Clarity
There's something I've come to realize as of late, and that's the less time I've spent on the internet, the more clearly I've been able to see and process things for how they are. When I think of back of when I was more active in online social spaces, especially as the internet was going more into the social media age and I was on sites like Tumblr and Twitter, I realize how diluded my mind was by all of the displays of toxicity, misinformation and overthinking that were being shoved in my face on a regular basis. Since I've distanced myself from those environments it feels like that I'm thinking for myself more, and seeing bits of my former behavior in other people I talk to. When engaging in conversation with them about various topics, especially ones of a social or political nature, I recognize a lot of the same kind terminology and patterns of reasoning that I've seen on the web spaces I used to use and even (shamefully) used to emulate, and even though everyone's different, it still makes me wonder how these people would change in their ways of thinking if they too decided to distance themselves from the internet and question everything they read on there like I have. Of course, before the internet people would get some of the same ideas from the news and talk shows on TV or the radio they watched and listened to, or even from the people they spent their time around, so who knows.
How much of our thoughts and feelings are truly our own, and can we even remember when we started to feel them and why?