Bad Company

By the title of this post, you may be expecting this to be about music. But you would be wrong. During COVID, I stopped watching the news. You can judge me for that, if you want, but it was self-preservation. I was recently divorced, had sold my home of 17+ years, been laid off from my job and then lost my mom. I was struggling to be sure. I found the news to be a constant negative reminder that the world was a cold, dark place with nothing good to be found. And with so many things closed, the forced isolation meant that television was frequently my only companion. If you had a friend who only ever shared doom and gloom and negativity, how often would you spend time with them? Probably not much, and I doubt you would invite them into your home every single day. Yet, that’s what the news was to me, a daily visitor who brought a dark rain cloud every time they entered my home. So, I turned it off.

There was nothing I could personally do to change what was happening in the world, so I decided to focus on healing from the recent trauma. I wrote, I exercised, I made things, and I read. I reconnected with friends and walked away from others. I reevaluated my life and my priorities. In short, I began to choose carefully the company I was keeping.

1 Corinthians 15:33 says: “Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character.”

It’s been three years and I have only recently started watching the news again, in very small doses. And with an election year on the horizon, I find that small doses are all that I can handle. But I recently became aware of something that had replaced that angry, negative visitor in my life: social media.

Like so many others, I had joined social media to stay in touch with friends and family and share some laughs. I had been pulled into following some groups and pages that were of interest to me and, for a while, they were entertaining. But I recently noticed how negative I was feeling after scrolling through my news feed, especially if I succumbed to reading comments. I realized I had replaced one angry visitor with another, and I needed to shut the door on them again.

People who know me know that I am generally an upbeat, positive, compassionate person. But that character was, indeed, becoming corrupted by what I was allowing into my space. I have recently left a number of social media groups that I had once chosen to follow because they seemed fun, but they have been infiltrated by angry, judgmental voices. If I followed a page because it seemed fun, I won’t tolerate being judged and bullied because of a differing opinion. The world is too angry as it is, so I have left those groups, even if they were started by a friend.

The company we keep includes what we invite into our hearts and minds via technology.

Television, computers, phones, all of these things have created a way for a small populace to appear much larger than they are. Just because you see 300 comments on something, does not mean there are 300 people who have commented. Frequently, it is the same 5-7 people who have been having a comment fight and reading through it only drags you into it when you probably didn’t care enough about whatever the subject was to comment yourself. Sound familiar?

My advice? Put the phone down, turn the T.V off, put away the video games and go outside. Keep company with nature, play with your children or grandchildren, play with your dog, laugh, and find joy. There is far better company to be kept than you will ever find on a screen. Be brave. Be kind.