Being Social Online and How Draining It Can Become

From chasing algorithms to finding a digital home: Why I'm stepping back from the social media grind and moving to Substack.

I have been on social media since 2006. Around that time, I received my first computer from my high school through some generous funding. This laptop was meant to help me live my best accessible life and hand in all of my school assignments. Because I didn’t use a traditional pen and paper, instead using Braille

the computer was meant to help me type all my work out and print it off with a simple printer.

Then, a friend of mine told me about a website called Facebook, and that is where it all began. Facebook was created in 2004, originally just for people at one specific university, before it opened up to the rest of the world for anyone 13 or older. My friend told me I could play fun little games on there like FarmVille, or take care of virtual aquarium fish. That is where my social media career started. I would post all my fun, random, introspective thoughts for my friends to see. And when I met the love of my life, I sent her a relationship request which, back in the day, apparently made it official. Looking back, that should have been our first clue that social networks were going to take over our lives.

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Around 2008, I signed up for a video-sharing website called YouTube. Their slogan was “YouTube: Broadcast Yourself.” And boy, did I ever broadcast my personality. I shared my thoughts, fun memories, and random little dances with my friends. I even shared videos of my buddy Ryan, whose ultimate goal in life was to become a famous pro wrestler. Although most of those videos have since been removed because I’m ashamed of my younger self I really had no filter back then, meaning I shared way too much I absolutely loved YouTube.

Around 2009 or 2010 I can’t quite remember, it was a long time ago I joined Instagram. It allowed you to share photos of your experiences, and back then, every photo had a Polaroid-like look to it. You remember Polaroid cameras, right? Instant development right in front of your eyes in two minutes or less.

Then, around 2016, I dabbled with Snapchat, but I never fully got behind it because my phone battery paid a dramatic price.

By 2020, I started my TikTok journey, where I have now amassed over 53,000 followers. On that platform, you can still see my free spirit of randomness, and I even post comedy clips of my stand-up performances.

But today, I am having one of those days where I question myself. Why do I do social media? Why do I continue pushing out clips of myself every single day?

The truth is… I do it because through the power of exposure, it pays some of the bills. It allows me to let my audience know where I am performing next. It allows me to keep pursuing the dream of sharing my random thoughts and ideas with anyone who is willing to listen.

But all of this can become quite exhausting over time. You put yourself into this loop where you feel like you have to share anything and everything on your mind just to match your comedy career, your motivational speaking, or even something as simple as trying out new food. It becomes overwhelming, and today, I am overwhelmed.

If I stop, I lose exposure. If I stop, somebody else takes my place.

Will I ever quit social media? Maybe, but I wouldn’t quit in the traditional sense where I’d never come back. If the day comes where I land a normal-paying job, I would definitely step back and not go out of my way to post as much as I do these days. I write this blog post to remind myself and others that we shouldn’t always feel pressured to post. It is okay to step back. It is okay to only post on Sundays.

I am currently going through a major change in my online life. I have finally decided that I no longer need a dedicated, expensive website to host all my things. I just need one dedicated place where I don’t have to pay massive fees, where I can just be myself, and where I can reach all my followers, fans, and friends.

Hence, why I am moving everything over to SubStack.

I am a little bit late to the party, but this is going to be my new online home. Unlike traditional social media, I won’t have to work myself to the bone trying to post something every single day, because only the people who genuinely love what I am doing will follow and subscribe here.

The one thing that Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and YouTube all have in common is algorithms. Everything is driven by algorithms, and it is exhausting. If you don’t play their game and constantly make eye-catching videos, you get left behind. Even managing my Blind Guy Comedy experience page on Facebook feels pointless some days, because Facebook expects me to pay actual money just to get my posts seen when I’m promoting upcoming comedy shows. That is no way to live.

At least here, in our new home, my audience knows exactly where I’m going to be, where I’m telling jokes, and what is on my mind.

Yes, social media is heavy, but there comes a time when you have to protect your time and effort, and put it into a platform that actually gets you.

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