The silent mandate to partake in online activities & how to resist

“Sometimes the best way to maintain your peace is to quietly remove yourself from the noise.” — Unknown.

I will be honest: As of late, I am just tired of being online and feeling the pressure to create more content. And I know I am not alone. By content, I mean, here, anything from commenting on posts to liking, to acknowledging that I have interacted with digital content and even sometimes to blogging. At this point, I must be genuinely moved before I use my fingers and time on any form of online engagement. And when moments of weakness hits and I do interact, I sometimes find myself going back to remove comments and likes because of a seering guilt of partaking in the noise and trying to “be the change.”

I have convinced myself, however, that blogging here on Medium is as good as it gets from this point onward, and it has become a kind of therapeutic gateway more than anything else because I write about the things people — my friends — are talking about, and the things that affect me.

Today, a bit wiser and older and as someone determined never to return to a corporate office environment, I am feeling pressured — perhaps both by society, my circle and perhaps by my own inner expectations — to start a YouTube channel or some other content broadcast activity. This pressure was…