I'm not hugely fond of the outside world. Not for prolonged amounts of time anyway. I like my teeny weeny flat with its purple walls, its books and letters, its extensive range of tea bags and its fancy coffee machine and full fridge. I make sure it smells like vanilla or tangerines (or Lush products...) and there's always chocolate in the cupboard. It's safe, it's warm and it's home...but when I'm left alone I start to drive myself crazy. If I don't have human interaction on the odd occasion, my brain starts talking to itself and sometimes my brain isn't very nice. Then when the conversation turns hostile and I start to feel not so great about myself, I want to stay indoors away from the world and it's prying eyes and suddenly...I've not left the flat in a week! I make it a priority to go out at least once a day now. Even if it's just to Tesco down the road to get some milk. It forces me to get up, get showered, get dressed and I usually even do my make up so I feel extra good when I walk out of the front door.
However, to me there are two meanings to the word "outside". There's the world outside of my flat but then there's also the world outside of my social media. Whilst social media is incredible, it's easy to trick myself into believing that everything exists solely through my screen. I sometimes avoid saying that the world inside of the internet isn't the real world because it is. It's full of real people, real voices and real stories but I think what I mean by it not being real is that it's easier to be disingenuous online. It's easier to not be yourself, to lose your moral compass, to throw caution to the wind. Change your profile picture, change your name and all of a sudden you could say or do anything with little, if any, repercussions and many people choose that path. There's a lot of fake news, as it were. When that disingenuity becomes so prevalent, I find it incredibly easy to get swept up in all of the negativity that gets dumped into the online world. So when I finally disconnect from my devices, reconnecting with the real world or, maybe I should say, the tangible world, becomes so much sweeter. When I shut the laptop and switch off my phone the concept of not giving those voices online a chance to echo in my head becomes feasible. My flat becomes "outside" and even just moving away from my laptop on my desk and over onto the sofa with a book feels like a holiday in the Maldives.
For this prompt in the Blurt Self Careathon, most people, I think, will be encouraging you to go outside outside. So, I would like to be the one voice that tells you to just take fifteen minutes away from social media. Go outside...of your twitter feed. Go drink a pint of water. Open a window. Read a book for a while. Have a bath. Light some candles. Do some origami. Have a coffee, a tea, a...smoothie, I dunno. Maybe even actually...go outside! Do something other than looking at a screen for a bit, yeah? I'm all for #TeamInternet but give yourself fifteen minutes to let your eyes return to their normal shape. Give your brain a minute to eject everyone's voices but your own. The internet has a habit of sucking out rational thought every now and then so move away and let all that delicious rationality soak back in again. It doesn't matter how long you're away from it, unless something really drastic happens, the internet is always going to be there. So switch off (literally) and go "outside".
#BlurtSelfCarethon
xxx
Such an incredibly important message in a world which is dominated by technology, social media and the power of the internet. To venture outside this environment and actually find yourself again can be quite rewarding & satisfying. Thank you for interpreting these topics using so much creativity - quite theraputic to read Carrie x
ReplyDeleteToday I am up at 8am on a Saturday and am going out there into the world to be productive (hopefully) so thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteCarrie, my dear. I hate to be "that person", but I feel I have to be. You used the incorrect form of "its" no less than four times in one sentence, and I can't pretend that this doesn't bother me. You've established a career as a writer, and I get it--you've got an editor to look for these kinds of mistakes for you. And yes, on Twitter, autocorrect can be an issue when you're posting from your phone. But, I will make the assumption here that you write these from your computer, which, I would think, has spell-check. Or, you could proofread these better before you click "post". I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe you could take more caution in calling yourself a writer/author when you continually make grammatical errors.
ReplyDeleteI personally feel this comment is completely unnecessary and I don't believe it's fair to state that Carrie 'continually makes grammatical errors' - Carrie has made a few very minor mistakes in a blog post written with a purpose to share an important message. I don't believe the problems outweigh the overall positivity of this post, which your comment has completely overlooked. Carrie no doubt has limited time in which to write these blogs - and personally, I just appreciate that she uses her free time to share her thoughts in this way. No need for the negativity.
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ReplyDeleteI don't think I need to take caution in calling myself an author because, as you rightly said, it's an editor's job to fix the mistakes like the ones in this blog and I am not an editor. However, this is my own silly little blog. A bit of fun and fresh air away from writing books and I definitely wouldn't bother my editor with something so trivial. So I'm sure you're not pernickety and pedantic enough to be bothered by a couple of grammatical errors in a blog, that's usually written on a bouncing train...are you? Would be a huge shame if you are. Really sucks the joy out of life! <3 xxx
Yeeesssss exactly what i was going to say. She is just another jealous person that wants to turn off you light. Don't let that kind of people get in your way. You're awesome Carrie
DeleteGreetings from Argentina ��
Well, she certainly proved your point about the unnecessarily negative and petty people on the internet.
ReplyDeleteThank you for putting this into words. Beautifully written!
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