Editor’s note (August 2021): When I originally wrote this post in 2014, I was frustrated. The internet was overwhelming and scary and living in New York at the time didn’t help my feeling of anonymity. But reading it again makes me laugh a bit—ah, the 20-something melodrama!
Not everything on the internet is bad, and I realize this post alone is adding to the collective voice that bothered me so much. Maybe the collective could do well to know my voice, and your voice, and the voices of others who are too afraid or cynical to contribute.
I’d like to think I stopped writing for a while because I had more important things to do. Because making money took precedence over having a voice. Because what I wanted to say was already said hundreds of times over. Because other voices were more important. Because mine didn’t matter.
Ah, there it is.
It’s easy to fall victim to the limits we build for ourselves. We make a wall of excuses perfectly tall enough to obstruct us from view. And eventually, the wall becomes a shelter protecting us from outside criticisms.
You may have heard this a thousand times before, but here I am telling you again from my unique perspective. So, pulling from one of the many isms the millennial generation has bestowed upon us, consider this a sign from the universe that you need to contribute to the conversation. Because if you don’t, somebody always will.
I’ll leave you with this. A few reasons to add your voice to the internet:
No one has lived your life
On average, writers collectively post 20,000 articles on Medium per day. That’s just on one website. People watch more than a billion hours on YouTube every single day. These numbers are staggering and can cause you to stop creating immediately and hide. I get it.
But wait!
Out of all of these billions of hours of video and blogs written and created, you’re the only one who can create from your perspective. Take this article from the BBC about colors. When staring at the same sunset, do we all see the same colors? Do we all know what “blue” looks like? Do we all know what “tomatoes” taste like? How do we know? We can all perceive the same object, event, situation so differently. The way you perceive the world is unique to you, and your perspective matters. Don’t let the internet try to homogenize your understanding of the world. Your understanding of blue is yours. Tell us about it!
Using your voice is a political act
In a TED Talk performed in 2018, Amanda Gorman discusses the importance of using your voice as a political act.
“The decision to create, the artistic choice to have a voice, the choice to be heard is the most political act of all.”
Using your voice is powerful. It builds connections between people. It brings your unique experience and history to the table. It is an act of confidence, a choice.
Gorman goes on to say:
“Whose shoulders do you stand on? What do you stand for?”
It’s easy and safe to rely on others to create for you and agree with their viewpoints. But it’s so much more powerful and honest to speak up, even if it feels like what you’re saying has already been said. I would rather know your perspective, your story, than rely on someone else to tell your story for you.
Every year, my friends and I would write our yearly “hashtag” that we promised to live by throughout the next 12 months. In 2018, our hashtag was #speakyourtruth. The origins behind the message escape me, but we held each other accountable that year to use our voices, say what we were thinking, and be truthful to ourselves. Activating our voices took practice, but we soon realized the power of speaking up to be heard and understood.
Adding to the internet is a creative act
My husband and I are two vastly different people. I am right-brain dominant and subscribe to the theory that everything can be solved using creativity and fluid thought. Schedules make me nervous and I could spend all day at a coffee shop with no agenda. My husband is a left-brained computer engineer who once planned a month-long European excursion covering 11 countries and a trip to Tomorrowland. He thinks I’m the creative one because I write and try to paint and need music on at all times.
As much as I would like to believe that I monopolize the creativity, his Github repo is out of control. He has committed more lines of code than I have probably written words, and he has a LEGO collection that would rival The Lourve (if The Lourve collected LEGO).
All this to say, being active in the collective space of the internet is not and should not be limited to the left-brain elite. Using your voice to exercise creativity helps you problem solve, think up novel solutions, and provide value to the world.
And with that, I present to you my voice from July 2, 2014, about the internet’s collective conversation.
From the archives. Resurfacing old pieces from when I was trying to find my voice in order to find it again. Originally published on July 2, 2014.
I’ve taken a break from contributing to the internet’s collective conversation because I’m tired. The web encourages the foot race to viral content. Internet fame. Is there anybody out there in the virtual void listening?
Okay, so the insatiable need to be heard is nothing new. Songs and books and television shows and movies reflect the call and response we’re all looking to achieve–if I just get a million people to listen to my song or read my book or watch my movie, I will be successful and obviously happy. Or something like that. Translate that million viewers or listeners into a million likes or a million followers for the internet crowd. The root need is the same. “Virality”, fame, the need to be heard. Like this…
You start small, form a niche group of virtual friends who like the same things: books, cooking, wine. You tell your internet friends about your day. And they listen. Soon that blog entry you wrote about the last great American novel attracts more friends. You start referring to your friends as “followers” like you’re the Second Coming. You have heated conversations via Twitter about [insert culturally relevant topic of the second here] and your fan base has now doubled. Your voice is starting to take shape.
You start making plans to bulk up your “brand” because you have now officially become a brand and your “followers” start calling you by your internet name. You wish you could change your internet name on your driver's license. You might.
So you finally get the million likes and the hundreds of thousands of followers. You paid a company to get them for you or you liked and retweeted every single thing you possibly could like and retweet. You’re officially successful. You have won the internet. Your voice is being heard. Now, you better have something to say, because you have a million upon another million waiting. You’ve drawn a million upon a million to your corner of the internet. They’re waiting for you to say something. Anything. Are you ready? Do you have anything worth saying?
“24 Things New Yorkers Like to Talk About.”
Yep. Way to go. You blew it.
You had one opportunity, your perfect point of entry into the conversation. And you wasted it on a list….
…And the internet spins madly on, waiting for the next fame monster to emerge from the garbage heap of unending content.
A collection of voices I’m listening to this week:
TikTok Users and Coders Flood Texas Abortion Site With Fake Tips - New York Times
The Girlboss Is Dead. Long Live the Girlboss. - The Cut
Are you giving your attention to the right things? - Rethink with Rachel
Kwame Christain on Negotiating Anything - Hello Monday Podcast
And that’s all I got.
Cheers,
Christine