How to deal with & digest external inputs these days?

I don't allow them or restrict the times

In the times we live in, the tools we have, the technology we can access, the sheer abundance of external inputs might seem overwhelming at times. At least that is the case for me. Today I feel like sharing with you why I avoid certain type of media, at certain times and what it does to me if I dont stick to these boundaries. Simply put, it is about digestion.

I dont think I have really truly shared that part of me with many people, I dont talk about it cos its irrelevant for me, but I also know that many people watch & listen a lot, Netflix-&-chill is something society accepts as an activity. There is nothing bad with that of course, if it works for people. I just noticed that when I recently shared with someone that I don’t do N-&-C, a tiny thought came up: Uh, I hope that does not sound weird. And it didn’t, it was received beyond perfect.

When I was younger, I read a looooott of books, most of the time it was adventure books, sometimes scary books, groups of friends solving riddles & crimes. Watching TV was restricted at home, to those programs my parents deemed appropriate for our age. One of the series I loved watching was “The little house on the prairie” & movies like “Heidi” or other child-friendly programs or cartoons. I remember that one evening we were left alone for a couple of hours & we turned on the TV. The program only showed Bat Man, Darkwin Duck & some other rather dark cartoons, or let’s say they were playing in the darkness & I did not like that at all, especially being alone with my sister.

The older I got, the more crime-solving books & thrillers were added to my repertoire. I also used to watch movies or series, popular ones and from all kinds of genres, so here & there the murder or horror movie dropped in. I was always scared, it was very easy for me to get startled & scared immediately, be it from a sound, a scene or a joke coming from the company I watched it with. I watched zombie movies, GoT, the series Dexter & even ridiculous but brutal movies like Scream.

The thing is, that I did not particularly enjoy those movies, it was mainly to try out & see how I react & to watch it together with friends was less scary. When it came to books, I loved the criminal riddles that were solved & the morals of the stories where bad people got caught for their crimes.

With time and growing up, all this changed dramatically, I got way more sensitive. Now being in my mid-thirties, you will never find me watching or reading anything brutal, with psychological terror, people killing each other, being psychopathic or any of that sort. I will block it out on purpose, even if I just hear music that indicates something terrible to happen, I will refrain from watching and listening to it.

You might wonder why… it is because it deeply disturbs me. To my core. I feel the pain, the brutality & all the emotions associated with cruel acts, physically inside my body. It is basically unbearable for me…