Doomscrolling, Flight Diapers, & Zoom Face
Dateline – Christmas Day, 2020
As I write, I’m celebrating a ‘Home Alone’ holiday this year due to the pandemic. This morning after 6 a.m., just as I made coffee and logged onto my laptop, I turned on CNN, which is part of my routine during my safer-at-home, semi-lockdown, life.
A bomb exploded in an historic district in downtown Nashville. As the day unfolded, so did the investigation and developing story. An RV arrived overnight, parked, and in the morning, in what was described as a female voice, broadcast an announcement of an impending blast including a countdown. Earlier, witnesses heard shots being fired and called 911 which is why first responders arrived at the scene and heard the bomb warning. The area was evacuated and at 6:30 a.m., the RV exploded, injuring three people. It’s suspected the explosion was intentional, yet suspects or motive for the blast are unknown at this time.
Photo Credit: Mark Humphrey/AP
Meanwhile in Palm Beach, FL at the Trump International Golf Club, the president golfed for five hours after tweeting that he was working tirelessly for the American people. Before leaving Washington, Trump declined to sign the COVID-19 Relief Bill leaving the futures of millions of Americans in jeopardy with extended unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and eviction protection, ending this week. Plus, to make matters even more serious, if not signed by Monday, a government shutdown looms. The legislation was flown to him today, yet it’s unknown whether he’s looked at it, or will take any action.
As COVID-19 ravages the lives of Americans, infecting millions, and killing almost 350,000 people, approximately one million people travelled each day leading up to Christmas by air to their holiday destinations, possibly carrying the virus, infecting family and friends and/or returning with symptoms. While in the U.K., a newly-identified, more transmissible variant of the virus was spreading and is suspected to already be here.
There are six days left in 2020.
From the introduction of the first in the series of Random Topics:
“As a blogger, I mine my daily life for topics to write about. I set out to find something timely and meaningful, something that my readers can relate to, a universal message or lesson to discover in my lived experience. Another option is to choose a subject from the news of the day to comment on, however sometimes current events are tragically overwhelming.”
“I’m often left to choose from the mundane or subjects that pique my curiosity. When this happens, the only common theme is the randomness of my choices. Today, I offer three random topics with absolutely no connection or relation to each other at least that I’m aware of at the outset of this essay. Perhaps as I write, I may discover the subtle relationships that bind them together. Life is like that.”
A friend posted an article on Facebook which featured the following word and definition which reinforces the possible relationships in random topics. Apophenia is: “the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas)”
I’m cheating a little in this sixth installment of Random Topics. There is one theme that is common to the three topics, 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of the ways the public responded. I chose each of these developments because they were new to me and I wanted to learn more. Perhaps there’s more intersectionality to be revealed. As in Random Topics II, this installment could more precisely be titled, Almost Random Topics.
Doomscrolling
From the Merriam-Webster website:
“Doomscrolling and doomsurfing are new terms referring to the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing. Many people are finding themselves reading continuously bad news about COVID-19 without the ability to stop or step back.”
Full disclosure: I turn on CNN when I wake up in the morning, make my way to the kitchen to make coffee, then logon to my laptop. I check out posts on Facebook, and read my favorite news sites. My desk and laptop are positioned that the TV is behind me, yet over the past 10 months, I now can recognize the reporters and commentators by their voices.
Photo Credit: Charles Deluvio
If a story or social media post grabs my attention, I explore it further, doomscrolling, aka ‘bad-news browsing,’ to gather more information and confirm the facts. I follow the story thread throughout the day, checking for updates.
I have a tendency to exhibit some mild OCD behavior. When a habit gets established, it often becomes hardwired in my day-to-day routines. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has altered our lives, it’s revealed in the coping changes in my daily life.
One advantage of doomscrolling, since it’s become more pervasive, like other behaviors which don’t serve us, you can find articles on how to break the habit.
Some tips from an article, Change Meme, by Louise McGreagor:
Practical defensive measures
- Turn off notifications.
- Move the apps that you’re most addicted to off your phone, or at least off the home page of your phone. I moved Twitter off the home page some time ago when they changed their notification settings level to VERY ANNOYING.
- Leave your phone outside your bedroom, or at least out of reach when you go to sleep… added advantage you’ll need to get up when your alarm goes off and you’re more likely to start your day on time.
- Don’t read the comments.
- Mute or unfollow the accounts that are producing overwhelming news – whether that’s by the volume they publish or the scariness of the content. You can follow them again later.
Positive Distraction
- Do something to entertain yourself online that isn’t on a social platform.
- New Yorker’s cover art jigsaw puzzle
- Crosswords or sudoku
- Games apps like Wordfiends
- Start your own blog.
- Watch a movie, or listen to an audio book or podcast – but pick something from the before times that won’t send your mind spinning on lockdowns, protests and vote counting. If you need to keep your hands busy and away from your phone teach yourself to knit.
- Read a book, a real paper one.
Additional Reading on Doomscrolling
On ‘Doomsurfing’ and ‘Doomscrolling’
Flight Diapers
When I was doomscrolling recently, I read this article in USA Today on how Chinese flight attendants were instructed to wear diapers as part of their in-flight protective gear which also included, “medical masks, double-layer disposable medical gloves, goggles, disposable hats, disposable protective clothing, and disposable shoe covers.”
“The Civil Aviation Administration of China has issued some unusual advice for flight attendants looking for ways to avoid contracting coronavirus while working: It suggested they wear diapers to reduce their need to use airplane lavatories.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Stockphoto
Once I read this, being a visual person, I couldn’t un-see it, or not imagine being on an international flight. I even began to wonder whether I’d wear flight diapers. Once that question entered my mind, I knew I was in trouble and practiced some of the doomscrolling tips. Oh, My!
Additional Reading on Flight Diapers
Chinese agency advises flight crews to wear diapers
China flight attendants advised to wear diapers for COVID protection
Zoom Face
I don’t consider myself a vain person, though I care about how I look. First impressions are important and how we present ourselves may influence whether we possess credibility, speak with authority, and capture the attention of our audience. In personal relationships, it impacts on how attractive we appear.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic I’ve participated in more Zoom meetings than I ever imagined for work, webinars, conferences, and meetings with creative collaborators. I facilitate recovery 12-step meetings, and I’ve connected with friends who are not part of my quarantine ‘Pod Squad.’ I’ve also extended invitations to other friends and family, especially during the holidays. (No one has taken me up on the latter – things that make you say h-m-m-m-m!).
Now, as a person who is 70-years-old and never learned how to apply makeup without looking like I was in drag, I’m at a disadvantage with how I appear on Zoom. I didn’t spend as much time outdoors this spring, summer, and fall as I have in the past, so I’m pretty pale as a fair-skinned person. During the pandemic, I stopped highlighting my hair, including touch-ups to the gray in my temples.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
The lighting in my home and workplace, and the web camera on both my work and home laptops make me look washed out and almost ghostly, while others appear healthy and full of color. I notice the wrinkles in my face, and my missing molar tooth when I smile broadly. There are bags under my eyes, and I possess a double or triple chin. I tilt my head when I talk. Yes, I admit to being self-critical.
There are solutions to this dilemma. Invest in an upgraded web camera, additional lighting that professionals use, plus cosmetic procedures including, from the Forbes article below, “cosmetic injectables like wrinkle reducers and dermal fillers.” Yikes!
Needless to say, for anyone who knows me personally, I’m not spending money to enhance or alter my looks, other than a haircut every six weeks, a shower, and a change of clothes out of my sweats (unless they’re off-camera!).
Additional Reading on Zoom Face
Zoom Face: How to Look (and Feel) Your Best on Those Constant Video Calls
What Does It All Mean?
As I stated in the introduction of my Random Topics series:
“I’m often left to choose from the mundane or subjects that pique my curiosity. When this happens, the only common theme is the randomness of my choices. Today, I offer three random topics with absolutely no connection or relation to each other at least that I’m aware of at the outset of this essay. Perhaps as I write, I may discover the subtle relationships that bind them together. Life is like that.”
Now, full disclosure, when I began this essay, the three topics I explored did have one thread in common, they are all responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic, so in essence these are Almost Random Topics.
Doomscrolling, Flight Diapers, and Zoom Face
The three topics informed me, that as things change, we respond as resilient, adaptable people, sometimes anxiously as in doomscrolling, positively in our desire to protect ourselves with flight diapers, and sometimes with a degree of vanity. Even as the apocalypse approaches, we want to anticipate the worst-case scenario, minimize our vulnerability, and look good while we’re doing it. Yes, we’re perfectly flawed.
Stay positive, test negative.
Related Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!
Additional Reading on COVID-19