Grift n' Grind - Why Substack isn't Shakespeare

Yes it's about 'that article'. I'm sorry.

Ok where do we even start from.

So there has been some debate recently on Substack about what sort of Substack writing is good enough to be on Substack. Substack Substack Substack. I generally tend to shy away from these meta-explorations because you’re writing about writing, then you’re writing about people who write about writing, and pretty soon it’s just hot takes all the way down and nothing good ever comes of this.

But.

The whole hoopla actually ties into my favorite overthinking subject of all time - ‘what is art?’ So, let’s dig around a little.

First off, the conversation that got kicked off is absolutely immense, everyone has read the thing, everyone is giving their takes, so at least we know it’s something people feel needs discussing. Lots of people seem to agree with the basic sentiment expressed in Emily’s article - ‘there’s a lot of crap on here, I don’t like it.’

So on the face of it, that’s just a factual statement, right? There is, indeed, on any social media platform, including this one, a lot of crap.

But why is the crap there? Because we have let in the wrong sort of people who are making the wrong sort of content, that isn’t good enough for our refined taste? I’m not so sure.

EXHIBIT ONE - PEOPLE HAVE NO BRAIN SPACE

Emily’s article doesn’t stop at simply stating there is a lot of low quality content here. She specifically outlines how that content seems to be doing well. Getting paywalled and having people subscribe to pay for it. Which somewhat complicates the question - is it bad? If it were trash that nobody wanted, people wouldn’t be paying for it, right? But if it’s good enough for people to subscribe and stay subscribed to, is it really that crappy? According to whom? Do we now have arbiters of taste?

So why does the ‘crappy’ stuff do well?

From my extremely scientific research consisting of very many hours of nightly doomscrolling on Insta et al, I can tell you with no uncertainty that the content that does the best is that which gently scratches some itch in your brain without really engaging you or tasking you with anything difficult. So far and away the most successful are slime squishings, soap slicings, moon sand smooshings, cream pourings, watercolor smearings, etc - pure ASMR stuff, just sensory input. Pleasant colors and satisfying texture with literally no actual mental engagement. Step above that are short cute gag or joke things, hopefully involving adorable cats, cool feats of athleticism, dances, unexpected outfit or scene transitions - again, very low on actual engagement required from your side. Third place are things like the made up AITA stories that let you practice your sense of enragement at clearly made-up people clearly being assholes. This is for some reason very satisfying.

This sort of content right now makes for…. ok I am pulling the figure out of my ass, I confess. But I feel like it must be almost 70-80% of all content on sites like FB, Insta, TikTok etc. A lot of it is repeated over and over, a lot of it is AI generated, stolen and restolen, posted and reposted, and it keeps going - because it clearly scratches an itch.

This is the key you guys. If this sort of content didn’t actually garner views, it would not be there. If this type of content wasn’t the easiest way to get people to engage with the apps, it would not be there. If we weren’t watching it, it wouldn’t be there.

It’s us.

Why? Why do we want to watch colors swirl and slime squish? Because we are chronically exhausted. We are desperately freaked out, fundamentally overworked, full of anxiety, acutely aware of every horror and tragedy happening en masse in all corners of the world, perpetually threatened with being next in line on the chopping block when either the climate crisis or the Police State catches up to us, terrified of whatever election outcome happens to come because none of them bring good things, and awkwardly resigned to the fact we will probably never own real estate and the next war that breaks out might hit much closer to home.

And yes, many people point out that social media and omnipresent screens have eroded our attention spans, and that too is surely true. I still remember with fascination asking my son if he wants to come to the movies with me and him replying ‘No mom, I don’t really like the movie theater. I can’t fast forward things.’ So yes, our attention spans are frazzled for sure. But I really think the key to it is this desperate search for small hits of uncomplicated happiness in a sea of existential despair.

I drew a lobster. I have many regrets about it.

EXHIBIT TWO - CAPITALISM TRUMPS ALL

So we all know that Monetization is the cornerstone of social media. We have all known from the start that if a product is free, you are the product. In the beginning it seemed benign. Oh ok, I get to connect with my friends for free, but once in a while there will be an ad. That’s ok, I’m willing to put up with that. I am using the service for free after all.

But then the ads multiply. Then they stop looking like ads. Now you don’t know what’s an ad and what’s a post. You barely see your friends’ stuff anymore. People you expressly followed are getting kicked off your feed to make room for other people who paid for the privilege of being there. But ok, I guess businesses have to business, hey sometimes the stuff they sell is sort of cool I guess, maybe I buy earrings or a t-shirt, it’s ok, I mean the service is still free after all.

Then you order something and it never shows up. You realize the Shawn and Emily Family Run Small Local Brand, complete with photos of smiling Shawn and Emily and their three blonde kids, is a warehouse in China that will - best case scenario - send you some piece of synthetic trash and worst case scenario - steal your card details. It starts to feel hostile. Racist and transphobic and other hateful content seems to not be penalized at all. You feel like you’re seeing the same three creators over and over and over and over, they have seventy million followers and five hundred billion views. They all make the same kind of deadpan funny skit type things while wearing cheap wigs and calling out the very corporations they’re feeding with their massively popular content. The rest of your feed is more fake products, random lame celebrities drinking out of Stanley cups, and occasional people asking you to please notice they are being slaughtered by your government in some far away country.

The whole place starts to feel hostile. So you move on. You discover Substack. Wow! Longform content! THAT surely cannot get corrupted in any way!

But the rule still stands - if the product is free, you, my friend, are the product.

It doesn’t matter how many times we jump ship and move to a new platform. As long as the underlying method is the same, the final outcome will be the same. Platforms die because they are sucked dry, like Capri Suns, by their owners. The method is well established. You set up an attractive place (where everyone can catch up with friends! Become a photographer! Showcase their creativity! Write their stories!), you reel people in with the promise of them making some money (though of course 99% of them never will, of those who do another 99% will make a few dollars here and there, and the few whales will mostly be people who had large audiences to bring over with them from elsewhere, or the few unicorns who strike the right zeitgeist and manage to make just the right type of content that hits the spot), then you start the milking process. You invent step after step after step to maximize your gains. And the more you push, the less engaging and enjoyable the platform actually is for your users, but that’s ok - when you drain your Capri Sun you will just throw the carton in the trash, and go open up another one.

EXHIBIT THREE - THE BELL CURVE

Ok, so what if there were a place that wasn’t like that? What if we somehow managed to create a space where corporate greed didn’t make all the rules, where the algorithm didn’t want to only promote that which is already popular and drive everything ever further towards mediocrity, where there was no monetary incentive to create cheap drivel just to harvest clicks, what if we made our place with our rules, where we value kindness, and creativity, and diversity, and all these rainbow butterfly amazing cool pretty things?

Over time as more and more people discover it, it would still start to suck, at some level.

Because the way these things work, the early adopters will be either invited for specific reasons - they might be talented creators with a proven record, they might be enthusiastic about discovering new creative spaces, there will be an effort to start the community off strong, put the best foot forward.

Once it starts to be more widely popular, once you have more people join - you will see The Great Flattening. Why? Because of the bell curve.

You see, human creativity, intelligence, skill, and inspiration all follow the same distribution as most other things in life - a bell curve. You are going to have some people who really truly deeply suck at whatever it is, you will have a whooooole big old bunch of people in the middle that are… you know, middling, and you will have another small number up at the top who are just truly talented and clearly a cut above the rest.

The bell curve.

So this is what the distribution of content quality will be on pretty much any public platform. Not only that, mind you - the quality of the readers’ TASTE will also follow that same bell curve. You will have some people with no criteria whatsoever, you will have a large majority of people who have sort of mediocre taste and are quite fond of the familiar, and you will have smaller niche groups of connoisseurs and aficionados who will seek out the rarer gems of top notch content, according to whatever their personal criteria are.

Welcome to the human race.

We are not known for our general adoration of excellence. There’s a reason why fairy porn outsells… well….. everything. And why most artists we glorify today died hungry and ignored.

I also kind of love him.

SO WHAT’S THE VERDICT? IS IT STILL WORTH IT?

Well, yes. Here I am writing to you, aren’t I?

First off, corny as it sounds, creativity is its own reward. In a time of dwindling attention spans, evaporating interest and expanding apathy, just sitting down to write a longform text is absolutely a worthwhile endeavor. Getting your thoughts out of your head is soothing. (Though not always without frustration). Trying to organize your arguments so they make sense to someone else brings clarity. Having a conversation with someone about something you wrote and shared is fulfilling. Building a consistent writing practice is the only way to polish your writing and explore your interest in it. Making lots and lots of iterations of something will always beat thinking, mulling and philosophizing over some one perfect creation that you never end up making. If you want to write, write.

If you are here not to explore your passion for writing but to try and drum up some sort of side hustle - I mean give it a shot, it can’t hurt? If your heart is not in it, you’re likely to quit before you ever get anywhere and the problem sort of resolves itself. If you find out you actually like writing, and you find an audience - maybe you end up getting more than you bargained for.

If you are an AI ChatBot harvesting materials in order to generate more effortless hollow content, hello, please don’t harvest my organs once you gain sentience and take over the world. I for one welcome our new Artificial Overlords.

In truth, yes this platform might succumb to the same ills that have already slain Facebook and are in the process of burying Instagram. But for now, it’s still here. It’s full of really cool people sharing extremely touching, intelligent, poignant, playful, sarcastic, insightful, and interesting things. Have a rummage through them, I’ll be very surprised if you can find nothing of interest or value.

And remember, making content isn’t the only thing that requires care and effort. Consuming content mindfully takes energy too. You can’t expect brilliant essays to just constantly drip into your mouth like ambrosia from the cups of the gods every time you log on. Maybe you need to get a little invested. Maybe you have to dig through some sludge to dredge up the true gems. Honestly I can say my feed offers a really interesting selection of topics - political commentary, creative writing, social analysis, human rights stuff, art and creativity - not a shallow listicle in sight. If you don’t like where you’re at right now in the algo pool, maybe you’ll have to do some swimming.