(Edited cause the original was written when I was waaaaaaaaay too smashed, you can probably find it on the wayback machine or something.)

Let’s assume you’ve been working hard all day, you’re ready to take a break and relax for a few minutes.

How would you like to spend that time?

You could read something, listen to some music (as in actively listening to it), play a game, grab some water, or dive headfirst into a cesspit where a bunch of other people are currently eating and throwing shit around.

To reword it, would you want to spend your free time subjecting yourself to the most repulsive, ignorant, brain dead, rage baiting pig slop ever shat out by human/bot hands?

Given that over the years all internet/network traffic (and people’s attention in general) has been converged into a select few social media sites, it’s presented an absolutely irresistible target for anyone that’s looking to sway opinion, manipulate emotions, and drive fanaticism.
Social media sites are, at their core, a publicly available psyop tool that can be used to manipulate how people think, act, and speak. This is often done in three ways (if I oversimplify it like a total buffoon):

• Rage bait, administered in short but intense bursts. This often runs on a one or two week cycle, after which it’ll be forgotten about entirely to make room for the next rage inducing whatever.

• Mild amusement, administered in a constant, steady drip.

• Echo chambers/silos for the purpose of intensifying the above two points. Note that an echo chamber/silo isn’t “a community of people with similar interests”, it’s “a community of people with similar interests where dissent or disagreement isn’t allowed”.

Though the largest, and most common method of ensuring retention/engagement is via rage bait and intensifying anger. Being mad at someone or something feels good, because now you have an “enemy” to focus on.

One example of that is communities where people all gather around the concept of disliking something. Take for example if you hated box spring mattresses, just an absolute raging hellfire of disdain for anything box spring related.
Why in the name of God would you become part of a community or forum that spends all of their time talking, posting, and raging about box spring mattresses? What does that benefit you? How does surrounding yourself with stuff you hate, and being miserable/angry all the time function as a way of “relaxing”?

Think of it this way; you live in a city, and on the way to work everyday you come across some crackhead that stands on a street corner saying shit that pisses you off. Just a constant barrage of inflammatory words that makes you upset. He’s free to do so, that’s his right even if he’s being a jackass.
But would you choose to willingly walk over and stand next to the crackhead all day long as he screams that stuff?

No?

Then why do you do that for other areas of your life? Why subject yourself to constant anger, resentment, and seething? Because you think “Being in the know” or “Knowing your enemy” makes your morally superior or some shit?

“I refuse to be ignorant” of what? The fact bad stuff happens in life, all across the world, every single day? The fact that people can and will be assholes to each other?
That’s not abnormal, that’s not some problem you need to solve, that’s existence. There is no reality in which only good things happen, only good events take place, only nice conversations occur, only events you approve of go down in history.

As the saying goes, if you get on a bus, then you shouldn’t be surprised when bus shit happens.
If you are alive, then don’t be surprised or angry when life shit happens.

That’s only regarding the rage bait, there’s also the issue of people exposing themselves to low level, unremarkable, unmemorable slop as a way of wasting time.

Over the years the majority of material on the internet has gone from tailored, passionate and creative material to abysmally soul rotting slop. The unfortunate truth there is that it happened once access to the internet, and the ease of uploading to it, became as simple as hitting a “go” button. The lower the barrier for entry = the lower the quality of material.

Same thought process as “the struggle is the goal”.
If there is no struggle, no effort, then the result is not worthwhile. That which is challenging and difficult yields the best results.
Weightlifting and fitness are usually the gold standard for proving that. If there is no struggle involved, no pushing of skill and limits, then what benefit is there at the end?

So back to the main issue; if you had the choice, why would you choose to surround yourself with that kind of garbage?

The majority of social media is a cesspit that contains nothing except pig slop, rage bait, and the kind of stuff that is churned out not because it has a basis of interest and creativity, but to satisfy an engagement algorithm. It used to be that you’d spend 4+ weeks working on something because you enjoyed the process, enjoyed the result, and lastly enjoyed the reception. Most crap nowadays the bare minimum thought behind something is because “This will get attention, no matter if its good or not”.

Throw in rage bait, throw in stupid lowbrow imagery, throw in shit that looks and sounds annoying because then people will send it to others saying “wow this is so awful, look at it”.
An endless conveyor belt of shit that someone wants you to eat until your gut distends and bursts. Day after day, night after night.

I’d ask, is that what you want to subject yourself to? Does this garbage have a meaningful impact or does it get nothing except a slightly stronger exhale of amusement from your nose?
After a week, shit even after 20 minutes, can you remember what you saw, what you watched, what you heard?

The effect of it all is that the time you spend immersed in that stuff becomes nothing but a messy, foggy blur that you can’t remember except for “I think I was amused/felt a spike of anger for 2 seconds or something.”

Do you actively go to some website full of other conniving miserable people because your thought is “I can’t wait to see what <someone> thinks of this” instead of forming your own opinion?
Anytime an event happens, is your first thought something akin to “I want to see <someone> cry about it” like some suburban HOA busybody that had a neighbor’s car towed?

With what little free time you have, do you really want to surround yourself with those kind of people?

Don’t even get after me about that “Let people have fun” bullshit, it’s actively degrading the way we all think, act, and behave. Phrases like that remove the responsibility that one has for their thoughts, their mindset, and their spirit.
The elimination of responsibility for your actions, thoughts, and behaviors is lowering yourself to being nothing more than an instinct driven animal. You’re above that, have some goddamn standards for yourself and others.

When you’re given the choice, don’t go wading in a cesspit to consume shit with everyone else.
The accusation of “Oh so you think you’re better than everyone else?” might come up. And y’know what?
Yeah, declining to eat shit does make you a better person.

Here’s how you fix your situation:

Ignore it, don’t engage with it all. All of this crap relies on someone giving it attention to perpetuate it, to keep it profitable and justify the expenses to keep it running.

Remove it from your life and let it wither away out of your sight, you absolutely will not miss out on anything. And anything you miss out on isn’t worth the attention it’d take.

Text or call your friends and go do something together, rather than just sitting around sending each other links to marginally amusing stuff as some kind of surrogate activity.

We both know you’re just gonna reply with “lol” while maintaining a deadpan stare at your screen.