Beyond Anxious Consumption

Making the internet your friend

It’s funny how teenage sleepovers turn nice kids into genuine scoundrels. In middle and high school my friends and I had many such slumber parties. During the more innocent moments, we’d all sit on a big couch in a basement, debating which Snapchat story with an address on it was “moves.”

With everyone close together on their phones, someone would stick their screen in your face. On it would be a video someone posted. “Look at this clown,” they would say, “who do they think they are?” We would all laugh. Loser.

These moments of juvenile mockery were more than just teenage antics; they reflected a broader skepticism towards the emerging digital universe. However, many have since outgrown this mocking attitude as the internet’s potential continues to explode.

Independent media continues to rise. The creator economy is blossoming. And some of the same people who used to mock someone’s videos at a sleepover? They now want to do exactly that. They dream of building a brand and expressing themselves through a blog or a podcast, an art or fitness page. But it’s a dirty little secret they don’t dare confess. Their 14 year old self—who was too cool for that stuff—unconsciously holds them back.

A few people have reached out to me saying their “about to start doing (x)” online. None of them have started.¹ Which is fine. Maybe they decided they didn’t want to. But more likely, I suspect, is that when they go to start, they hear the derisive voices (and their own teenage voice) saying “look at this clown…”²

The psychological antidote for these people—perhaps you, reader—is that you don’t have to worry about what people think because people aren’t thinking about you. The sleepovers are long gone and the spotlight effect is at play. If you are now inspired to create, it doesn’t matter if you used to hate on people who make content. Who cares if you contradict your past self? Never changing your mind is an awful vice. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”³

During 2021, for example, it was not without a certain haughtiness that I would denounce posting on social media. I dismissed such behavior with great confidence, as I was convinced my path was to be an off the grid Poker player.⁴ I now wonder how I didn’t see the irony in being contemptuous of creators when I spent hours every day absorbing social media.

Don’t be like that.

You don’t want to passively scroll your life away while never expressing your own voice.

You want to consume very little social media and post often, not consume lots of social media and never post. The former maximizes opportunities and minimizes anxiety, while the latter maximizes anxiety and minimizes opportunities.⁵

Instead of getting used by the internet, you use the internet.

The nuance here is that the decision to not invite potential problems that go along with putting yourself out there online is an intelligent one in many respects. “You want to be rich and anonymous, not poor and famous.”⁶

However, to think that making content or doing anything on the internet is something only for “becoming famous,” for “influencers” and “content creators” is an enormous failure of imagination, and simply incorrect.⁷ If you explore different corners of the web you will see. There are countless communities of smart and interesting people you’ve never heard of before. There are niche educational channels and blogs providing and receiving insane value. Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 true fans idea is becoming increasingly real, making the internet an ever more viable “career path” over a long enough time horizon.⁸

Best of all by far, through creating, you give yourself a chance to attract amazing people. You become a magnet for intellectual soul mates you never would’ve known existed. Once in a while even your heroes take notice. I’ve looked at my phone some days and wondered if my eyes were deceiving me.

It is only possible if you put yourself out there.

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“Technology’s first law,” says entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan, is that “whatever can be done over the internet will be done over the internet.” I will leave the implications of that statement to your imagination. The invisible wizard network itself is still relatively new. The entire world is not even yet connected. For better or worse, nothing can stop its growth; internet users and activity will continue going exponential.

In other words, we are early!

How can this not light a fire in you? How can this not fill you with ideas? How can you not want to take advantage of something so insane, so powerful? To not play “the great online game” is, in Shakespeare language, to omit the tide in the affairs of men.

While the digital world offers unprecedented opportunities, it is, of course, not the only path to success. It is not for everyone, and that is ok.

But if you feel a creative spirit in your gut, an entrepreneurial vision in your brain, or both, what are you waiting for? Don’t ignore it. Set it free. Write the blog. Post the video. Launch the project. You don’t want to stay stuck as a snickering spectator, forever trapped in the small mind of a 14-year-old at a sleepover.

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1. Something I’ve realized, in myself and others, is that when you say you’re “about to start” doing something, it often means you’re not going to do it. Otherwise you would just do it. Instead of talking about doing it.

2. Think about how wrapped up you are with your own life. Realize everyone else is like that too. No one would be thinking what you do online. They would likely notice it for a quarter of a millisecond, then go right back to obsessing over their own lives.

3. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841

4. This was one of my rather extreme delusions.

5. Opportunities in the form of people enjoying your content, and in the form of more time to read books and build skills.

6. Naval Ravikant, Twitter, 2018

7. “Influencer” and “content creator” are both wretched terms. I propose that we kill them. Especially because in the future the internet will be even more ubiquitous in every way. These words won’t even make sense anymore.

8. How long of a time horizon? I don’t know. It depends. For me, no idea. I’m prepared for it to take a very long time. Which is why I’m grateful to be working a job where I will build relationships, gain skills, and earn steady income while I do my own stuff in my free time; while I write in the mornings and build my Spanish school at night and on the weekends.