“handmade, limited quantity, or geared towards small groups of people who actively choose to receive it” - love this so much. Social media promised the entire world as our potential audience. Tweet something at 10am, get talked about on the late night shows for a day or two, rinse, repeat. But going viral sounds awful. Give me living rooms, tiny venues, a zoom room with 12 people searching for something. Love love love this piece.
i vibe with this hard. especially love how it’s written, feels like the future is already here, so much so that you’re talking about it in the past-present
Re: "New Media is opinionated about the internet's infinite scale" -- For the last decade, it feels like growth was assumed to always be good. But I often think about growth in terms of things that overtake themselves: tidal waves, hurricanes, cancer cells. All these things grow and as they do, they damage. So there's something implicitly *rational* about creators gearing toward small groups and deploying anti-algorithm release strategies.
For independent artists and creators, this is a REALLY exciting time. Thank you so much for this angle and these insights. Saving to re-read again and again.
It’s kind of Post Media in a way. Like you say, “new media” may have started as a reference to computer connected media(s) but fairly quickly became a consumer tool and then a metaphor and then meaningless.
I’ve actually always preferred intermedia as a term for work that I’ve made but these days it does feel more like “mediums” are so inherently intertwined that we should be able to see things without labels. But we’ve been trained for so long in a commodified culture to focus on the wrapper around “production”.
So like Post Modernism attempted to challenge and deconstruct the structures of Modernism, we can reconfigure the building blocks of what we mean by media.
I wrote recently about social's algorithm and how, alongside the mental health epidemic, there's been a less discussed, creator "loss of self," as creators change their creation to fit an algorithm.
I think part of the solution is creators who choose to forget any of the algorithm, and create honestly as their ideas manifest and not bend to the algorithm, causing loss of authenticity.
"It's only a matter of time before a culture with extremely advanced technology seeks nourishment of that which is uniquely human.
“handmade, limited quantity, or geared towards small groups of people who actively choose to receive it” - love this so much. Social media promised the entire world as our potential audience. Tweet something at 10am, get talked about on the late night shows for a day or two, rinse, repeat. But going viral sounds awful. Give me living rooms, tiny venues, a zoom room with 12 people searching for something. Love love love this piece.
i vibe with this hard. especially love how it’s written, feels like the future is already here, so much so that you’re talking about it in the past-present
new media, new technologists, new consumers... i see something here 👀
This is exciting stuff!
Re: "New Media is opinionated about the internet's infinite scale" -- For the last decade, it feels like growth was assumed to always be good. But I often think about growth in terms of things that overtake themselves: tidal waves, hurricanes, cancer cells. All these things grow and as they do, they damage. So there's something implicitly *rational* about creators gearing toward small groups and deploying anti-algorithm release strategies.
For independent artists and creators, this is a REALLY exciting time. Thank you so much for this angle and these insights. Saving to re-read again and again.
It’s kind of Post Media in a way. Like you say, “new media” may have started as a reference to computer connected media(s) but fairly quickly became a consumer tool and then a metaphor and then meaningless.
I’ve actually always preferred intermedia as a term for work that I’ve made but these days it does feel more like “mediums” are so inherently intertwined that we should be able to see things without labels. But we’ve been trained for so long in a commodified culture to focus on the wrapper around “production”.
So like Post Modernism attempted to challenge and deconstruct the structures of Modernism, we can reconfigure the building blocks of what we mean by media.
I’m curious to see how new media evolves on Substack—what ways will or are people challenging the form of what Substack is
A huge Yes to all of this!!
Every word of this resonates with me too. Very exciting journey you're on, I'm hooked. Hear hear to these other comments.
Love this
I wrote recently about social's algorithm and how, alongside the mental health epidemic, there's been a less discussed, creator "loss of self," as creators change their creation to fit an algorithm.
I think part of the solution is creators who choose to forget any of the algorithm, and create honestly as their ideas manifest and not bend to the algorithm, causing loss of authenticity.
"It's only a matter of time before a culture with extremely advanced technology seeks nourishment of that which is uniquely human.
A numinous sight to behold. "