This got me in the feels. I began sharing my art-making online and gained (a very modest number of) followers, and find navigating the dimension of parasocial relationships immensely weird at times. I tend to overshare too about my creative practice, and life overall (am currently being assessed for ADHD at 40 and realizing, yep, the oversharing would be consistent with that), and was told by an online-only friend that I present insecure and negative about my art.
I was quite wounded by it, processed it, am working through it (she ain't wrong in many ways), then spiralled out thinking, if only I didn't overshare so much! Anyhow, long story short, the illusion of social media ruthlessly sucks us into its dopamine vortex, and it can be easy to forget it's just that - a mostly false reality designed to keep us addicted. It feels so difficult to distance oneself from the online world in this day and age, but your post is a testament to the utter importance of it for preserving our mental well-being. Thank you for that.
Like everything you write, I feel this so much. Thank you for being one of the real ones - I aspire to be a writer like you.
LOVE LOVE LOVE you friend. Thank you for sharing this apt wisdom; needed to hear it. XO
This got me in the feels. I began sharing my art-making online and gained (a very modest number of) followers, and find navigating the dimension of parasocial relationships immensely weird at times. I tend to overshare too about my creative practice, and life overall (am currently being assessed for ADHD at 40 and realizing, yep, the oversharing would be consistent with that), and was told by an online-only friend that I present insecure and negative about my art.
I was quite wounded by it, processed it, am working through it (she ain't wrong in many ways), then spiralled out thinking, if only I didn't overshare so much! Anyhow, long story short, the illusion of social media ruthlessly sucks us into its dopamine vortex, and it can be easy to forget it's just that - a mostly false reality designed to keep us addicted. It feels so difficult to distance oneself from the online world in this day and age, but your post is a testament to the utter importance of it for preserving our mental well-being. Thank you for that.