This is a reiteration and elaboration of Jia Tolentino’s Second Problem of the Social Internet—that it “encourages us to overvalue our opinions.” Related to this is Oliver Burkeman’s notion that even truly important things have to be ignored by most of us most of the time, as a consequence of human finitude.
I felt the need to write about this again because I still often get that urge to write online about my stance on current affairs, primarily of the political variety, despite already professing profound agreement with Tolentino’s conclusion, that perhaps all that we can do is to “act on a model of actual selfhood, one that embraces… insignificance,” and “to be deeply skeptical of our own unbearable opinions.” Tolentino also emphasizes that inconsistency is part of humanity and selfhood, and my stubbornness about this matter is a reminder of that, and of human finitude.
The challenge, I think, is that I have internalized too deeply that notion, promoted by the design or at least by the emergent culture of the social internet, that my opinions are somehow unique or valuable and therefore must be shared (or shoved) into online social spaces. It is something I have to get out of my system, or get better at suppressing or sidestepping.
There are people who, by virtue of their place in society in terms of authority or duty, do have some degree of obligation to form and share their opinions on a specific range of current events. The problem is that, in the era of the social internet, this has supersized into an unhealthy imperative for everyone who possesses even only a moderately sized audience. (I am thinking of influencers and momentary celebrities.) Silence on issues becomes a flaw of character, a matter of injustice and a cause for cancellation or, at the least, disappointment.
It is simply absurd that I, who I think at one point many years ago had at least the tiniest of audiences in a most remote corner of the internet, and now has basically none outside of my circle of real-life friends and family, entertained this illusion of importance with regards to my thoughts and words.
There is a particular development in Philippine politics yesterday that triggered me to write this reflection. It is related to an issue that feels truly important to the life of the nation, but I have to remind myself that I hold negligible influence over this matter. I have to take comfort in the hope that the issues will still be resolved in due time in favor of justice. And I think it is a sign of progress for myself that, in the meantime, I have been able to limit the time I spent surfing the internet for reactions and opinions and analyses on this issue, and to refrain from adding on to this deluge of discourse.