Words for social media
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But the unspoken, as we know, tends to strengthen, to mature and grow richer over the years, like an undrunk wine. Of course it may just go to Freudian vinegar. Some thoughts and feelings go to vinegar very quickly, and must be poured out at once. Some go on fermenting in the bottle, and burst out in an explosion of murderous glass shards. But a good, robust, well-corked feeling only gets deeper and more complicated, down in the cellar. The thing is knowing when to uncork it.
Our inclination on social media is to rush to the hot take, to spill our words forth. But how many times have our thoughts been opened too early? How many times have they tasted of sugar? When thoughts are exposed to early to the logic of the crowd, they do not develop. They become socialized and truncated. They become attuned to their reception rather than the truth. They fall prey to the follies of our times.
And it’s not just the social media post that is aborted by this logic. It’s thought itself. Our minds become trained to the narcissism of likes, comments, and argument.
Private thought. Posting only what one has reflected upon in good, long silence. Verifying what we read, and not re-posting things that seem shocking until we’ve let it sit for a little while. These are the solutions to the shallowness of our time. The solution to our gossipy discourse.