Empaths And Social Media. The Never Ending Story.
Are you an Empath? If not, do you know someone “afflicted” in such a way? To choose the word afflicted is because often enough, those who are not Empaths, look at those who are, to have been afflicted. They’re like….abnormal. Right? Wrong
If you want heart, Empaths have it. They’re often told they are too sensitive… as if it’s a bad thing to be sensitive. “Toughen up” they’ll often hear. At times, they’re even labeled as paranoid. Empaths just feel and absorb the emotions of others and are often highly intuitive. They can sense danger just as much as their hearts sense goodness.
Empaths tend to be very giving and loving. They feel and give with their full heart. What is so wrong about that? When they see an injustice, often they are wounded in disbelief. They just find it very difficult to comprehend that others can be self-absorbed and inconsiderate to those who have done them no harm. They often hear “why” over and over in their minds like a broken record and that’s usually followed by “I could never do that to them”.
So there’s really no mystery they are deep thinkers and analyze every thought and emotion. They deplete all their energy trying to understand a situation, a person, an action, while also quietly examining the body language of those around them. They want answers but NOT excuses. Emotions ping pong from pain to anger.
In a mental exhaustion, they often retreat from others. There’s peace in hibernation. No noise, no toxicity, no drama, no ugliness. Just downtime. In their solitude, they may log in to Facebook or twitter. They may post something cryptic about how they’re feeling or what their thoughts are, because they don’t want to reveal too much. I know you’ve seen them.
They don’t want pity, but of course, it is assumed they are looking for exactly that. All too often they feel no need to share their deep detailed thoughts on a situation with those that they’ve seen to be too challenged or negative to understand them. So, they remain cryptic by releasing all those toxic thoughts to an audience they know shrugs it off without hesitation… if they noticed at all.
Question is, is social media a good alternative for an Empath when they seem to be the minority? Often, no. What happens then is that Empaths are exposed to the negativity and self-absorption of others on a larger scale. Ask yourself if you’ve seen or even been guilty of this:
1) You get together with a friend. That friend discusses with you things about other mutual friends. Oh the displeasure. Not long after that, you see a picture posted of them out together, arms around each other Love you, buddy, love you too”. You see it over and over. The Empath sees the injustice and often comes to the conclusion “If they do that to others, they’ll do it to me”. That person they once admired, just lost credibility.
2) The high school bullies that never grew up. You didn’t have to go to school with them to know who they are. They reveal themselves LOUDLY and clearly on one of the grandest platforms there is. They remind others how they speak truth, and take pride in offending others. To them, there’s no difference between humor and viciousness and will often accuse others of being easily offended. One can speak truth and share their views without the name calling and shaming of others for a different one. Much like high school, the Empath notices these bullies with a grand list of followers and in their usual thinking, tries to understand WHY.
3) They’ve now just succeeded in alienating a person over a disagreement. Multiple attacks come by the followers. However, if tomorrow they were to read about a local suicide on a case of bullying and depression, they’re right there to say “what a shame” or more so…attack the culprits. Why? Because it’s not about the situation, it’s about doing what they do best….attack. They attack with what they have, hypocrisy.
Those are just 3 examples but you get the general picture. It is a never ending story. A vicious circle for the Empath. So, was the question answered? Not really. Your time on social media is what you make of it. You will never change the behaviors of others, but you can certainly control the level of exposure to it.
Look out for the next blog Empaths and Social media Part 2.The Alternatives
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