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opening the tweet to see how people replied and finding something that makes you mad? if you looked at the replies at all, you have already lost
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scrolling down from the youtube video to look at literally any other comment but the top-most one? if you scrolled down at all, you have already lost
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opening the notes on that tumblr post to look for replies, and paying most attention to the negative ones? if you opened the notes for any reason other than context or a link, you have already lost
you gotta stop opening up opportunities for your brain to have a negative reaction to something. please understand this: you have an instinct to seek out these negative reactions, because seeing those negative reactions confirms your brain's suspicion that there are shitty people in the world. and your brain feels rewarded whenever it has a suspicion that gets confirmed. but here's the thing: you already know there are shitty people in the world. you're not stupid. you've been around the block a few times. but by letting your brain engage in this cycle of suspicion, identification, and confirmation, you are making your brain really really good at noticing negativity. in fact, it starts to strongly prioritize negativity as a default mood. but something you might not know is that this makes your brain worse at finding contentment and worse at emotional regulation. it also makes your brain much more likely to make enemies, and find reasons to disagree (and become combative) with everyone around you, including people you love.
so do yourself a favor. deliberately choose not to read the comments. what are you hoping to find in there? you're just gonna find exactly what you expect. and it's not gonna make you a happier person. it's gonna hurt you, and that hurt is gonna go through you and into the people you love.
