When you are a content creator, you are often very open about personal things going on in your life because you have to be able to connect with your readers to grow your blog. Content creators put a lot online and sometimes people think they know you and will ask you questions that you are not comfortable answering because they think they are entitled to it. As a disabled content creator who blogs about personal health issues, I think it’s so important to have boundaries for yourself online because if you don’t people will use that to their advantage. It is so important to have boundaries for yourself online especially if you are disabled because you don’t have to share every detail about your life on the Internet and I don’t think you should because not everything that comes to your mind needs to be posted online. You never overshare because if you share too much people will think that there are no limits to the questions they can ask and will cross boundaries. How can you set boundaries online? In this post, I am going to talk about how I set boundaries for myself online.
Be very clear about the things you share- Disabled bloggers share a lot about their health online to help others but we don’t share everything and there are some challenges we don’t share because it’s too personal and we are comfortable writing about it. When you blog about health sometimes people will cross boundaries because they think they are entitled to know everything about your health which is why it’s so important to be very clear about things you share and things that are kept private. When you are a disabled content creator, sometimes people will ask you the same questions over and over again that you have answered in several posts which can be exhausting for people with limited energy. As a disabled creator, I don’t have a huge following and don’t get a lot of repeat questions but people who do sometimes will create a post answering some of the most common questions and pin it to the top of their blog and social media. I have an about me page pinned to the top of my blog that explains some of the health challenges I face so I don’t have to tell people what disability I have multiple times a day. It is so important to be very clear about things you share and the best way to do that is to have clear pages that explain what questions you are comfortable answering.
Ignore rude comments– People sometimes will be more rude online than they will ever be in real-life and there is nothing you can do to stop people from leaving inappropriate comments. You don’t have to answer every rude or ableist comment that people leave on your blog or social media and sometimes the best response is no response. I will not delete comments that disagree with my point of view because it is okay to disagree with me, but I will not engage with people who are disrespectful. I ignore rude comments and delete them because it’s the best thing I can do for my mental health. It is so important to respond to every comment because if people take the time to leave a nice comment they deserve some kind of engagement, but you don’t have to respond to people who feel entitled. When people leave ableist comments on my blog sometimes I will try to educate them because people sometimes mean well but most times it’s not worth the energy and I ignore it. It is okay to have boundaries for yourself and delete or ignore rude comments because you don’t have to respond to every question people ask.
Censor your content– On social media, you can go into your settings and mark certain words as spam and if people were to use them in the comment section their comment would be flagged and the only people who would see that comment is the author. If you were to use the word cure in the comment section of my Instagram your comment would be flagged because I have so many people spam my content claiming, they know the cure for my disability. It can be very exhausting and time-consuming to keep track of all these spammy comments because sometimes creators get dozens a day which is why it can be so helpful to flag certain words. Censoring your content and flagging certain words is a great way to set boundaries for yourself because it will hide most comments you don’t want published and you won’t have to watch your comment section like a hawk.
Politely tell people you aren’t comfortable answering that question- Sometimes people will ask you a very personal question with good intentions that you are not comfortable answering. Ignoring the comment entirely will be the easiest thing to do but sometimes if it feels like someone meant well, I will politely tell them that is something I am not comfortable sharing. Some people will get mad but sometimes people are nice and don’t realize that their question was crossing boundaries.
Block followers that don’t support your mental health- Content creators are always working to build their following but it’s not always about the numbers and sometimes you need to remove followers. If someone has a habit of leaving nasty comments on almost every blog post the best thing you can do for yourself is block them because they are probably not a real follower. You don’t need people in your community that make you feel like trash!
When you are a content creator, it is so important to have boundaries for yourself because it protects your mental health, and you never want to be known as that person who has no boundaries. You should never feel guilty for setting boundaries for yourself and not answering a question because there is nothing wrong with saying no, and it’s a form of self-care. It is healthy to have boundaries for yourself online because it protects your mental health and makes people have more respect for you. Boundaries are so important to have online because if you don’t have them people will take advantage of you, and it shouldn’t surprise you when people ask personal questions you don’t want to answer. Every content creator is different and will set different kinds of boundaries for themselves, but it’s so important to have them to avoid entitled comments. How do you set boundaries online? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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