I think that your thought is so interesting and it brings up questions on motive, boundaries, and balance. What is the motive behind sharing your thoughts? Is it for personal growth and collective service or to get more followers, popularity, wealth? Are you listening to your needs first and creating boundaries? What am I - the feeling one - ready to share? What will I keep private? And balance... am I running to share my emotions? Has it become addictive, uncontrollable? Am I being honest? All these things are important to evacuate in a world where everything there are often unhealthy motives, no boundaries, everything, including our emotions lack balance.
Thank you for this. Something for all of us here to think about so that we take care of ourselves first. If we fail to do this, we have little to offer anyone. Self-love and self-care first. Connection, support, and service second. xo
I love this so much, thank you. Creating in private is so fulfilling, in the way time lends the ability to form our thoughts more fully. Change them. Rearrange them. Set them free.
The day my innate urgency died is the day my voice was born. It allows my experience to be fully my own and I hope everyone gets to taste this form of liberation in their own time. I certainly don’t miss the age of “keeping up,” though this phase was fun in its own way and was crucial for coming to appreciate this next phase of expression.
First, let me tell you that I love your publication name - lovegood - soooo good. Thank you for connecting with me. It is why I am here and it is the thing that fills me the most. I am sharing this note with you. I just posted it this morning after a long thread/conversation with another beautiful Substacker about this topic of sharing vulnerable pieces of oneself. I also believe that when I feel ready to share, it will always feel right, and it will be received by whoever is ready to receive it. Love to you. xo ps, I usually do not 'promote' but I just started a new Q&A series, Bare HEARTS that you may be interested in. Here is the first edition - https://dannilevy.substack.com/p/ed-1-the-loving-fight?r=3g3t74
I've been feeling for a while that all this social media "vulnerability" was becoming performative. I am a social media manager and I've seen it more and more in marketing discourse. Be vulnerable, be messy, etc. Which is good when it's done with measure, but certainly not good when it goes to the other side. Showing your every breakdown and failure and learning arc publicly for content. There's also a lot of content on "anxiety" later, almost.as if it's trendy to say that we are. Not that it's wrong to say, again, but when it starts feeling performtive and trendy and artificial, even displaying pain becomes money. I've started to think that showing a bit of what we're comfortable with is okay, but some other things should probably be reserved for ourselves and our closest relationships.
this was such a thought-provoking read! i think that the rise of social media has turned us all into performers of some sort and as helpful as it is, it’s become an insidious urge to save face more often than not. we constantly compare ourselves to the carefully curated processes of others and at the end of the day we’re all “competing” in a non-existent race. you’ve truly given us something to reconsider, especially during a time where we seem to fill our days with inconsequential things that end up being more draining than useful. thank you for sharing!
Thanks for such a beautiful piece, I love receiving your daily writings in my inbox. I always think about a time before social media, when people wrote down their thoughts in diaries - never thinking in their heads if someone may like share or comment on this. Oh how times have changed. It's incredible that we can now share but there is also a small sense of distortion between what we really want to say and how we can clearly articulate this to appeal to our audience.
Thank you for articulating this! I have had some of these thoughts but you express it so beautifully and succinctly. Exploiting our emotions for likes and content makes them feel like soulless junk food. They’re easy to eat up but leave us feeling empty. Being constantly online, its easy to forget how to be with ourselves without an audience. Thanks for this piece, I felt in community reading it.
I personally feel like it's a dangerous space honestly. Sharing your most vulnerable thoughts, which one can do so without even fully processing themselves, to then be rewarded with likes/comments/engagement etc, creates this illusion of oversharing as being 'seen' which is such an intimate desire of each and every single human.
Every single thought or emotion does not need to be vocalized or shared. As humans we experience 60,000+ thoughts a day. fleeting impressions, sensations or mental images.
If we start creating space for many of these, we're done, lol.
Sadly I feel like social media is creating a weaker and weaker society by encouraging oversharing and intellectualizing every emotion.
This is such a cold and warm take for those people who are clearly monetizing their emotions, traumas, and vulnerability on social media without realizing how much it impacts both them and their audiences. Thank you for this work!
How is it that every single thing I read from you speaks to my soul? I want to say more, to express more how much this means a lot to me—how much it made me feel and understand this human process of vulnerability and being a wielder of words, too. Far too many quotable quotes. Thank you. Your insight, your heart, and your writing is a gift. 🩷
“if you can name it, you must be past it. if you can post about it, you must be okay. but language does not always mean resolution. sometimes it’s just the beginning of understanding.” ✨
100% some things are for consumption and other things just aren't and I think too many people forget about that when it comes to social media and can drift away from content that's intentional and purposeful if they aren't careful enough or mindful enough.
Thank you, this was a great read and really mirrors the ‘end game’ of my journey with self-expression online. I have come across multiple instances online as well where I am told “wow you wrote a paragraph in a comment section, maybe you should have written an essay yourself.” And it’s so odd to me how it is almost presumed that if I don’t have a body of public work attached to my name, that I’m somehow failing to create in the right way. I understand these are self defence mechanisms, and likely happen in response to the writer coming into a sudden awareness that their thoughts might not have been as fully formed as they believe them to be, but it still feels quite shameful and has had me questioning myself at times.
Whew. This reads like a mirror. The kind that doesn’t rush you, just holds you while you realize how much you’ve been narrating before you’ve even felt. I know this dance all too well… crafting captions mid-heartbreak, softening my ache into something digestible, then wondering why it still lingers. That line about emotional honesty not always being articulate? Yes. Sometimes the most honest thing I can do is sit in the silence, journal it messy, cry it out in the car, not post it. This reminded me that my healing doesn’t owe anyone a storyline. Thank you for putting language to the quiet grief of being “seen” but not truly felt. This was a balm.
I think that your thought is so interesting and it brings up questions on motive, boundaries, and balance. What is the motive behind sharing your thoughts? Is it for personal growth and collective service or to get more followers, popularity, wealth? Are you listening to your needs first and creating boundaries? What am I - the feeling one - ready to share? What will I keep private? And balance... am I running to share my emotions? Has it become addictive, uncontrollable? Am I being honest? All these things are important to evacuate in a world where everything there are often unhealthy motives, no boundaries, everything, including our emotions lack balance.
Thank you for this. Something for all of us here to think about so that we take care of ourselves first. If we fail to do this, we have little to offer anyone. Self-love and self-care first. Connection, support, and service second. xo
I love this so much, thank you. Creating in private is so fulfilling, in the way time lends the ability to form our thoughts more fully. Change them. Rearrange them. Set them free.
The day my innate urgency died is the day my voice was born. It allows my experience to be fully my own and I hope everyone gets to taste this form of liberation in their own time. I certainly don’t miss the age of “keeping up,” though this phase was fun in its own way and was crucial for coming to appreciate this next phase of expression.
First, let me tell you that I love your publication name - lovegood - soooo good. Thank you for connecting with me. It is why I am here and it is the thing that fills me the most. I am sharing this note with you. I just posted it this morning after a long thread/conversation with another beautiful Substacker about this topic of sharing vulnerable pieces of oneself. I also believe that when I feel ready to share, it will always feel right, and it will be received by whoever is ready to receive it. Love to you. xo ps, I usually do not 'promote' but I just started a new Q&A series, Bare HEARTS that you may be interested in. Here is the first edition - https://dannilevy.substack.com/p/ed-1-the-loving-fight?r=3g3t74
I've been feeling for a while that all this social media "vulnerability" was becoming performative. I am a social media manager and I've seen it more and more in marketing discourse. Be vulnerable, be messy, etc. Which is good when it's done with measure, but certainly not good when it goes to the other side. Showing your every breakdown and failure and learning arc publicly for content. There's also a lot of content on "anxiety" later, almost.as if it's trendy to say that we are. Not that it's wrong to say, again, but when it starts feeling performtive and trendy and artificial, even displaying pain becomes money. I've started to think that showing a bit of what we're comfortable with is okay, but some other things should probably be reserved for ourselves and our closest relationships.
this was such a thought-provoking read! i think that the rise of social media has turned us all into performers of some sort and as helpful as it is, it’s become an insidious urge to save face more often than not. we constantly compare ourselves to the carefully curated processes of others and at the end of the day we’re all “competing” in a non-existent race. you’ve truly given us something to reconsider, especially during a time where we seem to fill our days with inconsequential things that end up being more draining than useful. thank you for sharing!
lovely. the sacred inner life. not to be tromped on, or thrown to the wolves. (or even the nice people) :)
to be given, purposely, in its time. in your time.
Emotional capitalism in terms of emotional currency. Great write up! 👏
Thanks for such a beautiful piece, I love receiving your daily writings in my inbox. I always think about a time before social media, when people wrote down their thoughts in diaries - never thinking in their heads if someone may like share or comment on this. Oh how times have changed. It's incredible that we can now share but there is also a small sense of distortion between what we really want to say and how we can clearly articulate this to appeal to our audience.
Thank you for articulating this! I have had some of these thoughts but you express it so beautifully and succinctly. Exploiting our emotions for likes and content makes them feel like soulless junk food. They’re easy to eat up but leave us feeling empty. Being constantly online, its easy to forget how to be with ourselves without an audience. Thanks for this piece, I felt in community reading it.
This is a beautiful piece.
I personally feel like it's a dangerous space honestly. Sharing your most vulnerable thoughts, which one can do so without even fully processing themselves, to then be rewarded with likes/comments/engagement etc, creates this illusion of oversharing as being 'seen' which is such an intimate desire of each and every single human.
Every single thought or emotion does not need to be vocalized or shared. As humans we experience 60,000+ thoughts a day. fleeting impressions, sensations or mental images.
If we start creating space for many of these, we're done, lol.
Sadly I feel like social media is creating a weaker and weaker society by encouraging oversharing and intellectualizing every emotion.
This is such a cold and warm take for those people who are clearly monetizing their emotions, traumas, and vulnerability on social media without realizing how much it impacts both them and their audiences. Thank you for this work!
How is it that every single thing I read from you speaks to my soul? I want to say more, to express more how much this means a lot to me—how much it made me feel and understand this human process of vulnerability and being a wielder of words, too. Far too many quotable quotes. Thank you. Your insight, your heart, and your writing is a gift. 🩷
“if you can name it, you must be past it. if you can post about it, you must be okay. but language does not always mean resolution. sometimes it’s just the beginning of understanding.” ✨
100% some things are for consumption and other things just aren't and I think too many people forget about that when it comes to social media and can drift away from content that's intentional and purposeful if they aren't careful enough or mindful enough.
Thank you, this was a great read and really mirrors the ‘end game’ of my journey with self-expression online. I have come across multiple instances online as well where I am told “wow you wrote a paragraph in a comment section, maybe you should have written an essay yourself.” And it’s so odd to me how it is almost presumed that if I don’t have a body of public work attached to my name, that I’m somehow failing to create in the right way. I understand these are self defence mechanisms, and likely happen in response to the writer coming into a sudden awareness that their thoughts might not have been as fully formed as they believe them to be, but it still feels quite shameful and has had me questioning myself at times.
Whew. This reads like a mirror. The kind that doesn’t rush you, just holds you while you realize how much you’ve been narrating before you’ve even felt. I know this dance all too well… crafting captions mid-heartbreak, softening my ache into something digestible, then wondering why it still lingers. That line about emotional honesty not always being articulate? Yes. Sometimes the most honest thing I can do is sit in the silence, journal it messy, cry it out in the car, not post it. This reminded me that my healing doesn’t owe anyone a storyline. Thank you for putting language to the quiet grief of being “seen” but not truly felt. This was a balm.
Well said. 💜
Third world problems
lovely, your fluency is to look up for