Effortless? Sounds fake idk

There’s this concept of effortlessness that gets thrown around as a quality to aspire to, like in that girl content that captures early mornings, clean foods, and a skincare routine. Exuding effortlessness online has value. It’s admirable, it’s currency.

I was thinking, though… when it comes to showing up on – and posting to – the internet, there’s not really an online presence thats truly actually effortless. You can’t ever make a post and call it effortless, because you had to choose to tap that “create new” button and you had to make a decision about what you were creating. Behind the scenes, there is always a cost involved: in time, in effort, in brainspace, in self-awareness. Real effortlessness – in the way that that girl wants you to believe – means they’d never make it onto on the internet.*

Participating on the internet is always an active act. Even just consuming content is active: you make an account, you choose your handle, you tune your FYP. That’s not a bad thing, though. Just call a spade a spade: effortlessness isn’t real (just like NFTs aren’t.)

* This does make me wonder, though – could like, a Truman Show capturing of someone’s life exuding effortlessness actually be considered effortless? I think it could, but at that point, there’d be bigger issues to unpack.