scroll + sCORN

My Instagram isn’t a stream of unachievable beauty that will only serve to heighten my insecurities or news-sharing fearmongerers that will make me want to slap them. It’s a carefully curated grid of Socrates quotes, Buddha philosophies and brain porn with the occasional Scouse meme to remind me of home.

Yet, these days, no matter how hard I try to block out the bullshit, negativity from the outside world still manages to creep its way in.

People seem determined to be deliverers of doom. We’re all sharing what’s wrong with the world and very few of us seem to be taking any real action. Hell, even Linkedin isn’t a safe space to be right now.

We’re screenshotting emails with recruiters, calling them out for not replying, pointing the finger at brands for doing the wrong thing or not doing enough. We’re furious at people who don’t believe in Covid and fed up of those who talk about nothing but.

We’re frustrated by the way others campaign, too; they’re either doing too much or doing to little, or doing it in the wrong way. We admonish their political views, berate the way they take a selfie, dislike the clothes they wear and question beliefs they hold. It seems we can’t stand a lot of things right now. Everybody’s angry.

The digital retox

When you come back from a digital detox, its much easier to spot the social toxins you once let run through your veins. For me, its the words of people who claim to be campaigning for good stuff but take to callousness and condemnation to get their message across.

They’re sharing blame and shame posts, rallying support in the form of infuriated comments and garnering likes that feel a lot more like hate. Half the time, I don’t think many actually realise how poisonously angry they are. They’re failing to see how that poison is trickling out of their minds, onto their IG pages and into the minds of others. But they are, and it is, and all they want to do is scroll and scorn.