Are You Really 'Online'? 5 Signals Tell You're Losing True Connection

I used to think digital platforms were neutral tools—until I noticed how my own silence became content.

Every late-night scroll through TikTok or Reddit felt less like conversation and more like performance. My mother, a Jamaican teacher, once told me: ‘True luck isn’t in the win—it’s in who remembers you.’ She didn’t mean slots or bets. She meant being seen.

The algorithm doesn’t care if you’re tired. It only cares if your emotion is clickable. Your vulnerability becomes data points; your loneliness, a metric optimized for engagement.

I used to chase trends—’three consecutive wins,’ ‘hot streaks,’ ‘bonus rewards’—like a gambler chasing fortune at a temple fair. But what if the game was never yours to begin with?

Last week, I deleted my feed. Not because I lost—but because I remembered what it felt like to be real.

There’s no RNG that generates soul.

You don’t need more likes. You need one moment where someone paused—and saw you—not as a profile, but as a person.

What did your last silent hour look like? Was it lit by neon? Or just another empty screen?