of the situation, isn't there more to this life and the world?  Does every waking moment need to be about one person or one event or one whatever it may be?  I know, that's a rhetorical question.

Of course, social media tends to be for the most part about superficial topics.  We go from one sensationalized headline to another, one celebrity to another, all the time oblivious to what our life is really like.

If you can't tell, I don't follow 99% of that stuff online.  We don't have cable anymore and from what I see playing out in social media, I don't think I'm missing a thing.  I don't watch the TV news - not any of the TV stations, so I don't get swept up into the frenzy of fear most days.

There is good online...

Yes, there is some great stuff online in social media where it is truly trying to make a difference.  This obsession online though with the repeated over and over single focus drives me insane.  It serves no purpose, but everyone has to eat, breathe and depend upon what is being fed to them.

I'm not saying you have to give it up but maybe it is more helpful to find some balance in our day.  It doesn't do your mind and body any good to stay this engaged in the fear and hyped up engagements of the day.  It isn't good for your nervous system, your overall health and your mental health.  It is damaging if you stay in this stuff every day.

Yes, I know it isn't easy walking away from it.  Everyone thinks they have to like, share, and post it all day long.  If you go to YouTube it is there.  If you go to websites, ads pop up with all of it.

Another world outside of this...

If you can begin to step away from it, you'll find that there is another world outside of this.  There is a world that exists which is much more deep and fulfilling than this online obsession.

It reminds me of a city I lived in, who had to build up the barriers between the cars on the expressways.  If there was an accident or a car stopped and people going the opposite direction could see it, traffic would back up.  It was like everyone had to just look and see the accident, even though it was usually horrible to view.

We are like that online.  Even though we think it is horrible or it makes us fearful, we stay so engaged to it.  It is like a deer in the headlights.

We need balance and we need it badly.  No, it doesn't begin with everyone else.  It begins within each one of us.  What we choose to take in each day says so much.  If we are engaged in that which we so despise, then we are just as much a part of the problem as that which we complain about in our day.

#OnlineSocialMedia 

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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