Slow Your Scroll

Last month, as news broke of the Michigan teenager who shot and killed four of his fellow students and injured seven others, I observed how people in my Facebook and Instagram feed responded to the tragedy.?

When we're reading a story on social media like the tragedy in Michigan—scanning headlines and captions—it’s natural for us to express curiosity or a negative judgement. “What awful parents.” “How did no one stop this?” Or we may ask, “What happened to this person?”

Part of what makes news stories intriguing is that they invite us to objectify parts of ourselves that we’d prefer to disown. We all have the potential to act on aggressive instincts, but most of us don’t because we’ve been socialized to inhibit them and we’ve learned ways to appropriately channel them. Additionally, our developed consciences prohibit us from acting on these innately human, aggressive instincts.???

However, part of our urge to criticize others—whether we’ve met them, or they appear in a news story—is to deny our human aggressive instincts. If you’re reading this—and I hope you’re enjoying this right now— you’re a consumer of modern media that seemingly changes all the time. Thanks to the scrolling function on most apps and websites, stories literally move faster than our eyes and brains can take in.

There are many internal processes that are engendered when we take in information like this: emotional, moral. The former impacts the latter. This is where our moral condemnation is activated and commonly perpetuated on social media, thus creating cycles of negativity and pile-on culture that can make these spaces so toxic.??

Every time you open social media, I encourage you to regularly practice discernment. Take a moment to reflect on the emotions evoked in you, sit with them, and acknowledge the moral condemnation that follows. By doing so, you resist the temptation to react and think through the intention of your contribution, whether it be a comment or a tweet. Make sure that you’re contributing something of value, not simply perpetuating toxicity.

I’m also thinking about how apps like Instagram harm adolescent girls—and its parent company Facebook (or Meta) prioritizes engagement over the impact on its users (who are human beings). I’m not advocating deleting the apps or banning your teenagers from using them. This just isn’t practical, and with classroom closings and remote school, social media apps are often the only means to help adolescents feel connected with their peers. But I go back to discernment. It’s a practice, and practices require intention, reflection, and time.?

So this year, let’s resolve to slow our scroll and prolong reflection.?

Demystifying Reads

My colleague and mentor Jeffrey Davis, founder of Tracking Wonder , published a wonderful book of the same title about the antidote to burnout, distraction, and the collective malaise of this pandemic era. In a world obsessed with productivity, this is must-read for anyone who wants to make more meaningful connections. (And who doesn’t?)?

Earlier this month I spoke with both the NY Post and Wired about the same topic: Tetris. Yes, the game you may have played in the ‘90s on a Nintendo device. In our COVID times, this game is helping a lot of people manage stress and anxiety. I’m curious if you’ve revisited old favorite games and if they’ve helped you? Any Scrabble fans out there? No? Just me??

Take care,

Dana