Anyways unrelated post but one I sometimes think about making often (just in more detail)
I know most of us use socmed esp tumblr etc to avoid reality because life can be cruel but please. For the love of whatever you consider holy or respect, check some news every once in a while. Can be local, can be international. It is good for you and your perception to keep in touch with reality and how things are even if they may seem dire or depressing. You cannot live a life escaping from anything that’ll give you even an ounce of discomfort (I mean, you can but what is the point of living if you’re not feeling, be it negative or positive? What’s the point if you’ve numbed yourself to a point where you’re glued to your couch, doing the same meaningless tasks over and over again.
Keep up with news, keep up with your community, with people and with the world. And after a while you’ll begin to adapt to these patterns in both news and speech, begin to slowly feel suspicion when a news headline is fabricated or altered. It is good to get out of your bubble every once in a while and interact with groups you might not agree with fully! You don’t have to even do it directly!
Look, I say this as someone where news are manipulated constantly and hidden most of the time so the people keep up to date with things and do their best to spread the news— even on a platform like Twitter. And it helps! It also helps to scroll down the replies or check qrts to read others tweets, get an idea on how many diverse thinkings there might be around, to get that reality check that the world is not just your safety bubble you’ve crafted for yourself. It is good to have a place of safety to return to but it is beneficial for you to always remember and not just vaguely just how many more different perspectives there might be.
I am not saying inject yourself with so many news of tragedies that you’ll become desensitized— it might be the case for some of us (when tragedies have become a constant in daily lives esp in 3rd world countries) but just consume enough news to keep you alert, to keep you on your toes. As a reminder, as that flash of red light in your head.
You live in certain circumstances and witness many ploys your entire life, might get desensitized to certain range or things or even think you’ve seen it all (ie: like many third world citizens do. Giving this as an example because our set in realities are newly growing potential threats in first world countries. And you know that saying about how dystopian novels are often just a westerns nightmare scenario while it is the third world countries’ reality) but in the end, none of us are immune to propaganda, none of us are immune to cheap tricks certain groups or classes might pull. And that’s why it’s important in my opinion, to try and keep in touch with both your local politics & news as well as the world’s. I’m not saying to know every small occurrence in countries farthest away from you but to give a bigger scale example the ‘conflict’ regarding Palestine vs israel has been ongoing for so many years but it made the headlines and became known by many only in the last 1-2 years.
So yeah. Communicate, stay in touch and stay informed. Life is hard and reality might be harsh but just as there is a balance to things and certain opposite seeming concepts exist within each other, you need to feel remorse for others too, you need to get out of your bubble every one in a while and educate yourself, learn about news regarding others. Do whatever you can to help, even just educating yourself and your environment is a big step, don’t desensitize yourself but don’t numb yourself by avoiding reality either. Keep in touch, with yourself, your community, friends and the world. Love you all