Judging by the New Year's resolutions I'm hearing so far this year, the internet was a real source of frustration for a lot of people in 2018.

Thanks to a constant stream of bad news resulting in outrage that takes up most of the day — remember the person who got angry at baby strollers on Japanese trains, or anything related to those Mario Karts, not to mention the reveal that Facebook knew everything about us and was selling it off to whatever service would pony up the cash? — going off the grid in 2019 might be the best decision we could make.

As immigrants and temporary residents in Japan, however, it's likely not practical that we can completely cut ourselves off from our online existences. Social media is our connection to our old homes, and to people like us in our new one. The better move, then, may be to adjust our digital diets. Going local can help, connecting us to a community with some like-minded concerns and solutions. There are a lot of online tools that can improve everyday life here, at least until the kids from the troll farms make a mess of them.