Have you ever experienced choice paralysis? You’re at the grocery store, there’s 80 different brands of toothpaste, you have no idea what you want so you grab whatever’s cheapest and get home and realize it’s made with dog shit in a strange overseas factory?
Information overload is a real thing and it impacts our ability to make rational decisions all the time—if we even have that ability in the first place (many seemingly do not.) Our brains didn’t evolve to take in this massive amount of bullshit all day, every day, with no break. Our brains evolved to keep us alive and fed so we could fuck and pass down our genes to the next generation. That’s it. Our brains don’t understand Twitter or Instagram or reddit. It’s all just a confusing mess.
But regardless, we feed our brains a constant diet of social media and news because somehow, it’s convinced all this bullshit is tied to our survival. Three times last night, as I vainly tried to fight insomnia, I opened twitter on my phone and stared into it in the pitch black for absolutely no fucking reason, and I even wondered, why am I doing this? Why? The only vague answer I could conjur, basking in the dim glow of stupidity, was that some part of me believes this information is critical to my continued existence. What a farce.
None of this shit matters. This reminder is as much for me as it is for you. It’s fun, it feels like connection, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is genuine community, connection to nature, good food and good sleep and good drugs and good people.
There’s nothing wrong with using social media. But if you don’t regularly take the time to unplug, the overstimulation of your nervous system will eventually start to wear on you in ways you may not even notice. Take this as a sign to delete apps, sign out and step away. At least for a little bit. Come back refreshed, a new mind.