There’s a lot we have to deal with these days. The daily concerns of cavemen were basic. How can I find water today, what can I eat, and how can I light a badass fire? Our concerns in 2016 are more like why can’t I look like a supermodel, why is the news so depressing, why do I look so fat in this outfit and why aren’t I more successful in my career?
If we are not careful, it won’t be a deadly disease that turns us into zombies, it will be technology. Have you seen the walking zombies of our age? You know the ones that walk around staring at their phones all day. I guess what I am saying is these days we have a lot to juggle.
Life is complicated. We have complicated concerns. We are now programmed to worry about the small things instead of actually life threatening problems.
The cavemen were scared of sabre toothed tigers, we are afraid of our own shadows.
Lately I have really been noticing things that we do that are supposedly normal, that are reallllyyyy bad for our mental health. Yet we still continue to do them. The digital world is so powerful, far reaching and ridiculously addictive. It’s nearly impossible to escape it these days. You can’t shut off completely, but you can be more aware.
If you want to live a remotely happy life, you might need to think about cutting out things that have an obvious negative impact on you. Here are some things we should all stop doing if we want to be happy.
Stop scrolling through social media feeds
You know the feeling when you have been scrolling through social media feeds for so long that you have cramp in your hand and your eyeballs feel like they are going to roll back into your brain? That’s not a good feeling. It’s your body telling you to step outside of the social media world and into the real one, where you can enjoy nature and things.
Scrolling through social media feeds reading about other people’s lives, achievements and depressing stories does not make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It also means I miss genuine moments in life, and waste a pretty chunky percentage of my day. It makes me think what the hell is wrong with my life, why don’t I have XYZ. Not fun.
Plus it’s not great for your neck to be staring down at a phone 24/7, or your hands (hello smartphone claw hand), or your eyes. At the very least, if you can’t give up completely, take your Facebook app off of your phone (shock horror) so you can only check Facebook on a desktop.
Stop watching the news
My sister shared this post about not watching the news, and, well, I guess I agree. Watching the news is usually depressing stuff, and reading it online isn’t much more fun either. According to the new, the world is going to end and humans are awful and you should be scared of everything.
If you’re going to watch the news, at least watch it with awareness. Try not to let it get to you, maybe counteract the negativity by searching for positive news stories online. I’m all for any positive and uplifting news. Of course I want to know what’s going on around the world, but I would rather get told about it from an unbiased news outlet. News is driven by one thing, fear.
Their aim is to frighten you; they want to keep you worried and concerned about the future. That way you’ll continue to keep coming back for more information.
Reading about celebrities & following them on social media
I hate to admit, I do occasionally read the Daily Mail celebrity news columns. There I said it (I’m so embarrassed). I read it when I need a break from work and I want to read trashy celeb gossip. I’m sure there are more productive ways to fill my downtime than finding out what selfie Kim Kardashian has shocked the world with or which reality TV stars have broken up with their significant others.
It doesn’t add anything valuable to your life, and often it just makes you miserable, because, well, you aren’t rich and famous. I also try to avoid catching a glimpse of the horrendous general news stories on the DM, but I can’t help but see the odd one.
Following celebrities on social media doesn’t help either. They post ridiculously photoshopped and edited photos of themselves and make you feel inadequate. Focus on your life instead of someone else’s and I guarantee you will start to notice what you have, rather than what you haven’t got.
Acting as if your phone is superglued to your hand
Oh my days, our addiction to mobile phones is out of control. It’s bloody awful. We all know it, but we still carry on being slaves to our phones. I wish I could wave a wand and transport myself back to a time when mobile phones didn’t exist, when I wasn’t constantly connected to the online world. It pretty darn obvious that being on your mobile phone is not good for you.
We should be experiencing life through our own eyes rather than through a mobile phone.
FYI, you can put your mobile phone down sometimes, and you might even want to think about placing it further than a metre away from you. Plus, any machine that can do that much stuff probably isn’t supposed to be close to your body for prolonged periods of time. Earth to humans, mobile phones have radiation risks. I have this terrible feeling that one day mobile phones will be like cigarettes.
We will be like oops we always knew there were potential dangers but we just ignored them because we liked them so much. I just Googled mobile phone radiation and I was scared to read the results so…burying my head in the sand like the rest of the world for now. I might just keep a distance from my phone for the time being though. I have digressed, I’m harping on about physical instead of mental problems. Soz. Shall we continue? I have one more point to make.
Using 4654738 ways to communicate
Texting, calling, emailing, Facebook messaging, Whataspping, Snapchatting, Tweeting…the list goes on. There are so many ways to communicate these days. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful and amazing, but it’s also suffocating. I would like to go back to speaking to people in person, calling them or texting. Everything else is just unnecessary noise in my head. I want to smash my phone against the wall when I’m trying to sleep and some idiot decides to send constant Whatsapp messages.
Get that darn app off my phone! I have tried, once. You know what happened? My besties moaned at me and said they missed speaking to me on Whatsapp. So what’s a gal gonna do? Stay strong, stick to your guns. Switch off and stay off. There’s no harm in actually calling someone instead of messaging them pointless updates about your day.
Our minds need a little quiet, and all these methods of communication are like numerous alarms going on in our head. Sometimes I am probably checking my phone every single minute without realising it. It’s exhausting.
