Toxic Positivity
At my own pace
- Feb 11, 2022
- 95
As I move through recovery, and try to be a thinking person, lately I have a revulsion to low-effort memes (most memes) as a form of communication and as a way for friends to keep in touch.
There is a hard limit on the information that can be encoded into an image that fits on a phone screen, which, realistically, is the format of most memes. This encourages simplification of complex ideas to the point where they often become unrecognizable caricatures of themselves. VIbes and feelings are prioritized over any actual reasoning, for the most part, and appeals to humor become, inappropriately, the way to boil down concepts the likes of which, as mentioned, lose all of their contours in the process.
Normalize texting your friend a cool idea you had. Normalize sending them a photo of a cool cloud. I'll take almost anything at this point, as long as it comes from a person, and not a person behaving like a curation algorithm. We don't need anymore memes. I don't.
I guess where this ties into recovery is that, part of recovery is questioning everything that is default. Since I've been suicidal and negative for so long, many of my own core beliefs have become worth examination and adjustment, so this habit extends to much of the run-of-the-mill, normal behavior I see around me. If I am putting effort forth, including in communication with friends, I definitely want that back in return, for the benefit of all. No more laziness, please!
There is a hard limit on the information that can be encoded into an image that fits on a phone screen, which, realistically, is the format of most memes. This encourages simplification of complex ideas to the point where they often become unrecognizable caricatures of themselves. VIbes and feelings are prioritized over any actual reasoning, for the most part, and appeals to humor become, inappropriately, the way to boil down concepts the likes of which, as mentioned, lose all of their contours in the process.
Normalize texting your friend a cool idea you had. Normalize sending them a photo of a cool cloud. I'll take almost anything at this point, as long as it comes from a person, and not a person behaving like a curation algorithm. We don't need anymore memes. I don't.
I guess where this ties into recovery is that, part of recovery is questioning everything that is default. Since I've been suicidal and negative for so long, many of my own core beliefs have become worth examination and adjustment, so this habit extends to much of the run-of-the-mill, normal behavior I see around me. If I am putting effort forth, including in communication with friends, I definitely want that back in return, for the benefit of all. No more laziness, please!
