According to my Instagram feed, I am not doing enough. Not spending enough, not saying enough, not taking enough care. I feel more sure of this than anything. And it’s bringing out an irrationality I’m not proud of: one afternoon, in between screengrabs of masked men snatching civilians from their homes, videos of wellness influencers evangelising “anti-trauma” hip stretches, and carousels of political action items disguised as catchy memes, I am served a targeted ad for a “Don’t Talk to Me About AI or I’ll Kill Myself” crochet pattern; and even though I have never crocheted anything in my life, I find myself looking up the materials to get started … on Etsy to avoid supporting any big, Maga-oriented corporations.
It’s overwhelming, this general pressure, palpable not only on social media but throughout the larger culture: today’s most urgent issues, from technological end times to tight hips, can only be solved by squeezing as much into the day as humanly possible.
Could be done, you know? Rather than writing angsty stuff for The G’s wimmins pages.
Ah, yes, forgot, they’ve got to fill the space between the ads with something or other, don’t they?
“It’s overwhelming, this general pressure, palpable not only on social media but throughout the larger culture…”
Well, the social media part’s easy – delete Instagram.
I stopped using IG because I became fed up with incomprehensible videos of women advertising their OnlyFans sites appearing in my timeline.
Surely that was because you’d demonstrated interest in women advertising their Only Fans sites? I Find my diet of heavy rock bands of the 80s/90s, AI women with improbably large tits & Yanks demonstrating neat firearms satisfactory. The tricks not to stray into anything else.
Links. Just so I know what to avoid, of course.
This is what annoyed me. Apart from a fetish for German newsreaders, I tried to concentrate on dreadnoughts and 1950s jets .
I couldn’t work out where they came from.
“I tried to concentrate on dreadnoughts”
‘drachinifel’ and ‘ocean liner designs’ (with your friend Mike Brady) are great.
More and more though, everything is being drowned out by AI slop.
I’m pretty certain there’s a Douglas Murray AI impersonator bashing out videos. You can’t tell by the voice, but by the delivery.
There you go!
I have occasionally glanced at youtube shorts of attractive laydees and it seems many of them are advertising for their OF channel.
Bear in mind that your phone is listening to you as well. So if you had a conversation about Onlyfans or Bonnie Blue then you could see that show on YT.
My feed can be summarised as The World’s Funniest Parrots.
You could also save time by not devoting it to writing shite.
Ah yeah but she gets an email from the Editor on Friday.
“Article for Monday. 800 words. Subject: Shite. Thks, Ed.”
If you let your life be “influenced” by a bloody Insta Feed ( or any of the others…) , the Problem is not Insta, it’s actually *you* …
I’ve just been reading this article:
https://www.compactmag.com/article/stop-talking-about-mental-health/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=MORN%20%2020260626%20%20PWL%20%20KJ+CID_5dcfbc7fe133c065602895e8f04c6185
Which basically says that all the talk of ‘mental health’ we’ve been swamped with for the last 20 years has actually had the reverse effect, of actually making many people unwell, or at least thinking they are unwell, which I guess when it comes to mental health is pretty much the same thing.
So as a result we have a large proportion of the population who are mentally unstable, and (like the author of this article) exhibiting signs of derangement. And these people are far more likely to be politically left leaning. And women have gone down this path to a far greater extent than men, hence the ever increasing political divide between the two.
Its high time people we told to shut up about their mental health, suck it up, whatever it is, and get on with life. Oh, and go outside and get plenty of exercise and fresh air. Which probably be the best thing for them.
Its high time people we told to shut up about their mental health
I’d like to, but the voices won’t let me.
100%. Once there is a supposedly ‘medical’ name for something, people jump on it whenever they feel it remotely applies to them.
No one is a bit nervous about an up coming situation anymore they are now ‘anxious’ or instead of being shy they have ‘imposter syndrome’. And anything that makes them sad is now ‘depressed’.
Makes people feel special or a victim, and victims get special dispensation now.
Didn’t Jerome K Jerome write something about that tendency in the 1890s?
“… today’s most urgent issues, from technological end times to tight hips, can only be solved by squeezing as much into the day as humanly possible.”
I think the best you could say of people like the author is that they have unproductive jobs. It’s a huge conceit to imagine themselves involved in solving any kind of problems.
‘B Ark’ passengers to a man, a women or other….
Jeebus, I read that first sentence and knew the author was a woman. No man – well, no self-respecting man – would right that.
And that sub-head: ‘It’s tempting to treat overwhelm with clever fixes – but that might be part of the problem’ Since when is ‘overwhelm’ a noun?
And while we’re at it, why is it no one ever has the correct amount of whelm?
Would any self-respecting man left that? :-p
Fair cop, guv. That’s what I get for multi-tasking. LOL
“Stop it!”
That’ll be 20 guineas.
Now all my colleagues are wondering why I’m giggling at the thought of that sketch!
I, too, am unable to keep that refrain out of my head on a daily basis, multiple times. My grateful thanks to the regular contributor (ID regrettably forgotten) who shared that Newhart clip.
Freak. If all this shit bothers you, QUIT LOOKING AT IT.
Dumbass.
can only be solved by squeezing as much into the day as humanly possible.
Alternatively, you could just get the fvck over it and relax. The missus and I, if work or other responsibilities allow, have a daily routine now of going to the pub at 3pm. We have two drinks then go home. We’ll take calls if required, I’m not one of those “right to disconnect” people, but it is nice to get out and about. And watch the racing, not that either of us gamble, but for who can spot the funniest horse/greyhound name.
Mrs Ltw is currently in front on that one for pointing out “Hoof Hearted”. I liked “Appoint Percy” but I have to admit she’s won that one. For now.
Oh, right, I had a point. Stop letting other people tell you how to live, idiot.
Don’t forget ” Shy Talk”, which I believe got past the Jockey Club’s committee on horse names supposed to prevent this sort o’ thing.
I mentioned this to the missus today and she reminded me about the horse called “50 Shades of Hay”.
“Hoof Hearted”
Guy in the corner?
Is she getting paid for writing this guff? I can understand being worried that you are spending too much but how can not spending enough ever be a problem? Why not just live your life and ignore all the people on the Internet trying to tell you what to do? Maybe she’s trying to make everyone else feel better about themselves by making them glad that they’re not like her.