It's Too Quiet

I check my YouTube subscriptions. It’s largely the same regular cadre of creators, themselves a small subset of those I actually follow. I verify my subscriptions list to see if somehow some channels have stopped existing, but the count remains at a steady 100 or so. I check out a few quiet channels I still love, and notice that those that have gone quiet have largely done so within the past two years.

I check my blogroll — something I check much less often — and find still many blogs that haven’t updated since the last time I checked. I peruse a few, and save for a few that are irregular posters, most of them kept up a certain cadence of monthly posts until two or three years ago.

Not 2020, as so many seem very insistent on believing, but 2022. I would be lying if I said I didn’t understand why so many people blame 2020, though. It’s hard to blame something if it feels uncontrollable, but I tell myself that everyone grieves differently.

While I wait for reality to dawn, I think back to those who’ve gone quiet, and remember that I shouldn’t add to the chorus of silence lest it be normalized for the wrong reasons.