Sharing Is Taxing: The Hidden Cost of Oversharing
We’ve all heard the phrase “sharing is caring”, but in today’s world, where our lives unfold through screens — sharing can also be taxing. Literally.
There was a time when we made scrapbooks, photo albums, and journals. We’d gather around to relive the moment, not to broadcast it in real time.
Now, sharing is instant. It’s filtered, edited, curated — and in that process, we’re unknowingly giving away small fractions of our joy every time we post.
That fraction is what I call the Social Media Share Tax. It’s the invisible cost of turning your presence into content.
The Math of the Share Tax
Here’s how it works:
Imagine every experience you have fills your internal cup with 100% joy.
Each time you share that moment online, a small percentage of that joy gets taxed — gone, traded for likes, validation, or engagement.
A light share might cost 5%.
A “photo dump” or detailed story recap might cost 10%.
That might sound small, but like any tax, it compounds.
If you share 10 times a week, even at a modest 5% per share, your internal joy retention looks like this:
Joy Retained = 100% × (0.95)¹⁰ = 59.9%
That means you’ve lost 40% of the joy from your own experiences, simply by repeatedly sharing them. Raise the tax to 10%, and after 10 shares, you’re down to just 34.9%.
That’s the math of emotional debt, the kind that builds quietly until you’re running on empty.
The Emotional Debt We Don’t See
Think about the creators and influencers who rose quickly in the early days of social media, posting constantly, living publicly, sharing everything. Now, many of them are offline, recovering, rebranding, or quietly healing.
They didn’t “fall off.” They just stopped paying an emotional tax they could no longer afford.
Their stories are living proof of what happens when you export too much of your private joy into the public domain.
What the Research Says
You don’t have to take my word for it — science is catching up to what our nervous systems already know.
A 2024 longitudinal study of over 15,000 adults found that frequent posting predicted higher mental distress one year later — while passive scrolling showed no such link.
(Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2024)Reviews across more than 40 studies show heavy social media engagement correlates with increased anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
(National Library of Medicine, 2023)And the most damaging aspects? Likes, comments, and follower counts — the performance-based metrics of our worth.
The conclusion is simple: When you share too much, too often, your peace is being taxed.
How to Pay Less Tax (and Keep More Joy)
I’m not saying you should disappear from the internet, but if you want to reclaim your overflow, you need boundaries around your sharing.
Here’s how to start:
Be a Delayed Poster
You don’t owe the world your experiences in real time. Post later, once the moment has lived fully inside you.Cap Your Shares per Experience
Every extra angle, video, or caption compounds your tax. Keep it simple.Schedule “Share Fasts”
Dedicate one day or weekend a month to zero posting. Let your energy refill.Choose What You’re Willing to Be Taxed On
Before posting, ask: “Am I okay paying 10% of this moment to the internet?”
If the answer is no, keep it sacred.Redefine Sharing as a Ritual, Not a Reflex
When you share from overflow, not depletion, you become more authentic — and far more impactful.
Why It Matters
We’re not just talking about social media habits. We’re talking about preserving the math of your peace.
Every moment you hold back from oversharing is a deposit into your internal account.
Every boundary you create increases your balance.
Every pause lets your joy compound, not your burnout.
If you’re wondering why you feel drained even after a vacation, a celebration, or a creative win — check your share tax. Because peace doesn’t come from how much you show. It comes from how much you keep.
Join the Practice
At Mental Melodies, we create spaces and philosophies that remind you how to refill your cup.
From our weekly sound baths at The Rockaway Hotel, to monthly “Mental Fitness” sessions at 305 Fitness, each experience is designed to help you protect your energy, rebuild your presence, and move from burnout to overflow.
Subscribe to the Mental Melodies Newsletter to dive deeper into peace philosophies like The Math of Overflow and The Share Tax Theory. And begin your own daily practice with the Mental Melodies album, streaming now — a sonic guide to restore your presence and keep your joy untaxed.