Before you start reading this post, first I want you to watch the new Netflix short series called “Stories of a Generation – with Pope Francis”, And then come back to read the post, believe me, it’ll make sense, Enjoy 

(No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion, people must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite ) Nelson Mandela

 I chose Nelson Mandela Model because he fought racism and hate with LOVE that later brought people together to heal. Not through division, isolating others to gain political points, and not for social acceptance, he saw people through their hearts and deeds, not colors, backgrounds, and mistakes. I think his model should become part of the educational system all around the world and not just a chapter in the history books. Children everywhere should learn his model, how he was in jail for twenty-seven years, and when he came out, the first thing he did was he asked black people in South Africa to let go of revenge and hatred and to start to heal as a nation. Of course, it wasn’t easy but he managed to end the hate and revenge endless cycle. The way he brought the nation together showed that bringing people together is not impossible it just takes a lot of effort, sacrifice, and the most important thing is letting go of the ego. for while I wanted to write this post because I started noticing a lot of anger and hate is starting to come back all around the world, what makes it more dangerous this time is the technology and social media, so I decided to write this post because I started to forget that even what it looks like doing the right thing in many cases, it may deepen the divide and unconsciously becoming part of the divide by adding fuel to the fire.

I thought to myself when the pandemic hit, what the pandemic is trying to teach me? I started to dig deep inside of me and I realized that I still need to work on my inner anger and rage and trauma, and everyone around the world should take this lesson very series, if covid-19 is making you angrier and pushes you to attack others for no reason that means that this situation is triggering a hidden trauma and hidden scares you thought you got rid of. If it didn’t teach you to be more understanding, less judgmental, and have compassion, then take some time for yourself to heal, we all need to sit down and have a real conversation with ourselves, what do we need to do to make this world a better place, is it by attacking everything that we disagree with?. (which I’m guilty of in the past, thinking that to Fight Racism and Bullying, I need to make people fearful of saying anything, and I thought that the only way to fight racism and injustice is by fight dark with anger and loud voices with loud argument, and point my finger at the person old mistakes making the individual feel outcasted) until life starting to teach me a lesson, that to fight hate with hate and rage and going after what hurts, it will leave you empty from the inside and the world will be full of hurt and pain.

I’m not a saint I still say the F Word (hahahaha, no one can be, Sadly unconsciously I’m guilty of it too thinking that by responding on social media I was doing the right thing, by jumping on hashtags, what I didn’t know is that I was adding fuel to the fire, I used to think to myself “let me make it clear and make sure that the person understands their mistake” with that I didn’t know that I was creating a hostile environment and it didn’t help me or the situation, and without knowing that I was part of the divide, thinking that if I was fighting for the right cause it won’t harm anyone, how can it be wrong?! Right? But the internet is an open space where no one cares if you’re right or wrong what matters is making the topic trending, and driving attention to people behind it, I started to realize that I wasn’t helping. I still write my opinion on social media if the issue is worth it, like what happened to Gorge Floyd, you can’t say that your opinion is adding fuel to the fire, it’s important to raise your voice in these cases all of us should and must, and in many other situations where your voice is needed, but not every hashtag is worth jumping into t create more chaos in the world, also occasionally celebrities try to bring each other down through their millions of followers making them attack others for them and everyone feels like it’s the end of the world if we don’t defend our artist, it’s sad to see that the world is so divided that everything became worth bringing each-others down for and break each-others from the inside.  

 I will not fight evil with darkness because social media amplifies everything, it thrives on our anger and hating one another. A reminder that the algorithm has no feelings, it’s blind, it picks subjects randomly by detecting the topic with most tweets or posts, without separating what’s important and what’s not, the second reason is that every time I’m on social media I start feeling angrier and angrier about the issues in the world, and of the amount of information, the amount of cyberbullying, and when a group of people starts targeting someone rightfully or wrongfully it fills me with all kind of emotions, realizing that those people are using the open space to bring other human being down which is not normal, so many people are committing suicide because of social media and what others are thinking of them. I still use social media to post, like everyone else to follow sport events and tweet about my favorite football team and my daily cup of coffee or my favorite TV show and enjoy 10% positive energy from the people I follow. The most important lesson I learned is that online life is not real life and not fun to be on it all the time, it no longer “what’s happens online stays online” it’s started to become a jungle the big eat the small, and the loudest shades the quite.

  I started educating myself about historical figures who fought injustice through history, people who actually changed the world and I went back in history to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelo and Oprah Winfrey, and I started thinking (to change the real world is not through anger and hashtags and viciously attacking others, it happens through healthy, real-life conversations and by setting around the table and listen to each other, if I can’t change someone’s mind on a subject, then attacking them will not do so) People who truly changed the world didn’t outcast others or stone their attackers but through LOVE and understanding where they come from. I started to ask myself who am I compared to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelo, and Oprah Winfrey. Their struggles and the injustice they faced in their lives are more than anything I saw and will see in my life and thanks to them my life is better, because of their sacrifice the world is a better place, they managed to change history. Earlier in my life, I didn’t believe that anger and frustration would affect me physically, I used to be so angry with the world that I always had fatigue and suffering from spasms and muscle strains. My back injury forced me to relax and to meditate because stress and anxiety was making it worse, so I decided that I will try to do better for myself and the world around me, I want to change the world through love, music Art and kindness, and reduced my participation on online hashtags and I will always ask what’s my intention and why I’m responding, I started to use social media less and less and stop reading what’s in everyone’s mind, most of the time I post and leave, and just comment on sport matches and supporting my team and treating social media as a big mind reading device and I do not want to know what’s on everybody’s mind, and if something is negative happening on it I try not to dive into it as in the past, if it’s not going to bring a positive change I will not comment or write about it, HINT “I started to check if Oprah Winfrey is saying something about an issue it means it worth the time and effort” because she and my dad are the only to people I take their action and words seriously because I am who I am because of them.  

Last but not least, our mental health is affected by what’s happening on social media whether we notice it or not, for the amount of information we receive every second of the day, the web became an open space to all kinds of energies and thoughts, we are losing our mind because the whole world became a big responding device. Starting from 2022 I decided that I am not going to check my social media page all the time I will take a break every once and a while, I will still check sports news, I will still post some fun, positive, or freaky things, but I will not let it consume my life and if something worth the retweet and replay I will do, believe me, your mental health and peace of mind are more important than anything, the world on social media can wait, plus you can change the world through your work and how you use your energy and talent.

“When you are dissing someone else, you’re actually dissing yourself” RuPaul

ShoroK♥♥