Hello fellow bees.
I’m exhausted of seeing US politics and world news creep into all the communities in trying to use. I have the vast majority of communities and instances about this blocked for a reason, but no matter how many communities I block it still happens.
I’m not trying to ignore what’s going on. I am not feeling the wrath of the privileged at the acknowledge of the suffering of the weak. I devote a specific amount of time each week where I brace myself and gaze upon the horrors so that I can stay informed.
The problems I have with a lot of this is that it seems predominately to be regurgitating the news cycle uncritically. Many posts don’t even rephrase the headlines that are purposefully designed to be upsetting.
What I would like is if before someone resposted this kind of thing that they would consider if it’s:
Actionable, which is to say it has a clear call to action about the problems it presents.
Significant, which is to say it bears relevance on people’s immediate well-being in a way that is not simply a restatement of extant problems.
Useful, which is to say it both represents a useful resource and is presented in a way that makes that easy.
I don’t need to see news articles about how 7 out of 10 Republician senators would rather eat a baby than put out a trans person on fire. I know and I don’t need to be reminded while trying to find something interesting to read at the bus stop.
If it doesn’t do one of the above, I think posting it is contributing to information overload exhaustion that makes people feel so helpless.
At the very least, could we try to keep the stuff restrained to the relevant communities? I already have 10 of the current Beehaw communities blocked because they’re either about political news, are dominated by it or represent an undue risk to being suddenly jumpscared by it.
What do you think? Please advise, because I enjoy Beehaw but this is so exhausting.
Idk if I have a solution to your problem, but i agree that sometimes browsing beehaw feels like an exercise in gritting my teeth and exposing myself to the horrors of the world. I wish this space was a little more like reddit in the sense that it would be nice to be here and have conversations that are not about current events, which are so exhausting lately. I make a point of mostly posting about things besides US politics for this reason, bc i feel like other users really have those topics covered. I used to post more in Jokes and Humor because I thought this server really needed some more levity, but I was getting all my memes from Facebook, and then I was trying to not be on FB after the 2024 election, and now the only places I see memes are places where the memes are pretty political. Not so good for the levity problem.
One idea that might help you: subbing to active non-Beehaw Lemmy communities that are less serious. Most of those communities post more than any one beehaw community, so if you go to the “subscribed” feed and sort by “hot”, the majority of posts you see will be from those outside communities. I subbed to 196 for a little while before realizing that that one community dominated my feed bc people be postin on there constantly. I didn’t want that, but maybe that would be a boon for you.
I am trying to focus on it, it’s just I can lose an hour+ whenever I come across a headline that’s purpose built to piss people off- because I have to fight myself not to make an entire small essay about why it’s irresponsibility presented and generally ineffective.