Technology

It sounds like life has been rough. I understand, friend. I can even empathize with several parts of it.

I hope it's okay if I offer some unsolicited advice. I know you didn't ask for any, but if I ask first, I might forget it before you respond. It's 100% okay to ignore the rest of this message you don't want it...

First, before getting to the deeper/not-very-fun stuff...

I had a YouTube channel where I made people laugh with goofy ass animations, my weird accent and nothing else.

Knowing that you can leverage your accent for comedic effect is an awesome level of awareness! I've seen a few people in language-learning communities trying to learn how to "get rid of" their accents to make funny content on YouTube, and I just think "...why?" That seems like such a great tool to make funny things even funnier.

Anyway, I suppose that wasn't advice, but I'm curious about something... When the racists in video games mock your accent, have you ever tried making them laugh by doing an impression of their accents? Like, not as a retaliation, but as a way to shift the tone from hate/negativity to jokes/banter? When any of my foreign friends have done impressions of native English speakers' accents, it's pretty much always funny. Some can even do a variety of accents. I had a Bangladeshi friend who surprised us with a Texan impression, followed by Irish. He was actually kinda good at both, which made it even more hilarious for some reason 😆

I've noticed that, in many contexts, if you can embrace the cultural differences and joke around about it, it can sometimes improve the overall tone. It's almost like the racists are pretending to be even more racist than they really are. It's strange, but I've seen it many times.

If you try it, I'd suggest doing it early on, when they just start "poking" at you a bit to see how you'll react. It probably wouldn't work after things are already heated.

Anyway, on to the more serious stuff...

These are some things that have really helped me, in the past.

Uninstall social media apps from your phone for two weeks (including a Lemmy app, if you use one). If you can't resist the urge to check social media on your phone, then log in from the phone's web browser. Do not enable push notifications if the site prompts you for it. Even if you occasionally refresh the page in the web browser, that's better than push notifications.

The goal is not 100% cessation of social media consumption[^1]. The goal is to make social media access just a little less convenient, and it's only temporary (two weeks). Much easier to achieve than complete cessation, and the results might actually be greater than expected (it was for me).

Take a break from reading/watching/engaging in political content for 1-2 weeks. Political topics are usually not conducive to overall happiness[^2]. It might be almost impossible to 100% avoid everything political on the internet – someone always finds a way to shove politics into awkward places in online conversations – but just try to ignore it. Do not reply. Don't even finish reading it[^3]. The world will still have plenty of problems to read about after this break.

I would encourage doing both of those things at the same time, but if the thought of that makes you less likely to try/succeed, then just try one at a time. That would still be better than nothing.

When I did these things, it felt like I had broken an addiction by the end of it. My life was permanently better[^4]. It's crazy how strong of a hold social media has on our brains.

[^1]: That would have a lower likelihood of success because we are humans, and many social media apps are designed/engineered to leverage human psychology.

[^2]: They're GREAT for engagement though. Algorithms on mainstreams platforms leverage this because it's extremely lucrative (for billionaire CEOs).

[^3]: I've heard that some highly religious people (I don't remember which religion[s]) will "avert their eyes" and even shield them if they see something/someone that could spark temptation. That seems a bit extreme, but if they can do that in everyday life for years, then it's possible to avoid certain online content for a short time.

[^4]: I eventually "relapsed" on a few habits, but not all of them, and not as intensely.