Serious answer: I remind myself it’s normal to be shocked by some stuff people do/create. I check the content against my ethics, and try to decide if I’m being uptight or if it really is messed up. If it’s something that isn’t unethical/harmful but I just don’t like, then I remind myself that not everyone needs to share my tastes.

If it’s genuinely terrible I allow myself to feel the anger/sorrow for a bit, try not to let it become excessive, and congratulate myself on having limits that fit my ethics. I remind myself that good people exist and they are the ones I want to support, emulate, and engage with. As others have mentioned, distraction can also help. Video games, music, socializing - whatever will move your train of thought along.

Eyebleach:

Oh man I remember rotten.com

Nothing is shocking anymore

Gardening, Hiking, Watching nature’s beauty without humans.

This is a good question, though. Seeing horrible things on the internet can affect you. Anywhere from getting wigged out to full out trauma is possible.

Personally, if I come across something like that, it’s a good cue to take a quick break from screens. Go for a walk. Eat if you’re hungry. Drink if you’re thirsty. Spend quality time with your pets or plants if you have any. Pay attention to how you’re feeling and do what might be necessary to make you feel good and healthy. In that state, it’s easier to bring yourself back to the here and now. Look around you and appreciate your life. Seeing how real and raw those things are can give a person perspective, but if you overexpose yourself or ruminate on them, it can fuck you up a little bit. Even if you’re “desensitized.”

If you’re lucky enough where things like that aren’t a regular part of your life (as it is for most of us here), use it as a lesson in not just taking care of yourself, but also of others and society as a whole. There are fucked up people in the world, yes. Sometimes the bad guys win and terrible or disturbing things happen, yes. It’s best to maintain pride in knowing you’re not trying to contribute to that problem, in whatever little way you can.

And if you can’t seem to shake it, get some therapy. Not just for that one thing, but, it may be likely you’re slipping into rumination or worldviews that make it difficult to handle depression. Therapy is great, for real. Shop around and find a therapist you like.

Time. But even then, it will pop into your head to say hi every now and then.

I once saw a car accident on a freeway that involved burning bodies within the cab of the vehicle. Nothing I’ve seen online compares to that. Maybe I’ve just avoided the worst of the worst online, but nothing has been that graphic.

I saw my first truly horrible Internet thing two decades ago, and it hasn’t gone away. Sorry.

Keep thinking about it until it’s not weird anymore

I got exposed to CSAM on Twitter over a decade ago. I’m still haunted by it, and anyone who does that deserves the worst things.

See something else not awful on the internet to forget about that awful thing.

If genuinely disturbing, therapy can help.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eyebleach/

is there a lemmy equivalent?

I have never seen something awful, aside from.perhaps a Trump speech.

Bearing witness to human atrocity is a duty IMO. If thats what you mean?

Just don’t dwell on it. But you’ll probably think of it from time to time.

So it goes.