A couple months ago, I tried to change my interactions on my phone from getting notifications about my friends from instagram or facebook or shopping notifications to instead receiving news notifications from a plethora of different news mediums. I wanted to reinvest myself so that when I went to check my phone, instead of scrolling through the seemingly perfectly manicured "best parts" of peoples lives, I scrolled through what was happening in the world around me so that I could be better educated about what is going on, and therefore be a better advocate for justice in the world.
Unfortunately, doing this became really hard on my mental health. Waking up to news notifications saying "Three hateful crimes, an awful attack, and continued Trump rallies, start your day here" made me really not want to start my day there. I wanted to continue being educated in order to advocate for current issues, but I had to constantly find ways to counteract that by, for example, listening to an "optimal living" podcast in the morning, or attending yoga classes at Asheville Community Yoga. I had to re-center myself in the present, and in my community to not become overwhelmed by all the negativity surrounding me in the world. In the past couple years I have become really critical about social media after taking an honors seminar course titled "My Media, My World." And me being critical doesn't mean I condemn people who use social media, because, well, I still do. But often I take a step back and think what is my purpose for participating in social media. If you scroll through any of my social media posts, it's mostly just pictures of my life or the occasional life update, which has been more frequent recently as I've graduated, moved and started a new job. This is mostly to keep family and friends who are now in far-off cities and states in-the-loop about what's going on in my life. Now what does being educated about certain events, re-centering in the present, and being aware of how I use social media have to do with each other? I have many friends on Facebook who use their social media to advocate for certain issues, and sometimes for multiple issues at the same time. They share articles, they post strongly about their opinions, they engage in meaningful conversation about whatever issue they are advocating for, and I do not want to minimize these meaningful actions. But, when I want to advocate for an issue, I want to go beyond just sharing an article, or liking a post, because to me advocacy has to move beyond the phone screen. In this past week, if you scroll through my social media, you would not know that I attended a stream naming party (a service that the non-profit I work for provides) where the community had come together to name the stream that ran through their neighborhood after an African-American woman who had done really great things in the community for bringing together different people of different backgrounds. The church where the party was held filled with different types of people, black and white alike, to celebrate the life of this woman and the work she had done. I was brought to tears as her daughter discussed how they had fought for equality and continued to fight for equality in a time of difficulty for their people. And I was able to be inspired for a future where people are able to come together in a neighborhood to celebrate a life regardless of color. I also attended a member launch for the NC AmeriCorps members in Greensboro where I attended sessions about meaningful service leadership and understanding bias and privilege in our service. If you scroll through my social media during the Kavanaugh hearings, you won't see me posting heated statements about how frustrated I was through the entire process (and believe me I was), but instead I was texting the individuals I know were survivors of assault who I knew would be having a difficult day. I don't say all this to put myself on a pedestal, because I know there are so many things I can continue to do and continue to learn, but just to say that every persons life is bigger than the things they advocate for or don't advocate for on social media. And regardless if you are someone who advocates openly or doesn't advocate openly on social media, those in-person relationships and attempts to gain a better understanding of certain communities, can be just as important. We also don't know fully what is going on in others lives. As I mentioned earlier, the constant negative news notifications seemed to overwhelm me and I had to find ways to re-center myself with the present. And sometimes, participating in social media makes me feel the same way, so I use it more to connect with family and friends than as a platform for the issues I care about. So whether you're the person who posts and advocates for issues on social media, or you aren't, neither better than the other, it's important to always be aware that someones profile is not the end-all-be-all of the things that they find important in their lives, and that the best way to engage is to build relationships and get to know those around you.
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