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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

(www.scientificamerican.com)
757 points headalgorithm | 2 comments | 05 Feb 25 14:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.663s | source
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joshdavham ◴[05 Feb 25 15:50 UTC] No.42950233[source]▶
One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. I’m technically gen z and I’ve been off of social media (aside from HN, WhatsApp and discord) for years and you wouldn’t believe how great it’s been for my overall state of mind.

Reddit, instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, etc are all the equivalent of digital junk food and I’d argue that we’re all a lot more negatively affected by it than we think. There’s a reason ‘brain rot’ was word of the year.

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1. htamas ◴[06 Feb 25 07:54 UTC] No.42960118[source]▶
I have tried to quit social media many times, but I end up using something again after a few weeks. It usually happens when I'm too tired to think about anything like games, or to read an article, or when I have a lot of waiting time without a lot of entertainment (eg airports). I wonder what do you do during those times?
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2. joshdavham ◴[06 Feb 25 15:44 UTC] No.42963437[source]▶
> I wonder what do you do during those times?

When I’m really brain-tired but have downtime, I’ll 1) do nothing and just think in silence, 2) listen to a podcast or music or 3) watch Netflix.

Spotify and Netflix are definitely media apps but they don’t quite have that same negative and addictive effect that normal social media apps do.