The Zen of "Mythical Reel Pulls"

Instagram addiction or path to enlightenment?

I have been very burnt (burned?) out recently (apologies for letting my Mental Hellth posting schedule slip for the last few weeks, I’m getting back on track, I swear!). Part of the burnout is just having too much work to do and feeling like getting through it all is a slog. And part of it is that the world, as usual, feels bad. I keep seeing news of heat waves and deaths from floods and feel like …. what the fuck am I doing? 

In all likelihood, I just need a break. Or several. But I have work commitments and life commitments I must complete before I take that break, and so, for the last several weeks, I have found myself giving myself breaks in probably the worst way: by becoming re-addicted to the internet, and specifically to Instagram Reels. 

As I’ve written previously, I think that social media is largely harmful—it can act as a kind of drug, inuring us to our surroundings so that we feel we need not change them, placating us so that we have just enough dopamine to continue living through whatever era we’re living through.

And yet, like I’ve experienced when I’ve taken actual drugs, I’ve found myself gleaning meaning and perspective from this bad habit recently. And I’ve seen, through reading way too many comments on Reels, that others are doing the same.