Hi, it's me again.
A thank you to techno sapiens, new and old
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It’s an unusual Friday post for us here at Techno Sapiens, and that’s because it’s been an unusual week.
In the past few days, over 1,500 new techno sapiens have joined us. And we are so happy you’re here.
On Monday, an interview I did with Emily Oster was published. The response was—to put it mildly—unexpected. My phone buzzed constantly. Every few seconds, I got some kind of notification. There were emails about new subscribers. Texts from friends. Messages from strangers and acquaintances. I suddenly found myself tagged in Instagram stories, mentioned in Tweets, liked, re-tweeted, shared, commented on. Is this what it’s like to be an influencer? I asked my husband, as I—for the first time ever—shared my own Instagram post to my story. (Note: a good indication that this is not what it’s like to be an influencer is that you don’t entirely know how to share your own Instagram post to your story).
I spent most of the day in a flurry of excited email and social media refreshing. I was, and am, so happy. I love writing Techno Sapiens. To have the chance to share something I love, and to hear that so many of you enjoy it, is indescribable.
And yet, as the tags and mentions and likes and followers and shares trickled in, I felt a growing sense of anxiety. I felt exposed, vulnerable, worried what people would think, concerned about meeting their expectations. Mixed with all the happiness, I couldn’t shake a sense of apprehension. This feeling, of happ-rehension, let’s call it, lingered with each app refresh, with each notification. It’s a familiar feeling, I think, when we use social media—joy and excitement, ever-so-slightly tinged with fear about the public audience you’re sharing it with.
We spend a lot of time here at Techno Sapiens talking about the contradictions inherent in technology. The good and the bad. The excitement and the fear. The joy and the anxiety. This week has been a good reminder that both can, and do, exist. Often at the same time.
The Internet is an incredible place. A place where a person can joyfully pursue her interests and, somehow, find a group of other humans who are passionate about them, too. It’s also a place where a person can find herself caught in an anxious quest for validation and approval, of dizzying self-promotion and public scrutiny. Where, if we’re not careful, happiness can creep slowly into happ-rehension.
So, here's to embracing the joy, and to doing our very best to leave the other stuff behind.
I’m so grateful that this crazy, digital world has brought us together, and I cannot wait to keep sharing Techno Sapiens with all of you.
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To techno sapiens, new and old
Thanks for being here. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming, as always, on Monday morning.