This image from Noah’s recent video shook me. What a shot.
Tag: Noah Kalina
COMPANIONSHIP CONTENT
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a tear lately with the “blogging thing.” Did you notice the new domain name? I’ve had sethw.com on and off since, like, 1999 or so because it went with my weird one-man-band act I did. But lately, as I’m now easing into my later 40s, I wanted something that reflected my new vibes, and sethwxyz really worked. Like, the alphabet goes wxyz, right? Seth W… xyz. Oh my god, I love it.
Anyway, since I’ve been writing or blogging so much, I’ve definitely felt different things pulling themselves together.
Like, I’m not spending multiple hours a day writing, but I do a lot of thinking and walking and taking voice notes on occasion, which I rarely revisit, but just doing them helps my brain put things together.
This brings me to this piece called ‘Companionship Content is King‘ by Anu Atluru.
“Companionship content is long-form content that can be consumed passively — allowing the consumer to be incompletely attentive, and providing a sense of relaxation, comfort, and community.”
After reading that whole piece, it was like, oh my god, no wonder I love those Noah Kalina videos, right? And he even mentioned in today’s video, near the end, how you could just have his video on in the background, you don’t even need to really watch it.
There were a few days where I’d find myself in haze after laying around and just scrolling through Instagram Reel after Instagram Reel. It was like when we were kids, and they used to say we watched 10 hours of TV a week or something, but now it’s like we consume 10 hours of video a day, but in 15 to 30-second increments, and it’s draining, as Anu says here:
“Consuming content requires attention, and everyone has an attention ceiling. This is the basis of my belief that short-form video has an upper limit. It’s not that short-form isn’t as good or as entertaining as long-form, it’s that it’s distracting and ultimately draining.
The mental energy consumed per minute of content consumed must be higher for short-form video than many types of content. I think of this as the “drain ratio” (as in energy drain) for a given piece of content or even a whole genre. (I doubt if anyone’s scientifically measured this, but I’d willingly commission a study on it).”
Maybe that’s why I like watching Craig Reynolds of Stray From The Path when he does his drum streams.
I don’t have to pay full attention, but it’s just fun to be “in the room” when he offers a sarcastic comment or self-deprecating humor.
Maybe I’m just getting old, or maybe it’s the after-effects of living through a pandemic, and things are just off, man. I’m not sure, but I just need the slow chill vibes these days.
HINDZ is another great example. A little softer than watching Craig on drums, but still… I guess it’s all about the person. I know what I’m getting from these folks, and there’s a peacefulness to that.
This is also similar to “body doubling,” or virtual co-working sessions that I’ve seen around. I haven’t really dabbled in those quite so much, but I know some people really like those.
I LOVE NOAH KALINA’S NEW VIDEOS
I am LOVING the videos that Noah Kalina is posting lately. I know, I already wrote about this, but whatever.
If you don’t know, he’s the guy who took a photo of his face everyday guy, and he’s a pretty big photographer. He’s like, a big deal, which makes these new videos so fucking great.
Whenever the subject of “starting a podcast” or “doing videos” comes with friends, the conversation always goes, “yeah but, I’m not a loud talker,” or “I’m just shy and introverted.”
And I always tell these friends that that is the reason they need to start a podcast. They need to upload videos on YouTube because there’s enough videos on YouTube with loud talking big mouths. There are quiet people out there who like to watch and listen to other quiet people!
So that’s why these videos are so great.
These videos are permission to set up a camera and just talk, or do whatever you want, really.
Like, Noah has around 50,000 followers and his videos “only” get around 1,000 views. If you’re doing it for the numbers yes, it’s hard. But I think these videos do a lot of good, and can inspire a bunch of people to set up and start doing their own thing (I know I’ve got ideas).