write.as

The inner ring is I believe one of CS Lewis best speeches/essays. It's about a phenomenon we'll have to deal with all life long, IRL or online. How you deal with it is up to you ultimately, but for that you have to be aware of its effect on your mind.

It's a very short text. You can read it for free here:

https://www.lewissociety.org/innerring/

Here are a few quotes to give you an idea.

You discover gradually, in almost indefinable ways, that it exists and that you are outside it; and then later, perhaps, that you are inside it.

(...)

It is not easy, even at a given moment, to say who is inside and who is outside. Some people are obviously in and some are obviously out, but there are always several on the borderline.

(...)

There are no formal admissions or expulsions. People think they are in it after they have in fact been pushed out of it, or before they have been allowed in: this provides great amusement for those really inside.

(...)

One of the most dominant elements [in our life] is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside.

(...)

Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.