Things which have helped a lot in improving my mental health:

  1. Muting groups on WhatsApp. As someone who did not even have WhatsApp till 2 years back, don’t think I am missing anything.

  2. Setting my country as Japan on Twitter. Have no clue what is happening in India. I was talking to my brother today and for the first time in months I discussed Republic TV and Arnab Goswami with anyone.

  3. Turning off notifications on all social media.

  4. Not reading news. Since I don’t use any social media (except LinkedIn and Twitter), I barely know what is happening anymore.

  5. Aggressively muting people on LinkedIn who discuss politics. There is no point in debating whether Modi has done a good/bad job vs other state leaders. I also mute people liberally on Twitter.

  6. Not reading covid19 updates. If I need stats on coronavirus I ask my girlfriend. I used to check coronavirus news every 5 mins in March.

  7. Not setting up analytics for this website. I am trying my level best to not worry about dopamine hits. If people find value on this, then they will come and read it. No point in me trying to optimize views.

I know I am living in a massive bubble. And I am also privileged that I can do all of the above. There is no guarantee that I can hide from news,  covid19,  and dopamine rushes forever. But I will try to follow this till I can.