No one asked, but I figured I'd give you guys an update on how things have been going, what's been working, what hasn't been, as well as another change I'm going to make. I know it's been a week since I talked about my resolution, but a week is enough time to be able to gauge my initial thoughts.

So, not looking at people's stories, for the most part, has been helping me, but I keep looking at my newsfeed. It's rather unfortunate that I can't hide my newsfeed, because it is the first screen to pop up when I press the notifications button on the app, but whenever I go I see a book which upsets me and my entire hour, if not the whole day, is ruined. It sounds harsh, and it's no one's fault, but it happens and it's difficult to deal with.

Of course, I haven't cut off looking at everyone's stories because, if I'm feeling okay, I'll slide in to just vote and show my support to someone, especially if we talked about their story through text before they posted it, because it's exciting! Of course, they probably know that it's going to be hard for me to read, but I want to show my support any way I can, but I appreciate my friends knowing that if I don't look at their story, it's not their fault, it's just I don't feel like looking at it will be in my best interest.

Which brings up the issue of tagging. You see, I always tagged people in my dedications as a way to thank my friends, but after a friend of mine posted a different perspective in a story of hers, as well as me experiencing being tagged in various books already, I've come to realize that her perspective makes a lot of sense and I think I've inadvertently harmed others, which I didn't mean to do, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it probably happened.

I was recently tagged in a story made by a friend of mine and it upset me so much. It's not so much the content of the story, so much as its existence, and that makes me sound like such a terrible person, and maybe I am, but I looked at that story and I really wished I wasn't made aware of it, but I saw it in my newsfeed, then in my notifications, and it was just upsetting me so much. I saw it in my newsfeed today, which is why I'm making this update, because I've decided right now that I'm not doing dedications anymore.

I sound like a bandwagoner, and maybe I am, but I see myself as someone who was just made aware of an issue that I wasn't previously wholly aware of. But seriously, I was tagged, so I felt an obligation to look at it, and that was primarily because that person is my friend, so of course, if I don't vote, I'm a terrible friend, because even though they know I'm taking a step back, they tagged me, so they want me to see it. So I have to, right?

No. No, I don't, but that's what my brain said, and it sent me into a spiral for two days now. So in the hopes of not hurting people the way that this has hurt me, I'm not gonna be tagging my friends. I also don't want people to think there's like this exclusive club they can't get into, or to some of my friends that I don't tag that they're not as close to me as the people tagged are, and it's just an entire thing I never thought about until now, but I really do believe is hurtful when explained why. Because dedications aren't an exclusive club, but people can perceive it that way, and better that there's nothing to perceive poorly in the first place, you know?

So while it'll be a different change, I did start out without dedications, so we can go back to nothing anymore. But, I mean, if a friend of mine really helped me step-by-step with planning out the story, I'll give them credit for it because they aided me, and I'll still be crediting starfragment for my layouts, but I won't be just making a long list of people because I don't want people to feel left out, and I don't want those people to feel as though they have to read the book.

So new stories will just be announced through the announcements. Speaking of which, I don't read those anymore, and life is so much better because of it. Well, not really, because I do miss the announcements of my friends and people asking important questions that I could have answers to, but I avoid the annoying announcements that do nothing but upset me, so I would say that avoiding the announcements is a huge success.

As for taking a step back from the social aspect, there are people (not the people I already normally spoke to and count as friends, I mean random strangers) starting to comment stuff and PM me stuff when I just said to please leave me alone, and it's confusing. It's like I said I was fragile and you all thought it was a perfect time to start shaking me, I mean really. But whatever, I guess.

But that's how I'm doing so far. I've been trying to steer clear of things that will upset me, and I've been successful in most aspects, and I'm planning on adjusting some more in order to be more successful from now on.