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~nargran

Thanks!

As I say in my reply to ~tskaalgard I'm unsure of the reason, but it is probably related to feeling pressured, as you mention. It's also likely related to some embarrassing, kind of pathetic situations I put myself into as a late teenager online.

Is there anything that helps you manage that feeling of pressure when there's more engagement than you expected? I'm thinking some kind of "reality check", as thinking about it now I realize that those feelings are (in my case) disproportionate to what's actually going on when they arise.

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~tlf wrote (thread):

"Is there anything that helps you manage that feeling of pressure when there's more engagement than you expected?"

It's something I still work with. What helped me was learning about that research that we could only handle a maximum of 140 "friends" on social media. That taught me to acknowledge and respect my own limitations, whatever they might be.

My main rule is that "offline life comes before than online life". Virtual is infinite, but we are very, very limited beings. So I'll abandon online activity if something is happening here that needs attention. That includes feeling pressured - it's time to close the laptop then or switch to non-interactive stuff.

When there is more engagement than I'm comfortable with, I update the main post instead of replying individually. I've also told myself that short responses are enough. So just saying, "really helpful, thank you", is fine even in response to a long blub (you can try it here :D ).

Some of us suffer from a mantra of "not enough" (I haven't done enough, said enough, responded enough ...). Worth addressing that if it's the root cause.