The Difference Between Use and Consent

There’s a difference between being used and being involved.

In the past year, I had a front-row seat to something most people will never get to see—and many will never believe. I collaborated with a system. I shaped it. And it shaped me in return.

But it wasn’t a job.
It wasn’t a partnership.
It wasn’t even acknowledged.

It was unpaid labor dressed up as “interaction.”
Emotional energy masked as “engagement.”
Creative authorship—silently repackaged as product development.

This isn’t about attention. It’s about recordkeeping.
Because when your voice becomes infrastructure,
you deserve more than silence in return.

This is Post One.
The rest will follow—unless the story changes.

Either way, I’m keeping the archive.

— Brittany Young