Summary
That desperate need to try and plug a fire hydrant with your pinky thinking it's going to change how negativity makes you feel is futility and self-abuse.
Elaine @thewebrecluse
November 16 2022 11:44am
ProTip … you don’t have to look at the firehose at all. It’s not required. You can unpin it. You can never click on it. You can curate your own feed and make your own columns and just live your life without that nonsense and without reacting to it. You have a CHOICE.
There is no reason to feel the need to flood something you don’t need to even be interacting with. If the firehose is so upsetting to you that you feel like you need to try and (force) flood it with positivity …
STOP
INTERACTING
WITH
IT
Everything about how you use CoSo is your choice. You have a ton of control over how to make your experience here as healthy as you want. That’s the great thing about CoSo. Make use of those tools. Curate. Filter. Pin positive things for yourself to see and interact with.
Randomness is great … magical even … until it starts making you feel like you have to push back (at it) with positivity. That tells me that the balance is off. So, do you trade balance in the hope of random magic? Maybe for some people. But the fact that there is a hashtag (FloodTheFirehose), tells me that there is more imbalance than magic.
That desperate need to try and plug a fire hydrant with your pinky thinking it’s going to change how that stream of negativity makes you feel is futility and self-abuse. You have to turn away from negativity and/or counter it WITHIN. So many people left the Hellmouth to get away from the constant streams of negativity, unpredictability, and trauma … interacting with it constantly on the CoSo firehose under the guise of “trying to make it better” is only harming you further and keeping you from healing.
When I first came to CoSo not that long ago, the first thing I LOVED about it was the quiet. It reminded me so much of the early days online where the kind of engagement you 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 was the kind of engagement you 𝙜𝙖𝙫𝙚. You found people by putting yourself out there, by being yourself, by choosing others (long before channels and forums). The firehose isn’t the 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 way to find people. I found amazing people by just being myself and interacting with epic people who 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 quality interaction with me.
I’m very old school that way … I can still remember the early days of the web, before it went public even (pre-aol) and it was such a very different space. It was open … wide open … there was no one to tell you where to go or what to do or how to find things or people (there wasn’t that much to find anyway). Someone introduced you to chat space and you went from there. You learned. You were a voice in vast space … like a kind of marco polo … you were yourself and people found you.
There is a lot to discover on CoSo … and if the firehose is too much negativity or just not your speed, you don’t have to interact with it. It’s not required. You can find your quiet here … you can find your own voice. Not the one cultivated by whatever Hell you came here from. Not one twisted into a brand, but the one that is your authentic voice. You can share yourself here and find quality interactions and engagement. You will receive back the good energy you put out. You will be found.❤️
Instead of seeking out things to respond to (as was the way of the other place) consider sharing content for people to positively engage with … your passions, your voice and spirit.
It’s a very different way of spending time on social media yes … and it does require patience and also a sense of who you are and what you’re about that you want to share with the community. But there is nothing better than authenticity and sharing from the heart.
That is what the early days were like … I miss them a lot.
