Watch what you eat - there may be a moral agenda attached!
My nightly ritual after putting the kids to sleep and crawling in bed myself, is to take one last look at Facebook. That is typically the time of day that other late-nighters are posting funny/insightful stuff as well. I follow the links of interest that were posted during the day, read the blog posts and watch the YouTube videos that came through my feed.
Last night, for what felt like the umpteenth time, I felt worse about the world and some of the people in it after my reading session than when I started. For someone who is struggling to keep depression at bay on a daily basis, this is bad. Really bad.
Posts that tout a political and moral agenda that are so very, very contrary to mine are no longer enlightening or helping me to keep a balanced and fair perspective. Now they just feel like hate mail. Lots of hate mail. Post after post of hate mail. And I am so very, very tired of it.
If I wasn't so tired last night, I would have put down my iPhone and gone downstairs and deleted my Facebook account. Or at least started the unfriending process. But I knew better because the unfriending process can have unintentional consequences, and that is not the message I want to send. I just decided to sleep on it. So this morning, after consulting with Dean, I am going to comb through my account and unsubscribe from a lot of feeds - which means we are still friends, I just don't have to read all of the negative posts anymore. That way there are no hard feelings, or uncomfortable silences at the holiday dinner table and so on and so forth. In a nutshell, I appreciate your opinions, and you are absolutely entitled to them, but you're bringing me down. In a big way. Like in shaking my faith in humanity and basic kindness kind of way.
For the record:
1) I am an Obama supporter, but I am a moderate.
2) I have some family members and lifelong friends who are gay. It confounds me how a person's sexual orientation has an effect on anyone BUT that person. I wholeheartedly support gay marriage and despise legislators and businesses that make it their personal agenda to continue to marginalize the LGBT community. Equal rights - for everyone!
So how does a on-the-cusp depressionholic keep the blues away? Filter out the bad stuff. I am no Pollyanna, and I don't own a pair of rose-colored glasses, but to prevent any more backsliding I need to just concentrate on the good stuff. There a several friends out there who post inspirational stuff (non-religious), funny stories and intellectual food for thought - you all keep the good vibe going and I appreciate all of you! Social media should be fun - not a battleground.
