Are you a fan of doomscrolling? Can anyone be said to be a fan of doomscrolling? When I was a kid, I had to wait for the nightly news or go read a newspaper (the kind printed on actual newsprint) to catch the latest doom and its pal, gloom.
And believe me, there was plenty of doom to be had. I grew up during the Cold War (well, the first one, anyway) and the specter of actual nuclear war was always there in the background. There were also concerns over the environment (the Careers board game, which I loved, added Ecology as a career path. It’s probably been replaced by Entrepreneur or something now) and pollution, and wars and terrorism across the world were pretty common.
But at least we didn’t have any pandemics, and climate change didn’t yet feel like an existential crisis.
However, this post isn’t about doom. It’s about not despairing, just like it says in the title. For all the horrible things in the world, remember that we still have:
- Kittens
- Puppies
- Baby ducks
- Pancakes
- Bicycles
- Friends
- People who can make words and/or pictures sing
- Modern medicine, which is pretty nifty when you think about it
- Smart people still working hard to help make the world better
- Sunrises and sunsets
- And Voyager I and II, launched in 1977, are still transmitting data!
It is breathtakingly easy to fill yourself full of bad news if you have a working internet connection, and that’s just not good for the mind. I don’t think we’ve evolved (or may ever evolve) to where we can subject ourselves to near-constant negativity and remain mentally and emotionally healthy. So I’m willing to do my tiny part in making the world better. I recycle. I treat the environment with respect. I adore kittens.
And I don’t doomscroll. Despair not!
