Election Anxiety and Burnout

I didn't open social media on Tuesday, November 5, or most of Wednesday, November 6. I made the mistake of opening social media before I went to bed Wednesday night, and I saw exactly what I missed.

I'm convinced social media is both great and awful. It's great because it connects people and allows conversations to happen regardless of distance. When it comes to politics, however, it's less than ideal. I saw the same posts about the election at least 20 times per site, which is exactly what happened in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 when we got the results of those elections.

I know many people on both sides of the aisle. Every time, it's the same story. People are either upset or thrilled at the results, and I see a combination of posts of people mourning or celebrating. I've watched it happen several times since I joined social media when I was a teenager. I want you to take a guess what happened when I saw the sheer number of posts, the words people were saying, the insults, the vitriol, all of it. It was extremely similar to my reaction to all past elections. I'll give you a second to think about it.

Okay, now that you've had a second, I'll tell you. Seeing the posts sent me into an anxiety attack. Again. Every time there's been an election, I've had an anxiety attack, but not because of the results of those elections. Honestly, the least jarring part of the past several elections was learning who took the victory. I had an anxiety attack because of the overwhelming response from so many people.

I'm not asking people to change. People can post whatever they want on social media. That's their right. On the same token, it's my right to not engage with it.

I'm tired. I've done this for the last several election cycles and I'm just tired. I'm more stressed about people's reactions to the results than I am about the results themselves. It's my responsibility to look after myself, so that's what I'm going to do. In my professional and personal profiles, I'm making some changes so I don't have another anxiety attack and have to deal with burnout.

The plan is simple.

• My X accounts, formerly known as Twitter, are being deactivated by the end of the week

• I'm deleting Threads off my phone

• I'm muting an entire dictionary of words I'm trying to avoid on BlueSky

• I'm muting most people's stories on Instagram and Facebook

• I'll figure out how to handle Facebook later, but I have a few ideas in the work. It may mean I mute everybody for a month during the election cycle. It may mean I avoid it for most of November. I've yet to make determinations given that I can't mute specific phrases on Facebook as far as I can tell.

Is this cowardly? Maybe it is. Regardless, I have to do what's best for my mental health. I have other ways of seeing the news. Social media is not my news source. It never has been. I'm doing what I have to do. If you don't like it, well, you don't have to. This is my choice and I'm sticking to it.