The Pleasure Of Tuning Out The Negative

The Daily Stoic for November 27th, “The Pleasure Of Tuning Out The Negative”.

“How satisfying it is to dismiss and block out any upsetting or foreign impression, and immediately to have peace in all things.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.2

I don’t read newspapers anymore. I mean, not only the physical editions -obviously- but the online ones as well. Not that anything changes significantly.

The Pleasure Of Tuning Out The Negative

But newspapers are not the biggest source of online negativity these days. It is -yep, you got that right- social media. 

And I also don’t really use social media anymore. The very few occasions when I have opened social media just out of boredom -being honest here, that means in the bathroom because there was little else to look at :)- I realized it brings nothing but negativity to your life.

Twitter is that bulletin board that people use to vomit their hatred -and yes, I’ve done it too- or complain about something. Facebook seems to be full of Injustice Avengers, looking for the slightest hint of unfairness or tactlessness to jump over the offenders like hungry hyenas.

 So in my mind, there are two main pleasures of tuning out of the online quarreling. The first one is getting rid of all that negativity. The second and most important one is the liberation of not needing to have an opinion and, hence, not needing to defend your opinion against anybody.

There is a lot of people out there. You can’t please everybody, and why should you? Your opinion is just as important, relevant or interesting as the one of the person next door… or next click.

Conclusion

Today’s Daily Stoic, “The Pleasure Of Tuning Out The Negative”, discusses how relieving getting rid of the negativeness in your life can be. In my mind, that’s directly linked to avoiding infotainment sites, social media and the news.