I think you are entirely correct. Love it or hate it, social media still brings a lot of real value to my life. I was in Washington, D.C. at the National Geographic Storytellers Summit last week and this conversation popped up with a number of photographers I hung out with. Everyone is still on Instagram and the takeaway was that the pull is just too strong — We're all hanging out there. That's not an easy thing to achieve and I think the trade-offs are still worth it. That said, I think Substack is offering something unique and different and for those of us interested in spending a bit of time writing and approaching social media from a blogging perspective, it could be valuable for many. It certainly has been for me. I always enjoy your posts, Michael. Thank you!
This one has that very late-night, staring-at-the-ceiling, overthinking-the-internet vibe, and honestly, it’s relatable. It’s easy to dunk on social media, but what if it’s still doing something valuable? What if, despite the mess, the connections, the access to resources, and the sheer scale of communication still make it worth it?
The whole “what if tech monopolies gave us the tools to disrupt right back” question is interesting. Like, yeah, these platforms are built for profit and control, but people have still used them for activism, mutual aid, and community-building in ways that Big Tech never intended. The internet isn’t just doomscrolling and engagement farming—it’s also where people find help, learn, and organize.
It also hits on something a lot of us feel: exhaustion. Social media burnout is real, but is it exhaustion from the platforms themselves, or from the way they’re currently being run? Are we actually done with social media or just done with this version of it?
And that ending—“if not for the internet, my thoughts might be left to my own devices”—is kind of poetic. Like, even if we all hate how the internet works sometimes, there’s still something incredible about the ability to share thoughts and ideas with people we’d never otherwise meet. Maybe the issue isn’t social media itself, but how we choose to engage with it.
Hey I appreciate your thoughtful and thorough comment here :) thanks for chiming in and vibing with it alll. It’s most certainly the way we engage with it that lends to much of the problem. People are messy and that’s a big part of this that we fail to engage with on a sincere level, I think.
I think you are entirely correct. Love it or hate it, social media still brings a lot of real value to my life. I was in Washington, D.C. at the National Geographic Storytellers Summit last week and this conversation popped up with a number of photographers I hung out with. Everyone is still on Instagram and the takeaway was that the pull is just too strong — We're all hanging out there. That's not an easy thing to achieve and I think the trade-offs are still worth it. That said, I think Substack is offering something unique and different and for those of us interested in spending a bit of time writing and approaching social media from a blogging perspective, it could be valuable for many. It certainly has been for me. I always enjoy your posts, Michael. Thank you!
Hey thanks for chiming in! Value is an important piece here. I don’t think the value provided is insignificant.
Just here to say I enjoy the concept of Questions (¿) for the sake of having them.
Questions rock. What’s better than not having the answers?
This one has that very late-night, staring-at-the-ceiling, overthinking-the-internet vibe, and honestly, it’s relatable. It’s easy to dunk on social media, but what if it’s still doing something valuable? What if, despite the mess, the connections, the access to resources, and the sheer scale of communication still make it worth it?
The whole “what if tech monopolies gave us the tools to disrupt right back” question is interesting. Like, yeah, these platforms are built for profit and control, but people have still used them for activism, mutual aid, and community-building in ways that Big Tech never intended. The internet isn’t just doomscrolling and engagement farming—it’s also where people find help, learn, and organize.
It also hits on something a lot of us feel: exhaustion. Social media burnout is real, but is it exhaustion from the platforms themselves, or from the way they’re currently being run? Are we actually done with social media or just done with this version of it?
And that ending—“if not for the internet, my thoughts might be left to my own devices”—is kind of poetic. Like, even if we all hate how the internet works sometimes, there’s still something incredible about the ability to share thoughts and ideas with people we’d never otherwise meet. Maybe the issue isn’t social media itself, but how we choose to engage with it.
Hey I appreciate your thoughtful and thorough comment here :) thanks for chiming in and vibing with it alll. It’s most certainly the way we engage with it that lends to much of the problem. People are messy and that’s a big part of this that we fail to engage with on a sincere level, I think.
Censorship? No, thanks.