Love this thank you! I heard it somewhere recently that if you access anything online for free, you are the content. You are making money for someone. We all know this but everyone I know is hungry for connection so here we are. It’s hard to find irl community when everyone is online. But I’m trying! Thanks to your guidance and many others I’ve deleted my social media and am spending far more time offline and outside. I’ve rekindled old friendships and made some new ones and just generally feel more grounded now that I’m spending more time seeing ppl face to face. Thank you again for your work!
There have been so many changes to Substack since I started in 2022, it is hard to keep up sometimes! I enjoy writing on this platform and the connections that have been made with other writers. But the constant push for ‘grow, grow, grow!’ that is persistent on this platform can be hard to navigate sometimes.
I've been thinking the exact same thing about Threads. I only joined recently and am loving the ad-free and unfettered connection to a large neurodivergent community. and yet in the back of my head I'm wondering how long it will be until Meta enshittifies it.
Charlie, I understand your fear. I hope Substack doesn't go the same path as the other social media platforms you mention. I'm glad for the new features and growth on Substack. We can use them or not; it's up to us. All platforms that offer sharing features will be addictive by nature due to human psychobiology. I hope Substack doesn't exploit our human weaknesses by adding ads like other platforms have done. Time will tell. I appreciate your concern and the warning to stay vigilant. I’m also not going to lose sleep worrying about it. Everything in this life is impermanent. I don’t have control over the direction of Substack. I can only control how I interact with the platform and its members.
I was never sucked into the Twitter or Instagram trap, but I do see & feel aspects of Substack I don't like - even though, simultaneously, I have benefitted from having other people's work promoted to me and mine to them (not financially as yet, but in other ways).
I would like to build a following on Substack but then hop across to something less social-mediaey, and more blog-platformish when I have gained a more substantial following.
Oof yes, to all of this. I am similarly fearing that Substack will give in to advertising, I just love it so much here. And yet I also recognize a similar pattern of addiction, especially with notes. I’m curious to see how it continues to evolve as a platform. **Also “enshittify” is a new verb I’ll definitely be adding to my vocabulary.
We can only hope Substack doesn't turn into a Meta product with 90% "SPONSORED AD FOR YOU" and our conversations are interrupted and sponsored by Taco Bell.
I have at times found myself sucked into the vortex of promise and potential on Substack, which leads to too much time spent on Notes, sometimes to the exclusion of writing blogs, which was the thing I was most excited to get away from a la Instagram. However, I think Substack's ability to help writers grow their following and earn a living from their work is a wonderful mission, one that no other platform makes possible. Substack necessarily must have writers' best interests in mind since their success is intrinsically tied up in ours. They only get paid when we get paid. After years of stagnating growth on other platforms, I'm truly grateful Substack exists and am excited to see where it goes. The one change I'd be hesitant to embrace is video because I feel like this is a platform that rewards writers, but nevertheless, I am committed to making this place my new online home and also committed to cultivating the inner discipline to stay focused and not get sucked into the more addictive parts.
I was one of the first 500,000 on Facebook. Back then, in 2005, it was for college students only. It dragged us in, gave us a place online that we could be safe using our real names and faces, making it easier to find and connect with our fellow students... then over time... they started opening the flood gates more and wider, letting more and more people on...
To where, now, I don't get to see my friends or family's or group's posts. It's just a flood of ads, suggested content, sponsored content. Things I didn't consensually click on and did not want to see but I need to scroll past, hoping to find what I was there for.
They destroyed their own platform and don't care. I want to see my sisters vacation photos or my friends memes... I don't want to see the same add for Purina Dog Chow or Disney movies over and over.
They turned our social lives into television. Couch surfing is not doom scrolling.
I find the only solace is to come over here to Substack and create my own space again. Like you're doing. We're all doing that. And Substack better take "Note" here and understand it's userbase instead of selling us upstream to flood our conversations with toothpaste commercials and fast food slogans.
Love this thank you! I heard it somewhere recently that if you access anything online for free, you are the content. You are making money for someone. We all know this but everyone I know is hungry for connection so here we are. It’s hard to find irl community when everyone is online. But I’m trying! Thanks to your guidance and many others I’ve deleted my social media and am spending far more time offline and outside. I’ve rekindled old friendships and made some new ones and just generally feel more grounded now that I’m spending more time seeing ppl face to face. Thank you again for your work!
There have been so many changes to Substack since I started in 2022, it is hard to keep up sometimes! I enjoy writing on this platform and the connections that have been made with other writers. But the constant push for ‘grow, grow, grow!’ that is persistent on this platform can be hard to navigate sometimes.
Really enjoyed what you wrote here, Charlie 🥰
I've been thinking the exact same thing about Threads. I only joined recently and am loving the ad-free and unfettered connection to a large neurodivergent community. and yet in the back of my head I'm wondering how long it will be until Meta enshittifies it.
Charlie, I understand your fear. I hope Substack doesn't go the same path as the other social media platforms you mention. I'm glad for the new features and growth on Substack. We can use them or not; it's up to us. All platforms that offer sharing features will be addictive by nature due to human psychobiology. I hope Substack doesn't exploit our human weaknesses by adding ads like other platforms have done. Time will tell. I appreciate your concern and the warning to stay vigilant. I’m also not going to lose sleep worrying about it. Everything in this life is impermanent. I don’t have control over the direction of Substack. I can only control how I interact with the platform and its members.
I was never sucked into the Twitter or Instagram trap, but I do see & feel aspects of Substack I don't like - even though, simultaneously, I have benefitted from having other people's work promoted to me and mine to them (not financially as yet, but in other ways).
I would like to build a following on Substack but then hop across to something less social-mediaey, and more blog-platformish when I have gained a more substantial following.
Oof yes, to all of this. I am similarly fearing that Substack will give in to advertising, I just love it so much here. And yet I also recognize a similar pattern of addiction, especially with notes. I’m curious to see how it continues to evolve as a platform. **Also “enshittify” is a new verb I’ll definitely be adding to my vocabulary.
We can only hope Substack doesn't turn into a Meta product with 90% "SPONSORED AD FOR YOU" and our conversations are interrupted and sponsored by Taco Bell.
I have at times found myself sucked into the vortex of promise and potential on Substack, which leads to too much time spent on Notes, sometimes to the exclusion of writing blogs, which was the thing I was most excited to get away from a la Instagram. However, I think Substack's ability to help writers grow their following and earn a living from their work is a wonderful mission, one that no other platform makes possible. Substack necessarily must have writers' best interests in mind since their success is intrinsically tied up in ours. They only get paid when we get paid. After years of stagnating growth on other platforms, I'm truly grateful Substack exists and am excited to see where it goes. The one change I'd be hesitant to embrace is video because I feel like this is a platform that rewards writers, but nevertheless, I am committed to making this place my new online home and also committed to cultivating the inner discipline to stay focused and not get sucked into the more addictive parts.
Good essay.
You've gained a subscriber.
I was one of the first 500,000 on Facebook. Back then, in 2005, it was for college students only. It dragged us in, gave us a place online that we could be safe using our real names and faces, making it easier to find and connect with our fellow students... then over time... they started opening the flood gates more and wider, letting more and more people on...
To where, now, I don't get to see my friends or family's or group's posts. It's just a flood of ads, suggested content, sponsored content. Things I didn't consensually click on and did not want to see but I need to scroll past, hoping to find what I was there for.
They destroyed their own platform and don't care. I want to see my sisters vacation photos or my friends memes... I don't want to see the same add for Purina Dog Chow or Disney movies over and over.
They turned our social lives into television. Couch surfing is not doom scrolling.
I find the only solace is to come over here to Substack and create my own space again. Like you're doing. We're all doing that. And Substack better take "Note" here and understand it's userbase instead of selling us upstream to flood our conversations with toothpaste commercials and fast food slogans.