(This week’s post originally appeared on THWACK.com as a comment during the 2020 December Writing Challenge.)
Remembering the prompt for today is “I never thought I’d need…” and then we can all fill in the blank, I’d finish that sentence with
“…to turn things off for my own health.”
I’ve never been one who was “threatened” by information. I may not have liked a particular piece of news, or a program, or book. But over the last several months I have found myself deciding – with greater frequency – “I don’t need that in my brain right now.”
While the reasons for that are both obvious and also unfortunate, I think the habit will serve me in years to come. Like actual food, it’s not healthy to consume every bit of information that comes across our digital table (certainly now in the age of algorithm-directed social media).
There’s a reason firewalls begin with the implicit rule “deny all”. I think a little more of that would help, rather than hinder my growth.