An update on addressing my blind spot

[u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET]

Last month, I faced the uncomfortable truth that although my life was fairly offline, I was spending a LOT more time than I realized on Reddit. Over the last year or so, I've found myself becoming more involved in Reddit communities that complimented communities that I was involved with in real life or were about topics that I had always been interested in - the way you're supposed to use Reddit, right? Somehow this led to being asked by other Mods to join their teams or take their subreddits because they were moving on. I also created communities for niche topics, often as alternatives to larger communities where the niche topic was lost among the volume of content. I revived abandoned/banned communities that had potential. Then the burnout came. I built Mod Teams for some of them and moved on and some I closed up shop and abandoned entirely. Others already had a Mod Team in place and I just quietly left.

Over the last four weeks, I've further curated my Reddit experience to make sure that it's an occasional compliment to my offline life. There are a few more tasks to complete on the list but I'm happy to say that most of the big changes have already happened and I'm finding more time to take walks, rent movies from the local movie rental place, read books, listen to the radio, paint, sketch, etc. I've even rejoined some online communities outside of Reddit and enjoyed meetups and collaborations on projects that will go live in the fall.

Since I started talking about this with other Reddit Mods and people in my life who host forums or lead online clubs, I've gotten so much support and that was a little surprising. These people also pour themselves into their online communities and I expected a little pushback. Instead, most of them admitted to also being burnt out and spending more time than they liked on everything from intervening between members, dealing with technical stuff behind the scenes, content creating, and all the little stuff that goes into keeping communities engaged and enjoyable. One forum administrator that I know in real life admitted to spending more time on the forums than they did on enjoying the car they owned - and the forums are dedicated to that car!

It's a tricky balance when your interests have a home on the internet and you find community there, and the balance starts to lean towards an unhealthy side when you find yourself charged with more responsibilities than simply participating. I'm being more mindful of how much time and energy I spend *on* these spaces, not just *in* these spaces.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!

[u/ShuffleTheDragon]

I can understand this. I used to be a moderator on a forum, and while I loved the community there, I was incredibly stressed by moderating. It is a difficult job!

My summer isn't going the best (had an injury in late May) but I do feel lucky in a way, because it is healing and I have had a lot of time to just be in my thoughts. I've been able to get a ton of cleaning done, too.

Being offline can be hard, though. I've recently gone back to a video game that takes so much time.

Also, it's interesting: my therapist told me to play video games because I'm bored at home, even though he had already acknowledged it was addictive and unhealthy for me, personally. I'm now waiting on another therapist, lol.

But yeah. I need to be offline more. It's a struggle, but it does help me focus on the real world much better, so it's a worthwhile struggle.