Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

We’re all sick of political chaos in the UK – no wonder tweets about cups of tea keep going viral

It’s the unknown we can’t deal with – and we’ve been in Brexit limbo for many years now. We all deserve a break from that, and social media seems to be our attempt at mindfulness

Lucy Nichol
Sunday 07 July 2019 15:57 BST
Comments
Good Morning Britain hosts discuss the best way to make a cup of tea

You spend a solid 30 minutes trying to craft the most perfect tweet – a clever comment on society to get people thinking, or a political challenge to influence behaviour – only for a mindless tweet about how you take your tea to overshadow literally everything else on your timeline.

But perhaps this, in itself, is a comment on society today?

Yesterday, I got up about 7am, emptied a half-drunk bottle of Pepsi down the sink from the night before (my husband has poor taste) and cracked open a refreshing can of Diet Coke from the fridge (I have exemplary taste).

It might have been 7am, but this, sadly, is a routine for me. A Diet Coke and a cup of tea in the morning (NB I also own a NutriBullet that I fill with middle-class fruits and protein-rich hemp powder on a daily basis, so get back in your box).

As I emptied the Pepsi down the sink and its aroma filled my newly awakened nostrils I pondered what the much-loved sugary beverage (cola – to be inclusive to all) actually tastes like. If I had to describe it, without using the word cola, could I?

Given that I am as addicted to my iPhone as I am to Diet Coke, I tweeted my ponderings to the web. Within minutes I learnt that comedy writer Jim Felton enjoyed his cola with milk (I know!) and that the entire community of Twitter were also as curious as me about putting the taste of cola into words – without using the word cola.

It became a Twitter moment. My comments about Boris Johnson being an a***hole paled in comparison.

In 2010, the comedian David O’Doherty sang about his “beefs” and one of said beefs were mundane social media status updates that tended to go something like this: “about to make an omelette”.

“Nooooooo” cried O’Doherty, “alert Nasa”.

But this was 2010. We thought dull musings about everyday activities were bad. We had no idea what was yet to come...

Trump. Brexit. Theresa May becoming a “dancing queen”. The very real risk of Boris the Buffoon becoming the next PM. You do not want to hear this do you? You don’t want more of this nonsense infiltrating your already anxious brain. It’s Sunday. You want to chill out.

So what do you do? As they say in Shaun of the Dead when the zombies are about to attack “let’s all sit down and have a nice cup of tea”.

We need to switch off from the s**tstorm, and, for us Brits, the best way of doing that is with our own form of mindfulness – a group exploration of the tastes and textures of our favourite food and drink on social media. As I’ve found out from Twitter, this mainly includes cups of tea, chocolate and cola (don’t call me a tw*t for saying “cola”, remember, I’m being inclusive).

Independent Minds Events: get involved in the news agenda

In November 2018, thanks to Sarah Millican jumping in on the conversation, many of us briefly neglected the day’s news and politics to discuss the best crafty things we could do with Gü pudding ramekins. A tweet about my husband putting my Double Decker in the fridge sparked a divide almost as big as the Brexit divide on my timeline and ended up on BBC Radio Newcastle. And the tweet that inspired change in me – although, admittedly, I was initially immensely sceptical – was one by writer Rachel Hawkins, who suggested I put the milk in my tea before the water (sorry for doubting you, Rachel).

We are told time and again that we need to stop spending so much time in the unknown if we want to improve our mental wellbeing. We need to stop the constant worrying about what will happen next. Imagining the worst does not make it go away (sure, we’ve learnt that we need to be more pessimistic – I really did not see Brexit and Trump coming in 2016. But it doesn’t mean I should spend all my time daydreaming about these horrific nightmares.)

I turned on The Andrew Marr Show this morning and he opened by saying “nobody knows anything” about what’s going to happen in politics. This is the problem with anxiety. I was a wreck when I didn’t know what was going on in my lungs aged 17 and coughing up luminous bleugh. When I was told it was pneumonia and pleurisy, I went to Spiders nightclub content in the knowledge that I had the correct antibiotics to deal with the problem. It’s the unknown we can’t deal with – and we’ve been in Brexit limbo for many years now. Therefore, we must practice our mindfulness.

So I wonder, David O’Doherty, if your beefs might have changed since 2010? I wonder if you can now see a justification in us all discussing how to make an omelette on social media? We’re just trying to make the world a nicer place – if only very briefly.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in