Thank you. You have many thoughts, and I agree that it is complex - we do not know for sure what different aspects will bring. About the many individual newsletters of, e.g., Substack, I can say that it helps you pick the contents you want. You are not likely to get manipulated and pushed around by others or their algorithms, you can simply take in or throw out what you like.
This also leads to AI contents needing to prove its value - if it is good and people find it useful, they may subscribe to it - otherwise it will be ruled out and forgotten.
About owning the list, yes, that's a sales argument. But I tend to be quite humble about that, as the list, in a sense, consists of people - who will opt out if you do not give them what they like. You cannot do just what you want with that list of email addresses, and, hence, it isn't really yours - just something you have better access to on Substack than on many other platforms.
When people try to move to a different platform, they often lose many of their followers, because these are following the whole concept of you and the shape you are delivered in, meaning the pleasant surroundings of the platform, the interaction with other platform users, etc., and if all that changes, people may lose interest in the whole package - including you.
Nuanced and natural are definitely good words to keep in mind when doing anything with other people. Too much content and too many concepts are over-geared and tend to become annoyances over time. Either being too focused and missing the details for you to dive into, or being overly promoted as the only way, or similar, both offer a short-lived attraction and a long-term aversion.
But being natural is difficult, I think, when we only see each other as fragmented thoughts through a written article now and then. Videos, chats, etc., may help, but we never get very close to a person who needs to pay attention to hundreds or thousands of others as well. So, probably, the very idea of everything on social media needing to be big - followers to be counted in the thousands, may be the main flaw of the overall concept.
I really like this new newsletter (sub-newsletter?). We need to talk about social media honestly if we ever want to escape the race and harness its power for good.
Thank you! Substack calls them sections or newsletters, depending on where you look. It is possible for a subscriber to select which exact newsletters they want from a substack - setting up their own palette of selected and deselected newsletters.
And yes, we do need to stop being silent consumers or even victims to whom social media is done, and turn that into an active use where we know what is going on and decide what we want and how we want it.
Jorgen
This is an important post with many important ideas.
I believe we need to find a nuanced and natural way of helping people, helping each other.
newsletter platforms are being promoted as having 2 advantages of being algorithms-neutral and the writer owning their list.
I’m not sure about algorithm less ness.
And I’m unsure how the race to the bottom with AI generated content will influence newsletters.
And I’m unsure that being flooded with content from many newsletter subscriptions creates a more nuanced and natural way of helping people.
But it’s a step in the right direction
Thank you. You have many thoughts, and I agree that it is complex - we do not know for sure what different aspects will bring. About the many individual newsletters of, e.g., Substack, I can say that it helps you pick the contents you want. You are not likely to get manipulated and pushed around by others or their algorithms, you can simply take in or throw out what you like.
This also leads to AI contents needing to prove its value - if it is good and people find it useful, they may subscribe to it - otherwise it will be ruled out and forgotten.
About owning the list, yes, that's a sales argument. But I tend to be quite humble about that, as the list, in a sense, consists of people - who will opt out if you do not give them what they like. You cannot do just what you want with that list of email addresses, and, hence, it isn't really yours - just something you have better access to on Substack than on many other platforms.
When people try to move to a different platform, they often lose many of their followers, because these are following the whole concept of you and the shape you are delivered in, meaning the pleasant surroundings of the platform, the interaction with other platform users, etc., and if all that changes, people may lose interest in the whole package - including you.
Nuanced and natural are definitely good words to keep in mind when doing anything with other people. Too much content and too many concepts are over-geared and tend to become annoyances over time. Either being too focused and missing the details for you to dive into, or being overly promoted as the only way, or similar, both offer a short-lived attraction and a long-term aversion.
But being natural is difficult, I think, when we only see each other as fragmented thoughts through a written article now and then. Videos, chats, etc., may help, but we never get very close to a person who needs to pay attention to hundreds or thousands of others as well. So, probably, the very idea of everything on social media needing to be big - followers to be counted in the thousands, may be the main flaw of the overall concept.
Just posted - thanks for stimulating the conversation - there is hope
https://www.antidesignpatterns.com/p/social-justice-for-people-over-45
I really like this new newsletter (sub-newsletter?). We need to talk about social media honestly if we ever want to escape the race and harness its power for good.
Thank you! Substack calls them sections or newsletters, depending on where you look. It is possible for a subscriber to select which exact newsletters they want from a substack - setting up their own palette of selected and deselected newsletters.
And yes, we do need to stop being silent consumers or even victims to whom social media is done, and turn that into an active use where we know what is going on and decide what we want and how we want it.