Sometimes, the world feels inherently negative. Today, humans consume 90x more information per day on average, than in 1940… and a large part of that information is what we see on social media.
I am guilty of overconsuming media,
‘doom’scrolling, if you will. And whilst it is ideal to be able to simply put your phone down, it isn’t that easy. So if you’re reading this, and you’re amidst a doom scroll… welcome. I’m a real person with an average life, and I'm not here to make you feel like you aren’t doing enough, you’re not slim enough, your house isn’t aesthetic enough, or try to sell you anything.
I am truly just a journalist with a lot of thoughts…
Oh, and welcome to the first article of Mindful Times.
Anyway…Unlike children of today who are online from a much younger age, largely known as
‘iPad kids’, I remember a period in my life when I wasn’t on social media. I’m not just talking about when I was a baby… but years I can sort of remember. Maybe 12+? According to Datareportal, their global social media statistics suggest that as of October 2024, the amount of over 18’s around the world using social media now equates to 86.3% of all adults in that age group. They also added that people spend on average 14% of their waking lives using social media. And something I found quite astonishing was this:
‘Added together, the world spends more than 12 billion hours using social media platforms each day, which is the equivalent of 1.38 million years of human existence.’
As a Gen-Z myself (born in 2000, just on the cusp of millennialism) I’ve lived through many internet eras. It is a strange feeling scrolling through TikTok and stumbling upon the Sephora kids’ ‘throwback’
slideshow of 2014 nostalgia. Everything Zoella, One Direction, Taylor Swift's 1989, Tumblr, Victoria's Secret, Topshop, King Kylie and of course, the original Instagram. I remember when posting on instagram used to be fun, you could be artistic and creative and really express yourself. All your friends would actually see it and your feed wasn’t overly saturated with carefully curated ads (thanks meta), memes and influencers.
So, what happened? I’m not suggesting that social media has ever not had negative corners, it definitely has. But there’s been a shift. A lot of news has shifted onto the apps humans spend the majority of their lives on. X (formerly twitter) Instagram, Facebook and now TikTok. Many people believe this is why social media is a dark gloomy place nowadays, but, I don’t feel that this is necessarily the sole reason social media can feel overwhelmingly negative, it’s the algorithm. TikTok’s algorithm is both incredibly intelligent and lethal. You can watch half of a video of someone decorating a cake, and within a minute your entire feed will be full of baking content, which isn't inherently offensive, but watching one LA fire video flooded my feed for the next 72 hours… Almost every video, one after the other, was some tragic content surrounding the fires in Los Angeles. Now, as an empath, that really affected me for days, it’s all I could think about! I couldn’t focus on my work, I even thought about it before I went to sleep and the minute I woke up! But my partner hadn’t seen a single video about it on his TikTok
‘for you page’. Similar topics include ‘trumptent’ (Donald Trump content),
‘cleantok’(cleaning), clothing and makeup hauls, war… you name it, it imprints in our minds whether we realise it or not.
So, how do you drown it all out? The truth is, I don’t know. Like I said before, I’m just a journalist. From the moment I wake up to The moment I get into bed, my phone is the first and last thing I look at every day.
Once, I read that you should hydrate before you caffeinate and it made me think of a few catchy lines myself that could help reduce your screen time:
- Take a stroll before you scroll
- Brush your teeth before you tweet
- have some toast before you post
- cleanse your skin before you log in
- makeup before facebook
- make some coffee before you view their story
As corny as you may find that (apologies), it definitely shows all the things that we could be doing in the morning before we open our social media apps. Simple things like brushing your teeth or washing your face or simply even just getting out of bed before you open your phone.
I myself am very new to the world of
‘wellness’in all its forms, so please, see me as your wellness guinea pig.
So, I’ve talked about general negativity on social media. Whether that is raw negative news, or comparing your life to somebody else’s seemingly perfect one. I want to use this platform to inform, entertain, and hopefully boost your serotonin, so let me share with you some good news that has come out of January…
- Israeli hostages have been released and reunited with families by Hamas amid the Gaza-Israel ceasefire.
- Same-sex marriage has been made legal in Thailand.
- Primark releases an
‘adaptive’
fashion line, dropping their disability positive line at the start of the year. - The Maternal Mental Health Alliance have announced new funding from the Pilgrim Trust to support young mums across the North East of England.
- Ariana Grande received her very first Oscar nomination for
‘best supporting actress’
as her role Glinda in Wicked. - Environmentalists have welcomed a new ban on offshore drilling along a lot of the U.S. coastline which is great for ocean conservation.
If you made it this far, thank you for bearing with me whilst I find my feet with this platform. Let us guys at Mindful Times know in the comments Which of these you’ll be trying, or even just like the sound of!
- Take a stroll before you scroll
- Brush your teeth before you tweet
- have some toast before you post
- cleanse your skin before you log in
- makeup before facebook
- make some coffee before you view their story
Logging out,
Kaitlyn