oh katie joy

I live in a bubble. We don’t have cable. Or get the newspaper. I tend to flip the radio station when the news comes on and I avoid social media after I hear of a national crisis. I do this because the news makes me cry and people piss me off and I’m not good at shelving those emotions.

I quit my old blog awhile ago. Deleted my Facebook account. Didn’t look at Twitter and avoided Instagram. Walked from the whole internet schpeel.

Then I missed it. Mostly the blog writing. So I started over.

When I rejoined FB, I decided I’d keep it to “close friends and family”. After a few months, I started adding internet people I kind of knew and liked but firmly stuck to a below 75 rule. Then I broke my foot and started befriending any person I may have ever known ever because I wanted an ever changing wall to keep me occupied.

Lately I’ve noticed A LOT that drives me crazy. Comments from dissenters get turned into BIG-FREAKING-DEALS because controversy gets page views and page views make money. I’ve watched groups jumping on the tragedy bandwagon not just to support a cause but also to develop “brand recognition”. I’ve seen cruelty, trolling, and ridiculous junior-high cool kid table bullshit. I’ve watched bloggers turn into snake oil salesmen hawking whatever recent product they happened to get for free this week. Or worse, bitching about being offered free product because what they really want from writing out here in cyberspace is cash.

I know that it’s hypocritical writing a snarky, crabby, ranty post complaining about snark, rants, and internet crabbiness. I know a part of the problem is that I’ve been spending a good deal of my recuperating time outside of my bubble – reading blogs I usually ignore and paying more attention to social media than it deserves. I’ve engaged in the comment section discussion that I’m usually too busy to read. I know that I can shut the computer and walk away and knit more and read more and watch more television, but part of the draw of FB and twitter and IG and blogs is that I get to feel like I’m interacting with real people when I’m actually stuck sitting on the couch. But I’m ignoring that hoping that this complaint will be another drop in the bucket to make the internet a more kind place.

In the meantime, I’m going to be following a bunch of fluffy, happy feeds, writing about the happy stuff that I enjoy, and returning to my bubble. I’m happier there.

Also if you want to know some of my favorite happy blogs:

Small Things
Posie Gets Cozy
How Sweet Eats (especially her crumbs)
The Pioneer Woman
Karen Russell (her photographyis INSPIRING!!)

What are some of yours?