Many people write newsletters and post on social media simply because they enjoy it. But for an increasing number of people still in the world of work, it feels less like a hobby and more like a necessity. We’ve been taught that we are our own professional brand—one that needs to be carefully curated and constantly promoted online.
Whether you’re posting for fun, for professional reasons, or a combination of both, there’s no doubt that creating newsletters and social media content takes up a significant amount of your time. What often goes unnoticed is that it also has an environmental cost.
Blogging and posting on social media do have a negative impact on the environment, even if that impact is largely hidden. Every post, photo, and video requires electricity to power our phones, Wi-Fi networks, and the massive data centres that store and deliver our content. Many of these facilities still rely on fossil fuels and consume millions of gallons of water for cooling.
At the same time, our explosion in content creation has led to an era of content overload. Most people have to be highly selective about what they consume, which means much of the content being produced isn’t read at all—or, if it is, it’s rarely read in depth. Many of us have become content scanners and increasingly rely on AI to process and summarize information for us.
Then there’s the so-called “Dead Internet Theory.” While it is generally regarded as a conspiracy theory, it captures a growing unease that much of today’s internet is increasingly populated by bots, algorithms, and AI-generated content rather than genuine human interaction. Whether or not you believe the theory, it’s worth reading about because it raises an uncomfortable question: if so much content is competing for attention—and so much of it is never meaningfully consumed—what’s the real return on investment of constantly creating more?
This is all to say that the buck has to stop somewhere when it comes to protecting the environment… so why not with us?
I’m not saying you have to stop posting content altogether. But maybe scale back a little. The environment will thank you, and who knows what you might be able to do with all that extra free time?
As for me, here’s my commitment to the cause: I’m going to “try” to cut back my newsletter to once a month—or perhaps even once every two months. I’m also going to be much more intentional about uploading images to social media, aiming for once a week, or maybe even just once every two weeks. It’s a small change, but if enough of us make small changes, they can add up.
The Middle Slice 