Release Notes #3
I spent too much time on Instagram. I don’t post anything on my grid (in fact, I removed everything a while back) but I browse and post stories. The most common stories I see are infographics related to life and mental health. Some of them are tweets from people who may or may not have good intentions with what they say but, for me at least, I don’t find them helpful at all and they reinforce the reasons why I don’t talk to people.
Social media has provided a platform for simultaneous change and stagnation. Thanks to woeful inadequacy in public health care in the West, social media “therapists” have been the only source of relief for many. That’s an indictment on governments and not those who genuinely try to help. But a lot of what I see skip the compassion that we need to get through difficult situations and goes straight for the jugular. We’re somewhat hampered by 280 characters per tweet without turning thoughts into threads which are equally as oppressive to nuance. But the result is condensing the time and grace to navigate our feelings and emotions and spitting out two sentences that sound sharp and cut deep. That might work for some but it doesn’t jostle me into action. It makes me feel like what I’ve been feeling for years was a waste of time. No time to unpack it, I’ve just got to… stop doing that thing. Telling me I’m worth it without examining why I never thought I was puts a blanket over the burden without releasing it.
We’ve got to dismantle the infographic industrial complex.