rats_and_cats wrote:
I get upset by things I read in the comments section a lot, and whenever I call my mom or grandma about it they don't even address what I'm upset about. They just say "well don't look at the comments if they upset you so much." Not looking at something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. A lot of times I'll look at the first few comments of something expecting a positive or constructive conversation because of the page it's posted on/the subject of the article, and it will be a toxic mess. At one point, it was because I made a comment myself, some random joke about McDonald's, and another commenter made a nasty fat joke about my friend in my profile picture, thinking she was me. I had changed my profile picture to one of me and her because she killed herself after being bullied.
I can't just not look at the comments section. It's not a conscious decision. Especially on Facebook, if I interact with a post in any way the top comments pop up and if something's there I'm gonna read it. And I often read the comments on specific pages, groups, or channels because there is a really good community. I don't want to let some jerks ruin that for me. I've been on the Internet long enough to expect some rude comments and even find them amusing (such as when people try to find animal abuse in every funny animal video) but sometimes the comments really hit a nerve. Or sometimes it'll be a Facebook post from a friend, and I can't know what it's about until I read it. It could be a rant about how people on my side of the political spectrum are all puppy kickers, or it could be something funny that happened that day.
I've tried to explain to my family that for many reasons I can't just not look at the comments section and that won't make my problems go away. I *shouldn't* be feeling any negative emotions at all, ever, but I am right now and I can't retroactively go back and not look at the comment that caused them.
I'm not sure what answers I'm looking for here. Maybe I'm just wondering if somebody else feels the same way or if I'm just pathetic.
There are over 7 billion people in the world, and at any given time, millions of them...maybe even hundreds of millions of them, are likely thinking, saying, or writing something that you would find objectionable. The internet merely gave them a platform to air their thoughts. Perhaps there is a planet in another solar system, or another galaxy...or even a galaxy as many light years away as the age of the observable universe (13.6 billion) where there may be aliens who also think, say, or otherwise communicate things that you would find objectionable. And maybe there are millions of such planets where the inhabitants think, say, do, or communicate things you find objectionable.
Do you see what you are putting yourself up against? A big giant tsunami of futility.
But you don't have to be affected by these things? You don't have to know what some guy sitting in his parents' basement in Jasper, South Dakota thinks (population too small for anyone to care), any more than you have to know what alien x on planet y in galaxy w 13.6 billion light years away thinks.
Alien x on planet y in galaxy w 13.6 billion light years away doesn't have to exist to you, and neither does that guy sitting in his parents' basement in Jasper, South Dakota.
09 Apr 2017, 7:48 pm
