I was listening to NPR several weeks ago, and there was a story on how following the news too closely during the pandemic could be bad for your health. Given that immuno-compromise is associated with serious symptoms or death in COVID patients, I became scared that being too stressed out from the information barrage would leave me vulnerable.
Therefore, as someone who is both a news junkie and also cripplingly empathetic toward victims of capitalism receiving media attention, I made an immediate change, and I haven’t listened to NPR or watched live news broadcasts since. I appreciate the irony. I have made the decision to become ignorant of the virus or its spread because I was too concerned about it to stay cognizant of what my specific concerns should be. I have created the possibility that I could accidentally expose myself to infection by being so scared of infection.
Then again, my chances of exposure are pretty minimal. I’m trying to recall any decisions I’ve made that are suboptimal with respect to social distancing, and I don’t have much I can come up with. I used the shared laundry facility at my apartment complex two or three weeks ago, but I sanitized my hands at least twice during every trip back and forth, and then I washed my hands each time I got back to my apartment.
I went to the grocery store a couple of times close to a month ago, but I think the only recent near-contact I’ve made with the public was picking up cat litter from Petco, and I don’t believe I got within 6 feet of anyone. That said, I accidentally learned from Trevor Noah via YouTube that it’s probably dangerous to be within 13 feet of someone, and also that the virus has been transmitted by the bottoms of people’s shoes. It seems we can only reduce our risk, but being completely protected seems impossible as soon as one walks out the door. I’m imagining little mischievous viruses crawling onto my shoes when I think about taking out the trash later this afternoon.
My main source of information has been watching clips from “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver, but I’ve recently been watching only videos from five months ago or prior. So, it’s not really giving me the most timely information.
I do get Twitter updates, but only from Donald Trump. I kind of consider it my “Apocalypse Watch.” If and when the world ends, if it’s in the near future, I feel fairly certain Trump will post it on Twitter first. I feel confident he’ll be the party responsible, though he’ll undoubtedly blame the Washington Post and New York Times before using the nuclear option. I picture him surviving in a secret bunker, but upon realizing that internet service providers and cell phone towers no longer exist he’ll step out onto the surface of a dying planet to shout out his Tweets into the dim, hazy void, pleading to a god who left social media years ago and cares nothing for the cries of a sad, petty man-baby.
I think I’m going to start drawing illustrations to go with these blog posts. This might actually become a thing.
Therefore, as someone who is both a news junkie and also cripplingly empathetic toward victims of capitalism receiving media attention, I made an immediate change, and I haven’t listened to NPR or watched live news broadcasts since. I appreciate the irony. I have made the decision to become ignorant of the virus or its spread because I was too concerned about it to stay cognizant of what my specific concerns should be. I have created the possibility that I could accidentally expose myself to infection by being so scared of infection.
Then again, my chances of exposure are pretty minimal. I’m trying to recall any decisions I’ve made that are suboptimal with respect to social distancing, and I don’t have much I can come up with. I used the shared laundry facility at my apartment complex two or three weeks ago, but I sanitized my hands at least twice during every trip back and forth, and then I washed my hands each time I got back to my apartment.
I went to the grocery store a couple of times close to a month ago, but I think the only recent near-contact I’ve made with the public was picking up cat litter from Petco, and I don’t believe I got within 6 feet of anyone. That said, I accidentally learned from Trevor Noah via YouTube that it’s probably dangerous to be within 13 feet of someone, and also that the virus has been transmitted by the bottoms of people’s shoes. It seems we can only reduce our risk, but being completely protected seems impossible as soon as one walks out the door. I’m imagining little mischievous viruses crawling onto my shoes when I think about taking out the trash later this afternoon.
My main source of information has been watching clips from “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver, but I’ve recently been watching only videos from five months ago or prior. So, it’s not really giving me the most timely information.
I do get Twitter updates, but only from Donald Trump. I kind of consider it my “Apocalypse Watch.” If and when the world ends, if it’s in the near future, I feel fairly certain Trump will post it on Twitter first. I feel confident he’ll be the party responsible, though he’ll undoubtedly blame the Washington Post and New York Times before using the nuclear option. I picture him surviving in a secret bunker, but upon realizing that internet service providers and cell phone towers no longer exist he’ll step out onto the surface of a dying planet to shout out his Tweets into the dim, hazy void, pleading to a god who left social media years ago and cares nothing for the cries of a sad, petty man-baby.
I think I’m going to start drawing illustrations to go with these blog posts. This might actually become a thing.
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