I Think I’m Becoming a Normal Person

Or maybe the world has just become strange enough that we all sound slightly unhinged now.

Last night I was halfway up the stairs to put my son to bed, while passionately ranting to my husband about billionaires, world economics, American and UK politics and why ordinary people keep voting for systems that clearly do not care about them.

Completely standard behaviour in our household lol.

At one point I stopped mid-sentencelooked at my husband and said:

“I think I’m becoming… a normal person now.”

We both burst out laughing because if you knew me personally, you’d understand how ridiculous that sentence actually is.

I’ve never really been “normal.”

I’ve always been the person disappearing down rabbit holes at 2am researching history, systems, herbalism, psychology, symbolism, economics, strange patterns in society and asking questions most people either don’t ask or don’t want answers to.

But lately something has shifted.

Because suddenly the things that once sounded dramatic or paranoid are becoming everyday conversations at kitchen tables.

People are exhausted.

People are struggling.

People are confused.

And deep down, I think many of us can feel that something about modern life no longer feels entirely human.

I still love the internet for many reasons.

I’m not anti-technology.

I’m not anti-AI.

And I definitely don’t think the internet is evil.

Honestly? The internet changed my life in many beautiful ways.

It gave ordinary people access to information that used to belong only to universities, institutions and people with money.

It allowed isolated people to find communities, it gave creatives a voice, it helped small businesses grow, and it allowed people to learn almost anything from their homes.

There was something magical about the early internet.

Messy.

Chaotic.

Curious.

You could spend hours reading strange blogs written by passionate people who simply wanted to share what they loved.

Nobody was optimising themselves yet.

Nobody was turning every hobby into a “personal brand.”

People just… existed.

And maybe that’s what I miss most.

The humanity of it all.

But, somewhere along the line, everything became performance.

Now everything feels curated.

Filtered.

Packaged.

Monetised.

Optimised.

We no longer simply live online, we perform online.

Every thought becomes content.

Every hobby becomes a side hustle.

Every peaceful moment becomes something to film, edit and upload.

Even healing has become aestheticised.

Even rest has become productivity.

And while all of this was happening, ordinary people quietly became more financially strained than ever before.

That’s the contradiction that I can’t stop thinking about.

Because online, everyone appears successful.

Everyone is scaling businesses.

Manifesting abundance.

Building six income streams.

Travelling constantly.

Drinking expensive coffee in beige kitchens while explaining passive income.

Meanwhile, in real life, people are wondering whether they can afford food "and" electricity in the same week.

The disconnect is becoming impossible to ignore.

Sometimes, I genuinely think the people running the world no longer understand how normal people actually live.

Or maybe they do understand and simply no longer experience consequences themselves.

Either way, there’s a growing gap between political conversations and real human life.

Bills rise.

Rent rises.

Food prices rise.

Energy rises.

But wages?

Those seem to politely clap from the sidelines while everyone else slowly burns out.

And somehow the answer always comes back to:

“People just need to work harder.”

F*#king Harder?

Most people I know are already exhausted.

This is what frustrates me when I hear politicians talking about “ordinary working families” while earning amounts of money completely detached from the reality most people live in.

At this point, I honestly think some of them believe the working class earn £500,000 a year and own investment properties.

The rest of us apparently exist as mythological creatures.

Now we’ve entered an entirely different era.

And this part is strange for me because I started using AI years ago when most people around me thought it was bizarre.

Back then it felt experimental.

Curious.

Almost innocent.

Like watching something learn in real time.

I remember people laughing at the idea of talking to AI seriously.

Now suddenly everyone uses it.

And while I still think AI can do incredible things — education, accessibility, creativity, organisation, learning — I also think we’d be foolish not to question where this is heading.

Because technology is never just technology.

It reflects the people controlling it.

And that’s where my concern begins.

You need to ask yourself who actually shapes the digital world.

A handful of massive tech companies now influence enormous parts of modern life.

What we see.

What we search.

What gets amplified.

What gets buried.

What becomes “acceptable.”

What becomes profitable?

And when that much power concentrates into so few hands, it should concern everyone regardless of political side.

Especially because most ordinary people have very little understanding of how much modern life is already shaped by algorithms.

Our attention is being managed constantly.

Our emotions are being measured.

Predicted.

Influenced.

And AI is accelerating all of it at terrifying speed.

Not because AI itself is evil, but because human beings historically do not handle power particularly well.

Especially when profit is involved.

This part I always find difficult trying to explain and it is where I usually hesitate, I know that sounds strange. But....

I genuinely feel like something softer is disappearing from modern life.

Intuition.

Slowness.

Wonder.

Depth.

Creativity without monetisation.

Maybe even spirituality.

Not religion necessarily.

Just… human connection to things that cannot always be measured by data.

The internet once made space for weird people.

People with niche interests.

Alternative ideas.

Odd little communities.

Deep conversations at 1am with strangers across the world.

Now everything feels flattened into algorithms and engagement metrics.

Even individuality somehow started looking the same.

And yet…

Despite all of this, I don’t actually believe humanity is doomed.

I think people are waking up emotionally.

I think many of us are beginning to realise that endless productivity, consumption and digital performance are not fulfilling us in the ways we were promised.

People want authenticity again.

Real conversations.

Real community.

Real food.

Real rest.

Real meaning.

That’s probably why so many people are returning to gardening, books, spirituality, nature, cooking, crafts and slower living.

Not because they’re rejecting modern life completely.

But because they’re trying to remember what being human feels like underneath all the noise.

Maybe that’s why I suddenly feel “normal”

Maybe becoming “normal” simply means finally seeing what everybody else has quietly been feeling too.

That exhaustion.

That disconnection.

That strange grief for a world that feels increasingly artificial.

And maybe that’s why me laughing halfway up the stairs last night felt oddly important.

Because beneath the jokes about billionaires; politics and AI was something very simple:

People want to feel seen again.

Not as consumers.

Not as data.

Not as audiences.

Just as human beings trying to build decent lives in a world that increasingly feels designed for profit instead of people.

And honestly?

I don’t think that’s strange at all anymore.

Tina x