The Life Update Phenomenon
You may have noticed that there was no blog post this Monday; there was supposed to be one, about faith and the constant crisis of religion in a self-destructing world. I was in the midst of typing it when it occurred to me that I was intending on sharing a deeply personal experience of a deeply personal relationship with strangers on the internet and my mind was not arguing against it; I found my willingness to be so vulnerable on such a public stage odd, even more, I found the lack of protest in my internal monologue troubling. I was literally about to share details that I would otherwise never share with strangers and I saw no problem with it.
This got me thinking about what I call the 'Life Update' phenomenon; from the trend of YouTubers sharing details of their personal lives with their viewers, there is usually a lot of crying involved in (I assume) a bid to be relatable or some other marketing scheme. This is not limited to YouTube, there are also videos on Instagram of people who have filmed themselves crying in their car and post them for their followers to view. I always cringe when I see this because it feels delusional to me, to be sad or depressed or some other emotional or physical pain and to think to yourself "this would make great content". The commercialisation of personal pain is what it feels like.
Now I am not saying we should go back to the dark ages of struggling silently...but struggling with people who do not are is just as ineffective. Your readers, followers, viewers do not care. I mean they care on a human level of not wishing harm or pain on another person but not as people who know you and live life with you. My problem is the use of personal struggle as entertainment for others, whether the entertainer is a willing participant or not, it is self-exploitation in a world that is already exploiting you daily. And that is why I decided against publishing last week's post, I will not exploit myself, my pain or struggle for sake of entertaining you.
My point is the next time you write an essay on some or the other media platform before you hit 'post', question your motives. Are you lending a voice to an issue important to you? Are you lending support? Are you encouraging? Or are you sympathy phishing? Sending invites to your pity party. Don't be that girl, no one likes that girl. But if you are sympathy phishing, because it does happen even to the well-intentioned, find a friend, a family member, a confidant you trust and who has the strength to vent to and just go ham until you run out of words. Literally, go on and on and on and on and on until you have no words; even talk in circles - repeat yourself if needed.
Remember don't emotionally vomit on the internet.
that's cute xoxo
Oyama
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