A Space to Call My Own

I’ve been craving an outlet for my reflections on life and the world for a while now. It seems so counterintuitive to start a blog in the year of 2026 when people are outsourcing the most basic forms of communication to AI. People don’t read or write anymore, which feels like such a sad hit to the human experience. I care very much about expressing my thoughts and feelings sincerely to other human beings. No program can write my feelings for me, or better yet dictate if my ideas are important enough to be seen by other people. I’ve become so disenchanted by the technofacsist’s urge to replace humanity with machines that I simply quit playing their games entirely. 

After deleting all my social media profiles last year, I was finally able to reconnect to my urge to share. I had to give myself ample time to clear my aura of all the noise and chaos of these social sites and the conditioning that comes along with them - rules about engagement, posting schedules, creating for other people’s interests rather than my own internal creative urges. I had to remind myself of why I wanted to make anything or write anything at all. I’ve realized that despite feeling like my words might never be read in a space like a personal website, I would much rather be in control of what I say and how I say it. Freedom from the noise of the world, from censorship, the oppression of algorithms, and posting schedules all freed my urge to actually write on my own terms regardless of who might read it, or if they’ll even care. 

Too Much Noise 

I’ve often felt the fast pace of social media and the internet at large to be overwhelming. Too many voices all coming from different directions, biases, backgrounds, mixed with misinformation and questionable motives has felt like too much to take in. I’ve felt my mind being hijacked by all of these different perspectives, and it’s been incredibly freeing to remove those influences from my experience. I don’t wish to be influenced by what everyone else is saying and doing - I’ve often felt rebellious against trends for this reason. In situations with too much going on, I tend to withdrawal and say nothing. I feel paralyzed with anxiety at the intense pressure to join in while also knowing my voice would be lost in the chaos if I did. I find I’m more authentic to myself when I can turn off this noise and tune into my own thoughts and impressions. There’s something about being bored that can bring profound insight if you just allow yourself space to be. With the constant noise of the internet, it can be hard to find space for boredom, for the exhale. It’s easy to get caught up in the collective wave, and to forget to tune back into yourself.

Censored Speech 

One of the biggest issues I’ve had recently with platforms of all kinds has been the increasing censorship. I’ve caught myself in the recent past ruminating on how something would be rejected by an algorithm instead of the impact I wanted to make with my work. I’m interested in putting an emphasis back on what I truly want to say rather than working around a biased system meant to silence certain narratives in service of tech companies and their platforms. I want to be able to criticize CEOs and politicians. I want to use my words succinctly to make a point, to discuss taboo subjects like injustices, power dynamics, and abuse directly. I don’t want to be censored in any way. I want the full impact of my words to be felt by those who are willing to receive them. Unfortunately, I no longer think this can be achieved using platforms owned by companies like Meta and X (and whoever actually owns TikTok). 

Conditioned Expectations 

Something that has derailed my creative process many times is the conditioned message that on any given social platform, you must consistently produce and create to stay relevant. This is such an unrealistic expectation of artists and creators of any kind. Name one single artist in history who created the same high quality of work consistently throughout their entire life without breaks or shifts in interest…I’ll wait. This is just not how the creative process works. We need to exhale just as much as we need to inhale - what comes up must go down. This is the natural order of things, yet if you listen to the conditioning of the internet, consistency is the golden key to success. I’ve felt this expectation to be so exhausting and ridiculous, it’s actually made me shut down and create nothing. 

With a model that leaves very little space for growth or evolution, the creator ends up trapped in trying to repeat their past successes over and over in order to appease their followers and an algorithm. I’m striving to break away from this conditioning all together. I’m inconsistent in most things in life, and have no desire to repeat something again and again. I would much rather create space for my process to unfold naturally, led by my natural interests. In this way, I’m giving myself the freedom to honor my own pace and putting less emphasis on likeablity. By releasing the need for validation that social platforms can offer, I’m free to create when I’m genuinely moved to. 

Creating this blog feels like radical rebellion because it kind of is. I don’t know a single other person who is actively writing a blog, and I think we need thoughtful human impressions on our current times now more than ever. I know other people are feeling overwhelmed by the world just like I am, and I want to create a sense of solidarity in this experience. Things are tough, and they’re moving rapidly in some disturbing directions, but that doesn’t mean we must all comply. I like to think there will always be gaps in this techno-world where people can build something for themselves, kind of like flowers growing through the cracks of concrete. They can’t stop nature, even if they pave right over us. At the end of the day, maybe no one will read this, but I feel so profoundly connected to my human purpose just writing it down to get it out of my head and off of my chest. I feel free in this move to create a place for myself; A space to call my own.