Tuesday, December 6, 2016

This Is Your Brain on Clickbait

The other day my youngest kids were sick, I didn't have much to do during the day, and I pretty much sat around staring at my phone or holding crying kids (or begging them to sleep, because they didn't believe me that a well-rested body can heal itself faster).

By the end of the evening, I was a wreck.  I was screaming at Colton because he wouldn't stop playing with the lights (WHY IS THAT SO FUN????) and I was practically crying over how miserable my life was.

When I wrote in my journal that night, it began to hit me just how much time I'd spent on my phone reading about despicable people, because I am a complete sucker for headlines such as, "The 15 Worst Roommates Ever: You won't believe #4!" and dumb stuff like that.  I'd also discovered a tumblr page of terrible advice written to horrible people and gotten sucked into reading page after page of it...

I realized that my mind felt yucky after a day like that.  It was just like when you have those days where all you eat is junk food and then your grossed out by yourself.  But in my head.

I resolved to keep my distance from the internet the next day-- no facebook and no blogs.  (I did allow email and reading Dear Abby.  I'm only human, after all!)  And I had a much better day.  And I didn't hate my life.  I didn't scream at my kids (even when they were playing with the light switches).

Lesson learned.  Again.  And probably not for the last time, either (sigh).  I have real books to occupy my mind.  Push facebook back a bit.  And avoid clickbait like it's the plague.

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