At their absolute best, these sites, at least for me, have been amazing treasure troves of content, or pretty basic and boring at times… or even worse, paranoia inducing and caustic to your mental health in large quantities. If I’m getting high, and I usually am when I’m spending my free time online, for fun no less, I tend to air carefully when looking at these sites. As with all indulgences, digital or otherwise, everything in moderation, right? While I don’t even visit some of these sites anymore, I wouldn’t necessarily judge anyone for using them. However, I find there to be much more valuable content than what is often produced here. Even for the apps and sites I am using on this list (looking at you, Instagram)!
Amazon is one of my favorite shopping websites. I have tons of friends addicted to the full-cart syndrome. We spend hours scrolling, adding needless items to the cart, that whether we purchase or not, it’s not great to be considering buying a ton of stuff we probably don’t need. I feel some type of way about Amazon, especially when I’m having a smoke sesh, or just sheer boredom. I usually have good intentions, but I’ll spend much time on there, and frequently not even check out. That doesn’t feel amazing, Amazon.
Ikea is so tempting, and cute, and seems so doable… but my experience with Ikea is that it is far more complicated to get high and design the perfect bedroom. Then you order some pieces that are on sale and are probably not necessarily prepared to put them together. It’s just a huge hassle. And I understand that for many of us, Ikea is a necessary evil. And perhaps the nicer, assembly-included, higher-end furniture and home goods stores are just as bad for the cost factor. However, all that cute stuff comes in one piece. Worth noting!
Instagram is known in the mental health community for being detrimental to our perception of self and the world, and a million other problems of censorship and controlled speech. Much of my work and world relies upon Instagram, but I think it’s important to check our dependency on it regularly.
Facebook basically same, except there’s so much more toxicity and long windedness here. Truthfully, I am smoking and scrolling on here and have tried to lessen my time using Facebook, because it just really kills my buzz.
Buzzfeed is another site that tickles my fancy less and less these days. Their silly nonsensical quizzes apparently all come from one guy, leading to their dip in quality, apparent to me, and epically long news exposés. I’m simply not trying to do either of those at the moment.
Erowid mostly scares me with its stories of paranoia and preparing-for-the-worst general attitude. I used to find it incredibly valuable, useful, and interesting resource as a curious drug user. However, my only true learning is that everyone’s biology and body is different, so you have to figure out how you will be affected for yourself… if the juice is worth the squeeze. For me, Erowid mostly confirms that a bad trip is always possible, and that is not the vibe I’m trying to cultivate for smoking a joint with light reading.
