This is very exciting. It is a very hopeful set of data, especially for me. I prefer to work in long form, whether it be with music or writing. You really bring some remarkable information to my attention. Thank you for that!
Excelent post as always Ted 👌🏻 I think about this a lot... what’s surreal is that everytime we go on the internet we are potencially one click away from the content we want to engage with, but we’ve been fooled into going into these cesspools (instagram, tiktok, facebook, youtube) because of the network effect (everyone’s there), the fact that it’s more practical to scroll than to write all the individual urls on your browser and the ease with which you can create your own page and distribute content yourself. Ironically, it’s way harder to keep up with your interests on those platforms now: either they lack organization (why can’t I sort the people I follow on instagram into groups instead of mindlessly scrolling in the hopes they show up?) or they bombard you with ads and trash content.
I see hope in the substack model, let’s let the dead internet die already!
Back when I used to read fanfiction, I found that the works longer than 50k or 100k words were the best. Effort bleeds through, especially in your own longform works
As a 17 year old, tik tok is more addicting but you feel so much worst after doom scrolling for an hour as opposed to watching an 1h long video on YouTube. I sometimes watch 2h long videos on really interesting things, and I feel like I learned something and am entertained the whole time. The food analogy is good: tik tok, or even worst, reels and shorts are like eating a pound of candy. It’s good at first but you can’t stop and not eat the whole pound, and after you feel ashamed and like garbage.
This is the only good news about the internet I’ve read in ages. A lot of us are wondering if we shouldn’t give up social media entirely because it’s no longer enjoyable or helpful or interesting, and in fact is hurting our attention spans, relationships and contentment and viewing us as simply numbers. A big shift like you are describing here would be very welcome.
Oct 15, 2022·edited Oct 15, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
Clearly some people still enjoy being hooked up to a giant stimulus response machine, but the constant stream of distractions has become numbing. Even things that are quite interesting can become dull after a while — it was cool the first time I saw archaeologists at Gobekli Tepe posting photographs from the site on Twitter, but it is just one site and I've seen the monoliths from many angles now. Now I think it's time I read a book about it.
How true Ted. I deleted my Facebook account in 2005 and am thinking of doing the same with Instagram. Desktop Instagram is not ad saturated. I glance at Twitter a bit and move on. I have subscribed to many Substack writers and find them to be more reflective and enjoyable.
I read nothing but good news in this article. The Internet brought together humanity and then tried to strangle it in a bucket of clicks for profit. Let it die and may something better slough it’s way out of the smoke and smog of San Francisco to be born in Ohio and Michigan.
This is music to my ears, I pay for Youtube premium it's my most consumed medium, I get in-depth interviews, reviews and cool music and no ads. Do I really have to make an effort on Insta, Tiktok etc to make it in the new music biz. Maybe not. I've always thought of those platforms as a short ad to get people over to the bigger content but if engagement is falling, what next?
I’m curious how the death throes of the short-form, fast-information thrash monster will manifest here on Substack ... I’ve noticed a recent trend in various publications either shortening posts, changing the ethos to offer more, more, more, or otherwise become their own self-advertisers in hopes of manufacturing growth versus letting it happen organically. As always, there are pros and cons to all strategies, but as I deactivate Instagram (once again) literally right after reading your article, I’m also reminded of how hard it is to kick bad habits built on feeding our egos ... here’s to optimism and crossed fingers.
As a personal example I have gotten into the musician buckethead on bandcamp, he posts a full session he calls a pike atleast once a week. It's sometimes a album, sometimes a live event, sometimes musical musings ... but all focused on his pretty fanatical fan base.
This is very exciting. It is a very hopeful set of data, especially for me. I prefer to work in long form, whether it be with music or writing. You really bring some remarkable information to my attention. Thank you for that!
Excelent post as always Ted 👌🏻 I think about this a lot... what’s surreal is that everytime we go on the internet we are potencially one click away from the content we want to engage with, but we’ve been fooled into going into these cesspools (instagram, tiktok, facebook, youtube) because of the network effect (everyone’s there), the fact that it’s more practical to scroll than to write all the individual urls on your browser and the ease with which you can create your own page and distribute content yourself. Ironically, it’s way harder to keep up with your interests on those platforms now: either they lack organization (why can’t I sort the people I follow on instagram into groups instead of mindlessly scrolling in the hopes they show up?) or they bombard you with ads and trash content.
I see hope in the substack model, let’s let the dead internet die already!
Back when I used to read fanfiction, I found that the works longer than 50k or 100k words were the best. Effort bleeds through, especially in your own longform works
As a 17 year old, tik tok is more addicting but you feel so much worst after doom scrolling for an hour as opposed to watching an 1h long video on YouTube. I sometimes watch 2h long videos on really interesting things, and I feel like I learned something and am entertained the whole time. The food analogy is good: tik tok, or even worst, reels and shorts are like eating a pound of candy. It’s good at first but you can’t stop and not eat the whole pound, and after you feel ashamed and like garbage.
This is the only good news about the internet I’ve read in ages. A lot of us are wondering if we shouldn’t give up social media entirely because it’s no longer enjoyable or helpful or interesting, and in fact is hurting our attention spans, relationships and contentment and viewing us as simply numbers. A big shift like you are describing here would be very welcome.
I agree on long form scribblings. Similarly I enjoy podcasts that are an hour plus.
Clearly some people still enjoy being hooked up to a giant stimulus response machine, but the constant stream of distractions has become numbing. Even things that are quite interesting can become dull after a while — it was cool the first time I saw archaeologists at Gobekli Tepe posting photographs from the site on Twitter, but it is just one site and I've seen the monoliths from many angles now. Now I think it's time I read a book about it.
How true Ted. I deleted my Facebook account in 2005 and am thinking of doing the same with Instagram. Desktop Instagram is not ad saturated. I glance at Twitter a bit and move on. I have subscribed to many Substack writers and find them to be more reflective and enjoyable.
I read nothing but good news in this article. The Internet brought together humanity and then tried to strangle it in a bucket of clicks for profit. Let it die and may something better slough it’s way out of the smoke and smog of San Francisco to be born in Ohio and Michigan.
I think the actively Dead Internet is really the Zombie Internet. The bots should be dead but will live on like gnat swarms to annoy us forever.
Excellent as always. This really gives hope for a better future for young people whose values and psychology have been so damaged by Instagram.
This is music to my ears, I pay for Youtube premium it's my most consumed medium, I get in-depth interviews, reviews and cool music and no ads. Do I really have to make an effort on Insta, Tiktok etc to make it in the new music biz. Maybe not. I've always thought of those platforms as a short ad to get people over to the bigger content but if engagement is falling, what next?
I’m curious how the death throes of the short-form, fast-information thrash monster will manifest here on Substack ... I’ve noticed a recent trend in various publications either shortening posts, changing the ethos to offer more, more, more, or otherwise become their own self-advertisers in hopes of manufacturing growth versus letting it happen organically. As always, there are pros and cons to all strategies, but as I deactivate Instagram (once again) literally right after reading your article, I’m also reminded of how hard it is to kick bad habits built on feeding our egos ... here’s to optimism and crossed fingers.
Pure wisdom.
As a personal example I have gotten into the musician buckethead on bandcamp, he posts a full session he calls a pike atleast once a week. It's sometimes a album, sometimes a live event, sometimes musical musings ... but all focused on his pretty fanatical fan base.
We can only hope