Spotlight effect

The thing is, in our modern world, isolation has never been easier to maintain. With a few clicks, your food can be ordered and delivered, Amazon can send everything you need, and the online sphere can feel like a community replacement. Houses are built to be separated. Jobs are too far by foot for most. On and on, you can see a world built to isolate ourselves.

The problem is that your internal narrative can run rampant when gone unchecked without other people around. If you tell yourself a story without anyone to share it with, you can learn to believe anything.

The spotlight effect is this idea that one believes they are being noticed more than they really are. We are the center of attention, and the world revolves around us. It is an inaccurate assessment of how people view us. We can become paranoid and blow the story up, thinking what we are going through is unique, or become selfish in our thought patterns. (Me, me, me!)

This idea that everyone is watching us can be detrimental in a world that shames us for making mistakes. The thing is, even the most popular books are not by 99+% of the population. So are the biggest movies or the most viral Tic Toks. Despite all these channels, most people will never see our work. The mistake we can fix is doing our best, knowing that if we do make a mistake, we get the right to try again. And we can do this floating in a world that most people will never notice. We just need some people to notice.