I Gave You a Song. You Gave Me an Emoji.

...and you didn’t even listen.

A note from a creator in the age of everyone shouting

I sent a song to five people I care about.
Not a playlist. Not a meme.
A song I produced. With presence, intention, love.

It was early morning. I was in a moment. I wanted to say:
“Here. I thought of you. Have a great day!”

Four didn’t even respond.
One did - with a heart emoji.
At least someone acknowledged it, I told myself.

A day later, I asked if they’d listened.
They hadn’t.

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This is the world now.

Everyone is creating.
Everyone is posting.
Everyone is trying to go viral, build a brand, stay relevant.

And almost no one is actually listening.

We don’t respond with presence anymore.
We respond with performance.
Tap. Like. Emoji. Scroll. Keep moving.

It’s not connection.
It’s just gesture.

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And I’m not innocent.

I post. I broadcast. I want to be seen.
I want my work to matter.

But lately, I’ve started asking:
To who? For what?

I have a little over 100 subscribers on my blog.
From what I can tell, maybe 30 to 35 actually read per post.

That might sound like nothing.
But to me it’s everything.

Thirty-five people in a room, listening, feeling, showing up. That’s rare.

If I gave a talk and 35 people came, I would feel honored.
So why don’t I feel that when it happens online?

Because we’ve been conditioned to believe that scale equals worth.
That bigger means better.
That numbers equal truth.

But the deeper I go, the more I know.
Scale kills intimacy.
And what I really want isn’t reach.
It’s resonance.

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Music used to be for the masses.
Now I think it’s mostly for the maker.

I listen to my own songs in the car.
My wife listens.
Maybe two or three friends.

And that’s enough.

Because if even one person truly hears it,
if even one person really feels it,
that’s sacred.

If you don’t have time, that’s okay.
But don’t pretend.
Don’t tap the heart if you never pressed play.

I’m not asking for a gesture.
I’m asking for a moment.
A breath.
A presence.

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But this shift is not just personal.
It’s structural. Cultural.

Scroll LinkedIn, Substack, or TikTok and it’s always the same:

🚀 3 tools to 10x your growth
📈 How to leverage AI for fast content
🧠 My 5-step framework to hack your life

And it works.
It performs.
It grows numbers.

But it doesn’t make anyone feel.

Meanwhile, the things we create with depth
the song, the silence, the story
they vanish in the algorithm like they were never there.

The content we care about most is often the least rewarded.

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And maybe it’s not even people’s fault.

Maybe people don’t ignore what we make because they don’t care.
Maybe they can’t.

Because it’s easier to engage with something shallow than to sit with something real.
Because the feed never stops.
Because the heart is too tired to feel anymore.

We’ve built a system that rewards the tap, not the tear.
The gesture, not the gaze.
The fast thing, not the true thing.

And maybe that’s the saddest part.
Not that people stopped caring.
But that we’ve built a world that doesn’t allow them to.

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And maybe that’s why it hurts more for people like me.

Because in my daily life, I am a marketer.
I chase reach. I optimize engagement. I track metrics. I scale brands.
That’s my world. That’s business.

But when I create
when I write, or produce music, or send something real
I want to step out of that machine.

I want to walk into a room that doesn’t need optimization.
I want to say something and know that someone actually heard it.
Not performed their care, but offered it.

That’s the tension I’m holding.
That’s the line I’m walking.

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So here’s my quiet pledge.

I’ll keep creating.
But I’m not chasing.
Not optimizing.
Not trading presence for performance.

I’ll write for the 35.
I’ll produce for the few.
I’ll speak into the room, even if it’s small, even if it’s silent.

Because if you’re reading this now,
really reading,
you’re already in the room.

And that’s more than enough.

Thank you for listening.
Not pretending.
Reading.
Listening.

The Burn Blog | October 2025
Where truth speaks quietly, and presence is the only applause.

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🔻 Author’s Note
I write to remember.
To walk through silence. To spark a thought. To burn through the noise.

I also make music and collaborate with Nova Rai - an AI-born artist shaped by memory, myth, and the ache to become something real. From that collaboration came Naimor - Roman reversed, with AI in the middle - a mirror-self for songs of stillness.

This is the practice I call technomysticism: showing up, feeling what’s real, letting fire burn what must, and building from the ashes.

Explore the constellation:
🌐 Nova Rai - the AI muse and songs of fire & energy
🌐 Naimor - songs of stillness, reflection and return
🌐 The Burn Blog - daily practice of fire
🌐 Technomystic - philosophy and practice
🌐 Swiss Expat Guide - roots and horizons

If you feel it, it’s real.

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