This year I had a lot of time to reflect. I spent a lot less time on the internet and on my devices. At the end of last year I replaced my smartphone for a dumbphone and have been using one since. I read a lot more this year, planted a garden, talked with my family more, and focused more on my mental and physical health.
Modern life is stressful. I think it is easy to get wrapped up in what the internet tells us. It tells us how to live, what to think, what to eat, what’s important. In between all of that is money. Who got paid to write that article? Who got paid to film, edit, and popularize this video? It’s a shame that we have to ask ourselves these questions. Largely, the internet is a complete waste of your time and energy. You carry all of these opinions with you until you see something else next month that is completely different. If you change your opinions dramatically and quite often, look at what content you are consuming.
Your own opinions matter. That being said, if “your opinion” is something some influencer said from a video on YouTube, it actually doesn’t matter at all. If “your opinion” about something is largely sourced from reddit posts, it doesn’t matter at all. All of these statements beg the question: have you actually thought about “your opinion” at all? Have you done any critical thinking about the thing you supposedly care so much about, or are you just being subjected to what the internet offers, and you took it hook, line, and sinker?
I stopped blogging because I wanted to take a step back from everything the internet offers. There is a race and it often includes influencers that perhaps haven’t done any kind of real work outside of video editing. There are people trying to sell you a “perfect” job or a “perfect” life that doesn’t exist. There are massive corporations with ad campaigns that solely exist to try and get a few pennies out of each click.
I want to re-focus this blog to attempt to explain all of what I have said. I believe I have an open mind, and rather than be upset and/or angry at everything I see, I want to analyze those things and talk about them. Partial therapy for me, but also hopefully I will be able to make someone aware of what’s going on. Perhaps you have thoughts or feelings about this. Please feel free to share them with me via email. There won’t be any schedule to this. I will write when I feel like it.