That Nick Perry picture is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. If there was a content creator who was continually cutting himself more and deeper for his followers, we'd be horrified as a society. And yet, isn't this the same thing?
The emergence of the middle-class of influencers is not something I anticipated. This hit home a month or two ago for me, personally. I don't recall if I've posted it here or on a different comment section, so apologies if I'm repeating myself, but at the BJJ/MMA gym I train at a young guy came in looking a like a Wish version of a Paul brother, along with his entourage/camera guys, I guess to film some sort of post for socials. We were kind of laughing it off, but it turns out the guy has something like 2.5 million followers on IG and 5 million on YT, and I have not ever heard of him....me, who is internet-gremlin-brained enough that I pay good American dollars for this substack.
This is a well-done analogy to corporate capture, and it holds well. A story. I began blogging a few years ago after semi-retiring. I enjoy writing. It keeps me sane. I look forward to being in the groove. By writing, I’m forced to honestly think things through, clarifying and flowing from thought to thought to an ending that is part realization, part coming at the topic sideways. This clears my brain for later when talking with my peers. But hardly anyone reads the stuff. It’s long by today’s standards, about 1,500 words at a time, with whole paragraphs in a story-telling style. Recently, I wrote a short post in today’s typical blurb style, bullets pretending to be sentences in that “look at this, see 1 and 2, and this means 3,” and that’s all folk’s style. It took off. Disappointing, as it was an off-the-cuff thing I invested nothing into and took away nothing from, but the “audience” enjoyed it more than anything I’ve written recently.
That Nick Perry picture is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. If there was a content creator who was continually cutting himself more and deeper for his followers, we'd be horrified as a society. And yet, isn't this the same thing?
The emergence of the middle-class of influencers is not something I anticipated. This hit home a month or two ago for me, personally. I don't recall if I've posted it here or on a different comment section, so apologies if I'm repeating myself, but at the BJJ/MMA gym I train at a young guy came in looking a like a Wish version of a Paul brother, along with his entourage/camera guys, I guess to film some sort of post for socials. We were kind of laughing it off, but it turns out the guy has something like 2.5 million followers on IG and 5 million on YT, and I have not ever heard of him....me, who is internet-gremlin-brained enough that I pay good American dollars for this substack.
This is a well-done analogy to corporate capture, and it holds well. A story. I began blogging a few years ago after semi-retiring. I enjoy writing. It keeps me sane. I look forward to being in the groove. By writing, I’m forced to honestly think things through, clarifying and flowing from thought to thought to an ending that is part realization, part coming at the topic sideways. This clears my brain for later when talking with my peers. But hardly anyone reads the stuff. It’s long by today’s standards, about 1,500 words at a time, with whole paragraphs in a story-telling style. Recently, I wrote a short post in today’s typical blurb style, bullets pretending to be sentences in that “look at this, see 1 and 2, and this means 3,” and that’s all folk’s style. It took off. Disappointing, as it was an off-the-cuff thing I invested nothing into and took away nothing from, but the “audience” enjoyed it more than anything I’ve written recently.