To look or not to look...navigating distress in a social media landscape

Recently I’ve had numerous conversations with people (mostly in their 20’s) experience distress due to their social media (insert tech platform here… reddit, Instagram, X) feeds. We are exposed more than ever to the distressing events of the world, and whether true or untrue, it feels like there are more human suffering moments than ever.
 
Here’s the dilemma that many have proposed to me: If this is the reality of how people are living right now, is it morally wrong of me to look away? Shouldn’t I be able to handle watching this, if someone else is living this awful life? Surely if I look away I’m choosing to be ignorant or actively ignoring human suffering?

And, like most things, I think the answer is yes AND no.

Yes, we should have a pretty good understanding of what is going on in the world. Its helpful to be politically and socially up to date (if you want to be). But do we need endless videos of human suffering over which we have little to no control? Possibly not.

What is important is that you understand a couple of things about yourself: What is your tolerance level right now? And What can you do to mobilise some of your empathy into action.

Once you move to a place of overwhelm, with thoughts such as ‘this is hopeless and nothing I do will make any difference’, you have entered the world of learned helplessness (that’s a separate blog). And learned helplessness is not a healthy psychological state.

So, without wanting to overcomplicate or oversimplify this issue, I would check in on a few things:

1. Work out what you think is a reasonable amount of time to spend catching up on the news and set a timer.
2. Don’t use social media for your news but choose sites like www.theconversation.com where your information is written for dissemination, not attention grabbing social media feeds.
3. Start to curate your social media feeds for the mindset and mental health you want. Unfollow distressing and unhealthy content. Click “I don’t want to see this post” as often as you need.
4. Work out what matters to you most and take action towards that problem. If its international relations, make a donation to red cross. If its animal welfare, volunteer for your local shelter. We cannot all be passionate about the same issues, we need diversification of action, but we (collectively and individually) all need action to be attached to our empathic responses to suffering and difficulty in the world. 
5. Definitely pat the next puppy you see

​Be your own best friend, Ange :)