ISSUES WITH THE SOUTH ASIAN SPACE WHY IT'S DIFFICULT TO FIND COMMUNITY Through social media, I've built an incredible community of people on the Internet and inperson friends. The conversations I've had with people from my audience are just as affirming to me as my content might be affirming to them, because it's letting me know that people are going through the same thing; I’m not alone in what I’m feeling. At the same time, the lack of nuance makes it so it's different having a conversation online, than if we're talking about things face to face. For example, I would talk about familial and generational trauma, difficulties I was having with my parents, the process of validating my emotional struggles, and things I realized I had to unpack from my childhood. While it’s important to note that I did grow up very privileged, and I am aware of that and unbelievably grateful, I have had negative experiences that have impacted me. I also have incredibly strong and beautiful relationships with my parents, family, and culture. I love it, appreciate it, and am proud of it. But sometimes, the cultural criticisms that I shared existing alongside the love I have for my culture didn’t sit well with people, and they made sure I knew it.
Talking about this kind of stuff on social media was equally as hard as it was validating, because of the influx of people who had really negative experiences. They would project that onto me. I remember them saying extreme things, like I needed to cut off my family. It's challenging to process hundreds of people telling you that your family is horrible or that I’m being pushed down a career path I didn’t actually choose, all based on a 30 second video they happened to come across on Tiktok. The people making these comments didn't actually know me, yet I couldn’t let go of the things they were saying. For every person who validated an experience, there was one who did the opposite. Having tens of thousands of people invalidating your experience and projecting their issues onto you can be overwhelming. Seeing so many of them giving input on deeply personal aspects of my life when they didn't have a complete picture of me or my story led me no longer posting that type of content on TikTok. This significantly impacted my whole journey, because you have to prepare for an influx of opinions from strangers if you want to start posting. It's hard enough authentically navigating an online presence without the complexities of culture and community coming into play. I believe that complexity, tied with certain cultural stigmas, and the diversity of experience throughout the community is why it might feel hard to find that true sense of “community”.
THE INDIAN STANDARD | 29
