The Quieting of the Quiet Ones
The echo chambers have become deafening
I miss you. No, not you. The quiet ones behind you. You didn’t hear them? I didn’t either. But I‘d like to. I miss their voices. I’m tired of only hearing the same loud voices.
I have been stuck in an echo chamber writing a book for the past year or so. I have not been in an office work environment in quite a while. I only regularly hear the sounds of my family, my cats, my Keurig machine making coffee, a train passing by, or the excessively loud voices on the internet. The world online has become eerily filtered to the point of being silent. It’s filled with loud folks who can’t keep themselves from posting. Yep, that’s me.
There seem to be no safe spaces anymore. Folks who were naturally less inclined to speak in person before, seem to have become very quiet online now. Without their voices, the internet is just so much noise.
I feel like we made progress during the pandemic, and now it is lost again.
I don’t know that we can fix what is broken online any time soon, if ever. I think all we can do is make sure the quiet ones have a chance to be heard in the safe spaces we can foster when we are with them. Their voices are so very important. Their ideas can make the world a better place. We need to hear them. Give them space and encourage them. Listen to them.
If you’re a quiet one, longing to be heard, I would love to hear from you in a comment, but only if you feel comfortable. Share a link to a blog you wrote, even if it’s from a while ago.
Clap three times if this post struck a chord with you. Clap twice if I’m just adding to the noise.
Be safe out there. Hug and talk to family and friends regularly.
I am the creator of and committer for the Eclipse Collections OSS project, which is managed at the Eclipse Foundation. Eclipse Collections is open for contributions. I am also the author of the book, Eclipse Collections Categorically: Level up your programming game.
