Got 40+ registered for tomorrow’s BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA Day Zoom call tomorrow at 12pm EST (Feb 14, of course, still time to register).
Three hours a day is… a lot. I’ll be deleting the YouTube app (too easy to get caught up in scrolling Shorts while making lunch, or reheating my coffee), and the Substack app. Now that I can schedule Live streams via the desktop, I can finally ditch the app, as that too is just way too easy to scroll scroll scroll a few times a day, which adds up.
I love doing live stream stuff, and I feel like I need to figure out how to do that via YouTube or something at some point.
MIST: Like Google Docs, but for Markdown files, by Matt Webb.
I want to be able to share a Markdown doc as easily as sharing a link, and have real-time multiplayer editing, suggested edits, and comments, without a heavyweight app in the background.
I found via The Trend Report that Kamala Harris is launching Headquarters, “the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub.”
The announcement video was posted on the official HQ Twitter account (here), a 28 second video clip made in a conference room explaining that it’s where you’ll find the latest of what’s going on, and meet and revisit with courageous leaders.
No mention of the URL, or any sort of call to action. Just to “stay engaged” and “I’ll see you out there.”
So the HQ Twitter profile has a link: headquarters.news, which links to…
… a Substack Welcome page.
This annoying Welcome page “feature” can’t be turned off, but a quick Google search will tell you how to avoid it.
I skipped this by clicking the tiny X in the upper right corner. C’mon, take me to the “the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub” already!
That’s it, folks. That’s the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub.
No video (nah, save that for social media, I guess).
This was posted on Feb 5th, and I’m writing this on the 8th (I guess nothing much has happened since this initial post).
And the Substack About page hasn’t been updated, leaving the generic default text; “Join the crew,” are you kidding me?
How do you launch this without some already published “meet and revisit with courageous leaders” posts, as mentioned in the kick off video?
How do you launch this without having an updated ABOUT page?
How do you launch this without any video, branding, or images?
How do you launch this without links to resources about registering to vote, or how to contact your elected officials?
How do you launch a “content hub” like this in 2026?
Something about live radio really intrigues me. That you can turn something on and speak, and people could hear it, but you don’t really have numbers or metrics to see who’s tuning in. Not like YouTube and Twitch streams, you know?
With Macrowave you can do that straight from your Mac, and anyone with a web browser can listen in.
I messed around with Blast Radio years ago, streaming from Abelton Live, and people could listen via the app. Afterwards you could download your “show,” and I pieced them together into a HUNTERTHEN album.
Rekall is a “A cyber-retro-futurist aesthetic image blog,” and it’s updated every night since 2010 by Steve Gaynor.
We’ve all come across image feeds like this on social media platforms, but.. well, platforms come and go, but our websites endure so long as we keep paying for our domain name and hosting.
“There’s an extent to which the influencer industry is basically a machine that generates confirmation bias at scale. That is, every influencer is, at the very least, a walking advertisement for the idea of becoming an influencer.”
“When should it be posted? If the event is tomorrow, the answer is not tonight. Most people won’t see it until two days from now – it’s too late. Like when restaurants post their daily specials at 6 pm – great, hope your dinner service was wonderful. I saw it at noon the next day, and it means nothing to me now, I wish I had known about it sooner so I could plan.”
It’s amazing how much data these companies have, the ones we pay $70+ a month for, and yet when it comes time to really “connect,” they just send out these plain, “for everyone” sorts of email marketing messages.
I’ve been thinking about how we get away from social media, or spending less time on our phones, and I think it’s less about dumb phones or apps and more about people.
As Priya Parker has said recently it’s less about “self-help” and more about “group-help.”
Social media has isolated us so much that we thinking breaking free is a solo endeavor, when I think it’s more of a group effort, with the support of other people (I host three Zoom groups per week, ask me about ‘em).
Getting away from social media isn’t just quitting, it’s about starting something else, or a return what came before.
