Happy Sunday! 🐚

This past week I got a reminder of the ways that social media can take our minds on a spiral that can damage not only our own mental health, but can potentially hurt others as well. I won’t get into all the details, but there was a whole lot of mess when two of the members of BTS went to the Usher/Chris Brown show. As I watched all of it unfold, and saw all the takes and opinions spiral out of control, I had to get offline and not engage with any of it.

If I have learned nothing else, it’s that the algorithm loves outrage and extremes. Because of that we all get pulled into the mess and if we don’t take a step back and process it all rationally, it can eat us alive. I definitely had thoughts on the subject, but chose not to participate in what was going on online. Instead I chose to talk to friends about it in our group chat, as well as have a deeper one-on-one conversation with a friend.

I have found that when we continue to scroll and participate in the negativity we see online, social media has the ability keeps us from forming our own opinions and from really thinking things through. I have been guilty of this on several occasions, and I’m trying to do better. I think part of it has to do with us needing to know our threshold. The point where we see our thoughts and attitude start to take a turn and we no longer want to understand the facts, but jump to conclusions where the noisiest takes on the internet get the most attention.

Having the conversation with my friend helped me to talk through how I was really feeling and where all these feelings and thoughts were coming from. It also reminded me that how we process what we see on social media is filtered through our own personal values and experiences. We see this play out politically and socially every single day where the same situation can spark vastly different reactions in different people. Honestly, that’s another big discussion for another day.

Today I just wanted to remind us to not let the internet have so much control over the way we think and act. And while you’re scrolling, recognize when things seem to be taking a negative turn. We live in a volatile world and it’s easy to get caught up in the messiness of it all. And as hard as it is to hang onto sometimes, I still do believe in our humanity. The more of us who do, and who try to protect it, the better our world can be.

I hope for a beautiful week for you, full of peace and joy and adventure.

Positively yours,

Pebbles 💜

🗑️ Woman accidentally throws away winning lottery ticket, and the garbage workers come to her rescue!

🍔 Cape Cod Wendy’s worker headed to Yale after his bosses saw his potential and helped fund his education.

🤣 A child’s laugh is the greatest sound in the world, and this Amazon driver unknowingly made these kids so happy going through their chalk obstacle course.

🚌 A man sees dangerous bus stop conditions for neighborhood kids, gets on his mower, and takes care of the problem himself!

If you’ve been on my Instagram for even two seconds, you know my love for BTS. I also have a love for the fandom known as ARMY. On the BTS tour stop in Arlington, TX there were some children in attendance who are fighting cancer. You can see in the video above what happened when our literal angel Jimin came over to this young girl. That alone would be incredible, but what happened next surprised Heroes for Children, but not those of us who are ARMY.

Without anyone asking, ARMY started donating to the organization, and at the time of this writing, have raised over $75,000. I share this because while we see the harm that social media can do, I wanted to highlight one of the beautiful ways it can be used. One viral moment at a concert turned into a sharing moment on social media that will bring much needed and appreciated help to young people going through the fight of, and for, their lives. For that I am positively proud.