The Social Experiment: Intentional efforts to reform Social Media

It's me. Hi. I'm over here in my little corner of the world screaming for change and reformation....

Feb 14, 2024

Turning the clocks back to February 22-24, 2022. When Russia invaded Ukraine. Again…

I was on a trip with Eurodad and his family, visiting sunnier, warmer climates in the Middle East when the news broke.

I was lying poolside with Euromom who told me I should run for US president. I was scrolling the morning headlines and catching up on my texts while sunning over tea and fresh juice.

An interesting headline popped up and I questioned the source found on Instagram. By then I was fully receiving all my news from social media, or from friends I directly knew and trusted. Everything else, I cut out. Including any newly created music, film, or media.

Being I was 20 meters after from one of the smartest people I know, who knows about things that happen in Russia that I don’t know about - I ran into the house to find him behind his work-from-home dining room desk.

Me: OMG! DID YOU SEE THE NEWS?

Eurodad: Yes, I’ll turn on the news. Calm down.

Me: OMG it’s happening!! I thought the invasion of 2014 in Crimea would be more dramatic, but dude, this is kindabigdeal…

Capricorn Moon Eurodad: Calm down.

Me furthering my own conspiracies: I TOLD YOU WW2 never ended. Fascism is totally trending again. We’re phucked. One of these crazy megalomaniacs is totes gonna press a button and destroy western civilisation….

Eurodad laughs… but for only 2 seconds and then turns stoic again. Returns to TV.

20 mins later… Eurodad: Let’s go grocery shopping and go for a boat ride! It’s a beautiful day!

Me to Euromom: I think we should make him take us skydiving soon.

Share Steamy Mystical Musings

Learnings from Sabbatical

During the pandemic, I allowed time (and saved money for it) to embrace a mid-life crisis moment while reinventing my yoga brand I was working on two decades ago. Then, I had left Colorado, and moved to Europe, changing my life and career path.

This respite I took during the pandemic coincided with a time when the world was undergoing significant upheaval, with ongoing Covid mandates to remain indoors in Holland. Serendipitously, I found solace and contentment during this phase, although I had not planned for the lessons and challenges that lay ahead.

My disillusionment with the world’s problems, and my place in that, began infiltrating my thoughts and personal life around the turn of the century, deepening in the aftermath of 9/11. Though, my attempts to address societal issues were met with obstacles for finding my own ill-fated version of the American Dream; and ultimately this landed me with a diagnosis of depression.

In 2005, I left America to chase the dream outside of America. When the pandemic hit, it felt like the reasons I ran away from my motherland were now sitting on my Dutch doorstep, delivered by Amazon in 2020.

Refer a friend

Burning out in 2020

Most everyone I was close to at the time the pandemic hit, was either coming out of a burn out, in an active one, or heading into one.

Within my network, which expands across the globe and is heavily sprinkled with wellness & medical care professionals, it became clear the general themes of how many people were already experiencing burn out symptoms.

The polarity that continues to split our world collectively, also happens individually causing disruption in our relationships. It why we saw so many deaths, divorces and recalibration of social, professional, relationship contracts. And, we will continue to witness more (…and more scandals) unfold.

This continues as the patterns in turning over a new era continue to polarise, albeit following a natural order of elemental ingredients. The Earth continues to turn inside out, healing from within. We are rejuvenating. Purging guts, so to speak.

My burn out wasn’t related to my career, rather managing a lifestyle I wasn’t happy with. My symptoms were triggered by postpartum depression in 2012, later magnified by three parental deaths within a year of each other in 2015. I was living a life that wasn’t authentic. My body reacted accordingly, and my symptoms were psychosomatic. I responded to the environment I had adapted to and the body keeps the score.

This went on for years, without me linking any self-awareness behind the problem. That did follow later, and is another story.

I’m here to advocate for the population that suffers from burn-out symptoms of late stage capitalism. Which is most of us.

As this is my own personal backstory, I can help with offering a different interpretation from a first-hand account. Graciously I’m surrounded by a supportive team of medical professionals across two continents. Because I study metaphysical topics, I also come armed with a gaggle of astrologists, witches, wizards and other mystical creatives. All from diverse backgrounds and nationalities.

It’s all in the Comments

During a time when everyone was online absorbing one shocking headline after another, I was capturing research from the comments provided - in place of actually reading articles or following media.

I was following the voice of democracy and benchmarking this within my everyday conversations with a trustworthy network. Social media became a place for me to start with my own version of habit revolution. Reforming bad habits into safer ones, while managing my overall digital health. I started using social media to write a book, collecting the data I was taking from screen shots and memes.

my DMs be like… *check dates, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!

Surfin’ the virtual waves

Navigating social media has been a complex endeavour. While I initially believed in its potential to foster unity, I've observed how it often exacerbates divisions, fostering toxicity and spreading misinformation.

One such platform facing scrutiny is TikTok, which defends its stance against not being a potential security risk. This platform offers users of the world to see a myriad of delicate domestic security issues.

Any one person, from any part of the globe, is granted a secured front row seat, in viewing any participating country’s dysfunction at it’s core. Everyone is a journalist and an eye witness.

Despite this awareness, many of us remain entrenched in these platforms, myself included - to a certain conscious degree. Feeling disillusioned with the superficiality of social media, shifting my focus to others platforms while wondering how many platforms are absolutely necessary to have, and how which other ones are just an annoyance. And of course, everything is politically infused now.

I’ve researched more on YouTube trends. I followed links from the ‘University of YouTube’ sent from conspiracy theory following friends sharing content from both extreme Right and Left POVs. Readers can scan the first 30 mins of this podcast discussing censorship & blocking content from people of diversity and colour. It’s not entirely a platform of free speech in advocating for human rights.

Having dedicated a considerable piece of my adult life in observation of online societal trends via social media since 2007, it’s safe to say our behavioural health is at risk for creating even more mental aliments. This concern exacerbated during the pandemic. Eventually, we’re going to run out of labels to assign new mental conditions. Or run out of time to help solve them.

Content creators have a responsibility to address these issues in their work, a sentiment I wholeheartedly support. We need a global governance behind operating in the Wild Wild West. Social media needs to be a boring place to be.

‘Back where I come from…’

Throughout my sabbatical, I drew inspiration from childhood friends (originally from the southwest corner of Missouri) that I reconnected with online.

I incorporated their coping mechanisms, such as meme therapy, into my own journey. Via a group thread, I’m fed the only content I wish to receive from word-of-mouth references. Plus, given thorough investigative reports from a large representation of the smartest kids confirmed in my yearbooks, during years 1993-1997.

I needed to understand how Trumpism had grown which extended influence to my long-standing personal relationships. I found childhood friends having similar challenges to be quite helpful.

Story of muslim teenager taking his life after a series of reported incidents that local authorities did little to stop found here

Reconnecting with friends from my past has offered a source of healing and resolve. These experiences have provided conversation and closure, allowing the focus to remain on the present and future.

We must continue to focus on reformation

The global rise in burnout cases, exacerbated by the pandemic, underscores the urgency of addressing mental health in all facets of society.

Directorship & board participation should include independent mental health professionals to ensure the well-being of employees. A measure that could mitigate the prevalence of burnout. Direct targets aimed at shareholders and owners to demand specific change and reformation governance be put into place.

There are so many suggestions, podcast worthy topics! Can’t wait to introduce Aud’s Pods later this year!

A defining factor in one’s level of comfort in an oppressed situation can be directly related to one’s material wealth. Ultimately the emotional implications behind that moral conflict is what determines varying levels of finding our own rock bottom.

So why not just leave social media?

Despite these challenges, I remain hopeful as virtual communities have helped shape and transform my life as an immigrant migrating abroad.

I've shifted my approach to social media, using it to exercise my freedom of speech engaging in discussions about politics and global affairs. Albeit with consequences such as being shadow-banned. I appreciate my resister role and hitting writing prompts with fuelling my life’s passion.

Maintaining spiritual and political activism has been paramount, particularly during times of crisis. I've used my platforms to advocate for dismantling patriarchal structures, emphasising the importance of matriarchal leadership as a neutralising force. And …. I have a certain flavour…. I mean, why hold back at this point!

throwback to Feb 2022 after I lost 85 pounds with RESTORATIVE YOGA

Platforms like

Substack

have provided ad-free avenues for independent expression, allowing engagement with a diverse range of content and readership. However, the question remains: why stay on mainstream platforms if they no longer serve a collective good?

Social Media (de)Influencer

For me, it's about effecting change from within, challenging the status quo and advocating for platforms that prioritise positive engagement. If we as users can help to bring awareness around digital health and reformation of our own habits, then we can influence others to do the same. Best to infiltrate from within, as there, a target audience already exists.

Social media, as a whole, has the power to exacerbate societal divisions, fuelled by political agendas and corporate interests. To counteract this, users must take collective responsibility for fostering a more positive and inclusive online environment. A part of that, is showcasing our authentic voices, demonstrating living our moral values behind the content we create. An even larger part of that, is showcasing negative sides to find truths in the evilness that continues to rule our world.