The Internet & Freeing Us

Feb 25

The internet is an elaborate double-edged sword. Most days, I sit in awe of its tumultuous collection of culture. It captures everything from Black talk shows to travel to comedic childhood moments—encompassing a more nuanced reflection of life than any political system I’ve ever seen. There are nonverbal autistic musical geniuses, brilliant young Black artists just waiting to catch a break, and subversive interpersonal interactions that never make it onto the national stage.

On the other hand, it’s a stark reminder of how far those in power have drifted from the very things that connect everyday people—who, frankly, have more in common with this massive iceberg drifting for decades from the Antarctic Peninsula to South America than with a U.S. political system perpetually frozen in the past. Mothers don’t deserve to be torn away from daughters battling cancer. Trans folks don’t deserve to have to explain themselves constantly. And environmental justice advocates who actively resist and say what no one else will don’t deserve to get beaten. Angry is an understatement. Human suffering has reached new heights.

Some days, there’s more content to doom-scroll my way down than others. There’s the suspension of all Civil Rights police cases, the gutting of USAID, and Elon Musk’s son, who apparently doesn’t believe Trump should be President either…I’m constantly hearing different perspectives and realizing I have a minimal understanding of how global systems work. Most days, my head is spinning. Not only is it spinning, but it’s balancing fretfully on top of reporting to a boss, caring for the people I love, and trying to work through the trials and tribulations that come with being human.

That’s why I’m grateful to people on the internet like Jennifer Walter, who toss out lifelines for the utterly and completely overwhelmed. Jennifer, a Swiss sociologist, and mental health advocate, shared a post in January offering language and resources to help name and react to the flurry of executive orders we are witnessing in the monster of a year that is 2025. She says if you’re feeling overwhelmed and catastrophizing everyone and everything around you, you’re exactly where Trump wants you to be.

These tendencies are outlined in Naomi Klein’s “shock doctrine,” which describes a process that occurs when your system becomes overloaded by various stimuli (policies and national updates) that exploit your cognitive limits and minimize your capacity to resist effectively. This flood of information also makes it difficult for the media to keep pace, resulting in coverage that lacks meaningful depth and social issues subject to scattered public attention.

To resist these tendencies, Jennifer recommends honing in on 2-3 key issues that you can actively keep up with while identifying trusted sources that can synthesize political updates for you in a productive rather than overbearing way. So far, I’ve found this beast of a spreadsheet that tracks legal challenges to Trump’s latest administrative actions, but I’ve also found it hard to know which issues to concentrate my efforts on and what mediums are most impactful.

Identifying a handful of issues is tricky when everything is so interconnected. If you, like me, are juggling the complexities of this moment, I welcome you to share the strategies and practices that work best for you.

How are you prioritizing where to expend your energy in 2025? What types of organizing can different folks with different strengths engage in? Are you an artist, farmer, or non-profit manager – how do you resist in ways that work for you? What communities are you a part of, and how can you harness their power? What resources exist that provide in-depth coverage of topics that matter most to you? What’s giving you hope, increasing your joy, or making you love the people behind the internet?

Calling all my peoples, we do this till we free us.