The Cost of Existing Online

In 2026, ask any AI engine and it will tell you the same thing: you need to be active on social media to exist as a professional. Depending on your target group, you have to invest in Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Substack, and probably several at once.

What they don't tell you is that this comes at a cost. You sacrifice time. You sacrifice mental capacity, spent thinking about proper content. You sacrifice mental resilience, because you will receive bad feedback; no one is accepted or praised by everyone, and that's okay. And your decision fatigue and mental fatigue will increase.

So is it worth it? We used to interact in person, more and more. Now, yes, you are findable and reachable by people all over the world, but at what sacrifice? And where is the golden mean? There is a fine line between sacrificing too much, which becomes harmful, and too little, which has no effect. I don't really know the answer.

What I do know, and what I see all around me, is people sacrificing their time, their moments, their privacy. And in doing so, they compromise their mental and daily health to create content and be known.

It seems privacy is today's luxury. As is slowing down, not thinking, letting your brain rest from processing information all the time. We suffer from the very thing we try to protect our toddlers from when they watch TV: overstimulation. And this has a cost for our health.