flip it off and keep going

AKA Advice from a Southern Lady.  Once upon a time Facebook was the land of cat videos, but it has evolved into a more stressful forum.   My octogenarian mother recently joined Facebook.  I was concerned about her participation in the social media world since she isn’t confronted with harshness in her everyday life, and let’s face it, some posts are downright mean.  I helped her set up a profile, with appropriate security settings, showed her how to read and like posts, and turned her loose. 
 One of the first things she did was to send friend requests to all her grandchildren’s Facebook friends.  My daughter was inundated with text messages at work, “Who is this person?”  “Why is she sending me a friend request?”  My mom had discovered the “People you may know” feature and was trying to figure out how she knew them, and sent out a lot of friend requests. I think my mom has more Facebook friends than I do.  
Recently I asked mom if she was enjoying Facebook.  Mom replied, “When something comes up that doesn’t interest me, I just flip it off and keep going.”  The idea of mom making crude hand gestures to Facebook posts horrified me and my face must have shown my reaction because she said, “here let me show you” and picked up her iPad.  She opened Facebook and swiped past a post.  “See, I just flip it off and keep going.”   I chuckled at her terminology, but later started to think, “what if I adopted that attitude?”   
​There is plenty going on in the world to offend everybody.  What if we just flip it off and keep going?  Someone posted their perspective and we don’t agree?  Flip it off and keep going.  It is the same principle as the popular book series, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”.  Just swipe it off your feed, or your life, and keep going.  Some days it is easy to do, other times I fixate on a tiny detail that irritates me for hours (if you don’t like selfie posts, just flip it off, don’t post a mean manifesto for me to read).  This is some of the best advice I’ve ever received and it may take me a lifetime to master it.  Just flip it off and keep going.