Founder of the Social Media Escape Club
From Noah Kalina:
I was out taking pictures and I made a picture that I really like. I was working on it and I was like, “This is so good.” And I was like, “What am I going to do with this?”
My natural inclination is to want to post it on the internet, but why? I almost feel like it’s embarrassing to post things on the internet now.
More thoughts here.
From ‘Her dad, the 10,000 records he left behind and a viral lesson in grief:‘
“Since September, the 24-year-old Polish Canadian woman has held a daily “listening party” on her Instagram and TikTok pages, @soundwavesoffwax, to explore decades and genres of music that her father, Richard, loved — punk, disco, pop, jazz, techno, new wave and ’60s psych rock. The project has exploded online, resonating with more than 460,000 followers combined so far — and she still has nearly 10,000 records to go.”
It’s sad that those vinyl records will outlive those social media channels, though.
(via HackerNews)
We need to stop living a post-first existence.
We’re writing our messages on the beach, knowing the ocean will come in and wash it away. We post to keep the algorithms from getting mad, to remind our audience that we have things to say multiple times per day, throughout the week, month after month.
I spoke with Frederick Woodruff how a musician friend of mine keeps making connection without being on any social media platforms (above). Watch the full clip below!
So Substack has partnered with The Free Press. Check out the comments on that post to see how that’s going. Oh, and Substack has a N*gger Problem.
Jesus christ and merry christmas, huh?
This has me thinking about leaving Substack, where I set up my Social Media Escape Club newsletter back in 2021. This was long before they rolled out their Twitter clone called Substack Notes, which has ushered in some major social-media-like vibes.
So yeah, Substack has sort of become social media.
I mean, I love that it’s been the driver of subscribers for me, to the tune of 4,500 people on my email list. But holy moly, being associated with this company is a mental drag.
Thinking of moving my operation to Buttondown, which will cost me $79/mo, but at least it will be without the drama and the 10% cut.
Lots of truth in this statement, not just in a big “PR SALES!” sense, but even in how we talk about what we do with friends, and other people in our creative orbit.
Many artists would love for the “art to speak for itself,” but that’s not the world we live in anymore. There is simply too much art, music, news, drama – EVERYTHING – for things to speak for themselves.
Everything has its volume cranked to 11, and it never ends, and there’s more being added every minute, every hour, every day.
We get better at talking about the work by talking about it, not by trying to scream just as loud as everyone else.
Posting on social media can be like screaming, since we all have to scream to get attention on those platforms. We have to dance, or use the right trending audio, or hashtags.
Talking, though, is a lost art. How many people do you know that don’t even like talking on the phone with friends? Let alone creative directors, or booking people, or potential clients?
Talking is a lost fucking art, but it’s exactly what we need to get back to.
From Seth Godin’s new book ‘This is Strategy.’
When a system creates negative effects, it almost always happens gradually. Each node makes what feels like a reasonable decision at every step along the way, until the descent is far greater than we wished up for.
There’s cultural pressure and momentum to go along and before long we’re trapped – unable to get off social media, in debt, feeling stuck.
Toxic systems don’t go away on their own. Community action and peer support five us the scaffolding we need to build new systems. As those gain traction and power, the original system being to take notice and alter its behavior.
A lot of people feel stuck, and have a fear of missing out. I hear a lot of people say “well, Facebook is how I stay in touch with family” and such.
Until you get locked out, right?
Until that group with 1000 members gets shut down for some unknown reason.
Then what?
Instead of posting something on social media tonight, email an old acquaintance. Text someone a photo or link. Tell them about a book you’re reading. Send an email to someone you admire. Ask someone how they’re doing. Write a letter. Call your bestie.
In getting away from the algorithms and the walled garden of social media DMs, we return to a wide open world of possibilities.
I spoke with Thought Enthusiast about Social Media Escape Club, mantras, and Noah Kalina!
“hey… you don’t need to be loud and jump around and do stunts to connect and share your work. Like, you can just be who you are, and that’s enough, and even though the algorithm might not “reward” that, oh well. Being yourself makes it easy to sustain your work because you’re not wasting energy being someone else.”
Read more here.
Love this from Mehret Biruk:
“I ask the empty page a question and every single time, without fail, to my utter shock and delight, it answers. You can’t hear such answer, your truth dying to reach you, when you’re spending all your time inside the deafening internet noise.”
