How to Escape the Social Media Doldrums!

The other day I went to Lowe’s to get some parts. I was hanging Promethean Boards in my wife’s center. Lowe’s, like most of the big hardware stores, is dog friendly. As I was winding my way through the stacks, looking for the parts I needed, I almost ran into a puppy. He was a very good dog. He just looked up at me with those good-dog eyes.

I asked the woman holding the leash if I could pet her dog. She let me. It was a good experience for me and the dog. I hope it was positive for the puppy’s mom.

I love dogs.

After about fifteen seconds worth of pets I went on my way.

Later that afternoon I had just installed the bracket to the wall. I lifted the Promethean Board to set it on the bracket, but I missed one side. The giant screen slipped and almost fell, but I caught it…

…heroically, I might add!

In the process, I pulled a muscle in my left arm, right at the elbow. It really hurt. But, being a man of a certain age, the age at which I try to lift something on my own that should be lifted by two people and hurt my arm, I tried to lift it again.

And boy, my arm hurt.

My arm said, “Hey, Mike! If you keep doing this Ima really fuck you up!”

Fortunately, the lady who cleans the center over the weekend was there. Sheepishly, I asked her to help me lift the Promethean Board to the bracket. She did so with a smile. Snap. Popped it right on.

Boy, my arm hurt.

Then I got the second bracket up and she helped me with the second Promethean Board. Snap. Popped it right on.

Okay, Mike! What’s up with these two clearly unrelated stories.

Well, I’m glad you asked!

It turns out that at the end of the day, while resting my arm, I was scrolling through social media. I stopped on a post written by a friend lamenting the awful state of the world. When I challenged her on the negative evaluation she responded with, “have you seen the news and see the world? I’m not here to argue Michael. I see enough on the news that I’m exhausted with this world.”

If I’m being honest, I was scrolling for just a few minutes, and I could see her point. It was exhausting.

But then I thought about my experiences above. I responded:

I get it. The news is a great place to go to get a litany of stories about shitty people doing shitty things. That’s what sells advertising space. But that’s not a good source of information for what’s going on in the world. My experience is that most people are decent. If most people were shitty, being shitty wouldn’t be news worthy. We have some pretty serious challenges right now. God knows if you look at my feed, I spend a lot of time on those problems. But in the real world, my life is pretty damn good and almost everyone I interact with is pretty decent. The woman who cleans our center just helped me put up some large screens after I hurt my arm. She didn’t have to do that. That wasn’t her job. She’s just a decent person… like most people are. I was at Lowe’s this morning and I got to pet a puppy that a woman rescued. This is real life. You’re never going to see, “woman adopts puppy and lets people pet him,” on the news. Don’t let the news distort your perceptions.

I think maybe this might be a good exercise, a healthy mental practice. Every time something good happens…even just a little thing like a stranger allowing you to pet her dog…imagine if that were the headline above the fold in your local paper.

Maybe this is a great way to use AI. Just create a template of a newspaper, and at the end of the day have AI create a newspaper with the headline, “Guy Lets Someone Merge into Traffic During Rush Hour.”

We need something that allows us to understand that the shitty things that shitty people are doing to be shitty are not the norm. We need to be reminded that, for most of us, life is pretty good most of the time.

My life is exceptional. I get to dedicate my life to writing stuff like this…and distract myself from the stuff I’m actually getting paid to do.

Now I guess I owe the editor some print, so I’m going to get to it.

My arm doesn’t hurt so bad anymore.