Drama is fishing with your attention as the worm. Don’t bite just because it’s wiggling.

Conflict is engineered to be interesting, because interest is the whole product. Something provocative arrives, the pull to respond is immediate, and the pull itself is the mechanism rather than a sign that anything important is happening. Noticing the design is most of the defense.

When something is clearly built to hook you, wait a full day before responding. Ask whether this involves you, whether it will matter next month, and whether responding does anything except feed it. Most of it fails all three, and the time you keep is real.