IN this age digital information, it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and get swept up by the “trending” undercurrents that make the news.

I find this ironic because when the internet first emerged, it was the most punk thing that could happen: it upended the institutions of our societies and revealed the hypocrisy and inequality just lying dormant under the veneer of our supposed “civilised” world order.

We’ve come to an accelerated full circle now where this upending is in great danger of making us lose ourselves now as individuals.

What we do, where we go, who we are with are now valuable data to big tech companies that trade our supposed individual freedom and choices – the very same data scammers take advantage of.

For myself, a minor public figure, how I present myself and my opinions on social media is crucial.

So is what I do not share. Digital technology and social media have revealed our inherent narcissism in the guise of “sharing”.

I’d like to share three tips on how to regain your bearings and sanity if you find yourself stuck in the trending rabbit hole of social media:

1. Look out your real window

There is no greater irony than that the software that runs the majority of our personal computers is called Windows.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of the names of software and apps that rule our digital world do the exact opposite?

From the early days of Netscape Navigator, Alta Vista, and Ask Jeeves (if you remember these you are officially old) to contemporary ones like Firefox, Safari, and Explorer, these have become signifiers to the opposite: They oftentimes lead us into silos of confirmation biases and narrow-mindedness because of the algorithms that track our habits and browsing histories.

Get off your computer or devices and take a look outside a real window for once – that’s the real world out there: The sound of your neighbours going about their daily lives, vehicles passing by, traffic, birds and whatnot.

Life goes on outside of this digital “noise” – real life, that is. We are terrestrial beings in a physical space and time that are limited by gravity.

There is a limit to what we can or cannot do. Live with it. Take a deep breath (unless you live right next to a busy road) – that’s the smell of your real life.

2. Talk to or greet someone in person

Just like looking out a real window, nothing is comparable to actually talking to someone physically in front of you.

As an educator, I find this supposed “natural” skill is increasingly diminishing in successive generations that grow up with digital devices and the internet as natural as their limbs.

University programmes have doubled up on “soft skills” subjects that are crowding out field-specific subjects in order to compensate for this lack that has again ironically been enabled by technologies that supposedly better our lives.

When we talk to someone face to face in the physical now, so many other elements inform the communication aside from verbal language. Our body language is part and parcel of the communication that may reveal more about what is being said than the spoken language.

There are so many conflicts among people – in my case, between students – that could have been resolved or even avoided if the communication was in person.

A lot gets lost in WhatsApp or Telegram text messages and meanings are hidden behind the plethora of emojis.

The most important realisation is that you are actually dealing with a fellow human being, not an opinion machine that you want to run down if they disagree with you. Through this simple act of talking to someone, you essentially reclaim your humanity.

Try it. Even a simple “thank you” or “how are you?” to the cashier at your next visit to your local 99 Speedmart will leave you feeling better.

3. Turn off your devices

This is the simplest solution but of course the hardest. All our digital devices are what I call “anxiety tools”. They keep us worried about the “what ifs” of daily lives that render us entangled in the wires of our fears.

And as you know it, fear makes us consume and that is good for the market.

Disrupt the market once in a while for your own health. You deserve to. – November 3, 2023.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.