Mechi is upset, really upset.
He uploaded a story on his Instagram after the training class in the park, with all the running equipment, he has decorated it (is it said like that in digital language?) with hearts, biceps that reveal effort and the motivating phrase: just
do it
, in obvious allusion to the leiv motiv of the renowned sports brand.
But none, none of the 15 colleagues who trained with her, has republished her story.
She always does that with their posts.
What happened then?
Do not like how they appear in the image?
Should she have sent the photo to the group for everyone to approve first?
She feels annoyed
, and why not, something betrayed.
On the other side of the world, in Australia, Gastón reviews images of his beloved Argentina through reels that show significant places to visit and covers many of the trips he made, his experiences with friends, when he still lived here.
He does so after coming out of a tough controversy on Twitter with some young Australians who advocate limiting the entry of foreigners to Sydney, such is his case.
In this way he feels that he blocks that initial annoyance with this
nostalgia and tenderness
of the images.
Annoyance, uncertainty, fear, some of the negative emotions that can appear.
Photo Shutterstock.
Welcome to the immense world of digital emotions!
Real emotions, which mobilize and impact the body like any other emotion, but arise from
browsing through the networks
.
Recently, I have included this topic in our Emotional Well-being program because, without a doubt, it is key to understand its effect.
We are digital beings
.
That is already installed.
Let's not waste time arguing if this world of networks, avatars, algorithms, metaverse and multiverse is better.
This discussion is a trip to the past, to
a reality that we will never experience again
: that of life without the Internet and screens.
I realize when I see the summary of the weekly time that I have used my cell phone:
it is monstrous
.
In my favor I should say that I work a lot with him, I even make inquiries and work calls from there, I pay taxes, I post info for my work and personal accounts, I get information on digital portals, I download the tickets to the Fito Páez concert at the weekend ,
I control how much I run and how long I meditate
.
Oh, and I need to say that I have a couple of books that I prefer to look at from the computer but sometimes, in waiting situations, I read from there.
Nicholas Carr, the American journalist who surprised everyone with
“Shallow: What the Internet Does to Our Brains”
a decade ago, already said it:
our minds are no longer the same
, they work with the continuous desire to receive the stimulation of the flow of information. information that we offer you all the time, with fleeting attention and anxious concern that things must be constantly happening.
"Once I was like a scuba diver swimming in the depths of the ocean; now I'm a guy who drives a jet sky fast on the surface of the water."
Of course that implies that there is
an emotional world
that accompanies the information.
All communication, all human perception, carries the perfume of some emotional texture.
The big issue may not be that.
The big issue is that we are barely aware of it and we are exposed to its impact.
Recognizing emotions is important to learn to manage them.
Photo Shutterstock.
wholesale emotions
All emotions come to life on the web: from joy and desire to annoyance, envy or anguish.
The trigger?
They can be several: depending on the network, from an image, a comment or emoji, a phrase or sometimes a combination of some of these things.
The topics are also very broad: from self-help questions and vital advice on how to live better or be happy, to recommendations for home, work, use of technology, etc.
There is even an app for, taking a photo of your plant, find out what its disease is and the therapy to use with it.
WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, perhaps in this order by popular use, without forgetting dating apps, LinkedIn and several others.
From very early on we open our cell phones and we are in that
world of communication content
.
All the senses, especially sight and hearing (music plays a key role in the genesis of emotions) guide our plunge.
The existence of videos and reels also have a place of predominance today.
What they show us, what we see and hear,
shapes our thinking and our emotions
.
The reward system and the mechanism of addiction
Mostly everything is explained by our reward system: it is a brain circuit that is activated when
there is something that makes us want
and brings us closer to the desired experience.
It is made up of a large number of structures and areas interconnected with each other to finally give rise to obtaining the reward, but the most important are the nucleus
accumbens
and the ventral tegmental area.
It generates automatic and impulsive behaviors (quickly moving your hand to your mobile phone, continuously scrolling through publications or reels, etc.) that unconsciously aim at the same thing: maintaining a continuous level of mental and bodily arousal, an effervescence that acquires times a
quasi-zombie state
.
The opposite effect,
apathy, frustration and anguish
, may also be undesired effects of the deactivation of this reward mechanism when the contents do not please us or are offensive to us.
The mindful way of working with digital emotions
We must not demonize social networks.
It is not our intention to fall on this virtual reality already installed in our lives.
But it is necessary to learn to
recognize, discern and
properly manage what we consume and what impacts us.
The small and large emotional leaps that each interaction awakens in us should be appropriately aware of.
Because?
Because moment by moment while browsing we
accumulate or incorporate
emotional sensations associated with the content and that "load" mostly remains with us during our day.
It's not like I get out of my screen and reset automatically.
No: I take that pregnancy to what comes next in my day.
Thus, intense news or information, or simply an accumulation of a certain number of more subtle ones, can condition our action.
How do we detect that?
Working with what we call the
observing self
.
That is, while we interact, we observe our action, and, especially, how
what we see/hear
impacts us .
This training to activate the
observing self
is typical of contemplative practices and we do it when we meditate: we also call it
decentering
, de-automatization and we can even call it “reperceiving”, as a way of perceiving with greater awareness.
Thus, if I recognize that something causes me a lot of desire (lust, attraction, greed, etc.), or rejection (annoyance, uncertainty, fear, etc.), I can regulate the time and the way I navigate, I can stop, breathe and make
conscious
what What happens to me in the body and in the mind.
Here are some examples:
"My brother wrote such a heartfelt greeting to my grandmother in her 80s that I can't be less and barely say hello."
uncertainty and fear.
"She hasn't looked at my stories for two whole days: what's wrong with her? I'm going to stop seeing hers."
Uncertainty and revenge.
"It tired me, I'm going to block it: every time I write to him about a stinging topic, he appears with some criticism or observation pretending intellectual superiority."
He anger and anguish.
"I don't understand how you expose yourself by making such personal and stark posts. Do you want to victimize yourself? Why do you do that?"
Misunderstanding and annoyance.
"It's good that Juli was able to make that trip, she looks very happy in the photos with her new partner."
Joy and empathy.
"This memory from a year ago seems so valuable to me, it refreshes me all the effort I've been making since then to be calmer and more connected with what I have."
Recognition and compassion
.
There is an emotional world that accompanies the information.
Photo Shutterstock.
The mindful way of recognizing emotions includes
labeling, naming the emotions
, also weighing their impact in terms of mild-intense, and deciding.
This last step (decide) should include acting with full awareness, with the intention of not harming others and, whenever possible, using the most appropriate language and forms for the good of others.
Of course, there are important tips that help us not to expose ourselves so much to information from networks:
choosing content that we consider valuable over those that are merely superficial and/or toxic,
self-limitation of daily time,
wait at least 30 minutes when we get up to navigate and 30 before going to bed to restrict it,
schedule some entries in a certain app (for example, a couple of times in the morning and a couple of times in the afternoon), deactivate notifications of all kinds, etc.
WhatsApp would demand a unique and special column: its use adds some very specific variables, such as groups, status notifications or check marks (he
nailed the check on me
is an expression of
frustration
and sometimes anguish), the possibility of interaction more direct etc
So now you know: to train the mind in Mindfulness so as not to be swept away by the immense emotionality of social networks, those that are
doubly dangerous
due to their silent and penetrating impact.
*Martín Reynoso is a psychologist, director of Train Your Brain Argentina and author of "Mindfulness, scientific meditation".
***
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