SOCIAL MEDIA MENTAL

Is social media safe?

The Surgeon General says, “The answer is that we don’t have enough evidence to say it’s safe.”

But there’s enough evidence for the sort of safety warning cigarettes come with?

Why not be on the safe side, but not just for kids.

Social media use by young people is nearly universal, with up to 95% of young people ages 13-17 reporting using a social media platform and more than a third saying they use social media “almost constantly.”

Part of blog post prep is scrolling social media, in my case Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo news.

What am I looking for? Something that sticks long enough to squeeze it for one thousand words or so.

I write a blog like a columnist.

Father’s Day was a good one.

What I’m not looking for?

This is from a scroll just now:

 

 

This pops up in my scroll. I don’t have any bullet questions.

 

 

Do I have any questions for this guy who apparently talks to God?

Nope.

 

Do I need to know the inner workings of booze lobbyists?

No one does.

The bullet post could be confusing to asshat gun owners who keep up with the latest trends so they’ll have something to talk about on their next deep woods training session campout.

Responsible gun folks have a handle on their weaponry and its intended use.

Deer rifle is for deer, bird gun for birds, hand guns for the event you get into a ‘you or them’ situation.

AR-15? A scrawny old man in the sauna challenged the opinion of a ten year vet of the Army MP.

Vet: It’s not a gun suited for civilian use.

Old Man: I use it for deer hunting.

Vet: It’s not made for deer.

Old Man: I use it for duck hunting.

Vet: It’s worse for duck hunting.

Old Man: I use it for home protection.

Vet: Do you drive a big truck?

Old Man: I do, but what’s that got to do with my AR-15?

Vet:

 

Intentional Confusion

People with the world at their fingertips, the accumulation of human knowledge a few clicks away, get  caught up in posts like this.

They see a chance to pop an opinion off, so they do.

Then it’s the feedback. Their opinion is either too dumb, too smart, too trashy, too uninformed, to pollyanna.

Unless it’s the forest near Chernobyl and you’re not glowing, you don’t need a warning label.

It won’t kill you, or contribute to your imminent demise.

Take a walk in the woods is what it says to me, which I’ll do soon.

Will I run into Rambo’s brother and fight it out? He needs a warning label

If I were susceptible to social media mental influence I’d worry about a random puncher, knifer, or spitter on the walk.

I’d worry about a car speeding past and launching into someone’s roof, a plane losing a wing that drops onto someone’s roof, but I don’t, and neither should anyone else.

A few months back someone blew through a stop sign at night and totaled my car.

It was the first crash like that I’d had in fifty years. Am I worried about it happening again?

If it was going to happen again it would have happened on a recent 900 mile drive through England.

I’m no actuary, but what are the odds after that?

We need to consider the risk, the odds of something disastrous happening, before jumping through our asses in panic.

 

Social Media Mental Tactics

What’s the difference between intentional fun and intentional harm?

One of them is aiming to close your mind.

Don’t do this, don’t do that, or you know what might happen?

Don’t drink Bud Lite, or else.

But you know better than to fall for the obvious trickery. If you’re not 13-17 years old spending copious time scrolling for something upsetting, why not grow the hell up?

Instead of spewing Karen-quality butt hurt, lighten up while you still can?

As a baby boomer, and not that old since I’m in the middle batch, I’ve learned things don’t always turn out as planned.

My dad planned to make it up to my sister after my parents got divorced, but he died before he got the chance.

What was he going to do? Maybe spend  more time with her after she moved out of my mom’s house?

But it didn’t happen and I don’t think she got to see the best of him.

Instead of digging into people’s problems and making things worse, why not stop that shit and be a decent person?

Decent definition:

 

When you feel social media mental pulling you down, try and pull away or you could go into a spin.

If scrolling posts makes you fearful, anxious, or changing you into things you don’t like such as vengeful, ugly, and mean, you might be falling into a bottomless pit.

Descent:

My big question on social media mental issues comes from highly educated people pretending they didn’t learn squat in their Ivy League school.

Most of the time people who are anti-science, anti-evolution, anti-education don’t attend notable institutions of higher learning.

Maybe they got through high school, took a term of junior college?

Since they vote, their candidates try and reach out to them on their level instead of explaining things like global warming, disease prevention, and cooperation between people.

If you find yourself siding with these people you might be headed toward a social media mental breakdown.

At the very least you may be vulnerable to moronic predictions and revisionist history.

“I didn’t call dead American soldiers suckers and losers,” but a highly respected retired general says otherwise.

“I didn’t say I’d be a weird-ass zealot and surround myself with hacks and yes-men.”

But you did when you had a chance, so no more chances.

A person seeking the job of a nations top lawman and moral guide, the Great Father, shouldn’t have thirty-four felony convictions and a rape conviction.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always seen felony and rape as a sign of someone out of control, not someone anointed by our Father which art in heaven.

When you vote for a president, choose the one who will lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Can I get an Amen?