Corners, Privacy and Being Offline.
For a while now, especially with the whole PC culture coming in strong, I try to constantly practice self-care both online and in real life. My “real life” self governs a lot of what I look for online and what I choose to show myself. As much as the internet is a place of vast knowledge, it is also a place with a lot of negativity, I’m pretty sure many of you would know that without me saying. I have gotten to a point with governing myself that I don’t really think about what it is I’m searching when I search. Overall, I condensed my many practices down into a general three categories that will hopefully sum up how I take care of myself and maybe then, someone will read this, be inspired and do their own remix of this and figure out how they can care for themselves online.
Get away from that dark shadowy corner
The first and foremost thing I do is avoid all those shadowy corners of the internet. I know many people who love going to that side and constantly do nothing but look at the things there, but I find so many of the topics, comments and just the general vibe of the corner to be too negative and I feel myself stressed and uneasy every time I go there. I keep thinking “Am I getting trolled? Is someone going to ridicule everything I say?” The latter of the two happens in light or dark, but I feel more vulnerable in the corner. My YouTube subscription list is filled with channels that talk about the daily news, DIYs and 3D printing tutorials. The communities of the channels I follow tend to be a lot more accepting, caring and less judgemental. In fact, many will laugh with you and joke around with you if you make a good comment. As soon as I find that the YouTuber has changed, which subsequently makes their viewership change, I unsubscribe and move on. Simple as that. In the case of Twitter or sometimes even Facebook, I avoid negative hashtags or hashtag streams that carry a lot of hatred and negativity along with them.
Keep things private, not necessarily quiet.
I keep all my personal accounts private. I feel that my social media pages are there for me to be able to share and record my thoughts freely, no matter how controversial. I have some thoughts that a lot of the PC culture won’t agree with and many would be quick to attack me, but those I let follow me in my inner circle are people who are my friends, who, even if they don’t agree with my point of view, will not censor me. If they challenge my view, it tends to be an academic challenge that end up bettering both sides. There are times when I feel that my thoughts should not be shared, but that is on me, if I want to suddenly share those thoughts, there are those avenues available to me.
Go offline.
This is the last but biggest and most important thing for me. Going offline. Get away from it. Far, farrrrrr away from it. I never realized how much going offline would affect me. I thought I would feel stressed, annoyed or stifled without my avenues out. But, long story short, I went to New York with the boyfriend for a few days and I went offline. I told my project group you would not be able to find me at all. I went full MIA. Even from my own parents. I didn’t buy a data plan, I didn’t even have long distance calling. All I had was local wifi and that I only used to use Google Maps or to research phone numbers, schedules, etc. I saw my emails coming in and I ignored them. I saw text messages, didn’t read them. The first day was a lot of reminding myself that I can’t go on platforms like Facebook or Instagram. But as soon as I hit New York, all that stress and reminder was out the window. I felt free. I wasn’t worried about taking nice photos, I wasn’t worried about having to share every meal I had with everyone who didn’t care. I actually kept my phone in my pocket, eyes up and remembered my trip with such clarity, it was as if it happened yesterday.
The magical part of it all? When I came back to Toronto, I didn’t really want to go back. I had to because of school, but if I had a choice to stay offline for the week, maybe even two? I would have taken it. It was like I was becoming human again. Not a part of a machine. I forgot what it was like growing up without laptops or smartphones. I finally reconnected. It was awesome.
Hopefully one of these things here will be of help. I mean, this worked for me only after a lot of experimenting and a lot of risk taking. I had to put myself in uncomfortable conditions to try to figure out what it is I need to do to make myself feel better in the long run. I can’t recommend my regime to others and say this is a sure fire way to feel good again, but I do say this, try things out, don’t close your mind off. Experiment and be creative with ways that you monitor yourself. Don’t be afraid to go into the physical world to figure out what you need to do in the digital.
After I (hopefully) graduate in April, I might just go MIA again. It will be nice to do.
