The Quiet Struggle of Having an Online Presence
Having an online presence is getting harder and more competitive as time goes on. And honestly? I think about this a lot.
Growing Up Online
When I was younger, social media was really starting to boom. Facebook, Instagram, and everywhere in between with most people my age were posting every little thing in their lives. However, as we grew up into adulthood, we started learning about privacy. We realized that things float in the digital world long after we delete them. (Notice my reference? Digimon. Yes, the anime. It lives rent-free in my head.)
So we became more careful and more selective about what we share and what we keep to ourselves in the online community compared to in real life.
And then there's the family side of things. Some of us, not all, have situations at home that we would rather not air online. Not out of shame, but out of respect and less troublesome to not post anything. As the saying goes: if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.
All of this made me want to step back from posting altogether. At the same time, I still wanted to share something. Which is honestly a big part of why these two blogs exist. Wanting to have some sort of digital footprint, where hopefully someone might remind it of me.
The Push and Pull of Staying Connected
Here's the thing though: some level of online presence still matters to me. There are people I want to stay connected with, from old friends who have moved overseas, people I have not seen in years, but occasionally wonder about. How are they doing? What does their life look like now?
Social media fills that gap in a way nothing else quite does.
However, it also creates its own tension. We want to live in the moment, and yet we also want to document it - to relive it later, or bring it up during a catch-up over coffee. That push and pull between being present and capturing the moment is something I don't think ever fully resolves itself.
Screens, Exhaustion, and the Doom Scroll
I will be honest: I spend too much time glued to my devices. I know it. And I genuinely want to be more mindful about it going forward.
However, I also get it. After a long day of mental or physical work, the last thing most of us want is more effort. More decisions. More chores. Thus, we rest the only way that requires nothing from us - we scroll. It is not laziness. It is exhaustion and there's a difference.
Why I Still Show Up Online
In spite of all of this, I do want some sort of presence: a place to show off what I'm working on, whether it be writing, photography, or videography. My primary blog, Jenβs One Fine Day, is where I try to put the most effort, making it more of a professional and creative outlet for me as a digital journaling hobbyist (at the moment) and hopefully I can call myself a content writer in the future. Also, with this blog where I hope to continue writing miscellaneous topics as a digital journal for mostly myself to reflect and others to read on the side.
If you've read this far - genuinely, thank you. It means more than you would think.
One thing I've noticed lately, especially with YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels, is the fact that the algorithms seem to be changing all the time. Which is probably part of the reason why I have not post much on instagram and have been working so hard on my blogs lately β at least with this blog for example, I feel like I can somewhat control the design of the blog page and what topics to post about.
Anyway. That's the ramble for this month. π