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Why I still blog after 15 years

jonashietala.se

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Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#141

Post by AlienRobot »

jl6 wrote: post #62
ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> content creation I seriously hate the term "content" used for "creative output". It is a terrible, derogatory word, that makes me sad. Content is only there to have something to sell, to fill the blank space around ads, the actual content of the content doesn't matter. That people refer to themselves as "content creators" is a sign that they see the value of their creative output only to make money.

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

They didn't use to, but now they do.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#142

Post by nemomarx »

bityard wrote: post #95
jl6 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

I can't explain why, but I always cringe a little when I hear someone say that they "consume content." Maybe its because I can't tell if brings up animalistic connotations (a pack of feral hipsters picking at the remains of an endangered podcast on the Serengeti), or if they are intentionally being elitist ("It would be a waste of time to simply read Chomsky's work, an educated person would make the effort consume it…

I get the opposite vibe - you read literature, you consume content like it's generic slop and the quality isn't that important.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#143

Post by itshossein »

aksss wrote: post #92
blackbrokkoli wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: If you write only for yourself, what motivates you to actually finish, and more importantly, polish a post? I write for myself all the time, in private: I have a journal, a paper notebook, thousands of notes in Obsidian. Yet doing a blog post feels like a massive undertaking every single time, especially the later writing and editing: explaining stuff that is obvious to me and no one else, replacing…

Not op, but.. Writing for my future self (I know from coding) is like writing for another person. So making it readable, sources cited, etc. is being kind to future me. Also, it’s like that old saw about teaching - if you can’t explain something to another, you probably don’t really know the topic. The exercise of writing about something with another person in mind helps me organize the information and understand it…

"Writing is thinking. The clearer your thoughts, the better the output. It's kind of the main reason why writing is an essential part of the learning process (especially in schools)."

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#144

Post by nineteen999 »

tomjen3 wrote: post #139
nineteen999 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea of content creation as a full time career is relatively new, and I hate it. I do too, but IMHO unfortunately us older generations have a lot to answer for when it comes to this. My teenage daughter plus all of her friends all want to be content creators. It's the 21st century equivalent of becoming a pop star or being a TV personality. As an industry we've automated away a lot of the jobs that these kids o…

And my generation all wanted to be popstars, actors and models (well I wanted to program computers, but whatever). Kids don't change that much, it is just us who are getting older.

Totally, I quit high school at 15 to become a rock star. It didn't pan out.

I think the difference is the automation, the algorithms designed to maximise for maximum engagement of human attention. Growing up in the MTV generation, these algorithms were handled mostly by humans, and their reach was limited due to television, radio and print media being the dominant form of communication with the audience.

Now we have an Internet, everyone including our kids is connected, everything is only a click away, and the algorithms run at massive speed due to the compute power of today.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#145

Post by wormius »

jl6 wrote: post #62
ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> content creation I seriously hate the term "content" used for "creative output". It is a terrible, derogatory word, that makes me sad. Content is only there to have something to sell, to fill the blank space around ads, the actual content of the content doesn't matter. That people refer to themselves as "content creators" is a sign that they see the value of their creative output only to make money.

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

I remember in the 90s "content is king" was a catchphrase, this was before the modern internet. Though I had no idea it was a Bill Gates phrase, found this while looking for more info on it (since it's been ages since I've thought that way, after the post 2007/2011-ish shift of the internet).

https://medium.com/@HeathEvans/content-is-king-essay-by-bill...

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#146

Post by AlienRobot »

JohnMakin wrote: post #36

> "I keep this blog for me to write, not necessarily for others to read." This is now to me the "old school" internet creator attitude (that I still possess). I don't blog as much any more but do create content elsewhere - a lot of it is for my own enjoyment and creative outlet, to blow off steam, whatever - the fact that other people may want to watch it is secondary. I do try to do things people want, but only if I…

I realized I had become a boomer when I saw people using the term "Youtuber" as a normal job description which, through all my life, I had thought of as a "joke" profession like "Influencer."

Now they're all real, and I'm officially boomed. Youtuber, Influencer, Content Creator, Streamer, even VTuber. I'm sure the world of professional TikTokers is also upon us.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#147

Post by _DeadFred_ »

wisemang wrote: post #71
jl6 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

Heh, my brother-in-law have described “content” as being the “love language” of our boomer dads.. the sharing of material (surprisingly often on TikTok these days) that none of us really care about yet continually gets sent out to us. Seemingly the favoured way to keep in touch.

Not a boomer but honestly every year that passes I can tell my cognitive decline by how much harder it is to not send these things to my kids.

I have a folder full of them marked 'inheritance' so that I can be assured my kids will find it when they scour my computer after I'm dead. They are going to be so stoked!

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#148

Post by shafoshaf »

alexyz12 wrote: post #130
anthonypasq wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this seems like a complete non-sequitur to me

seems very relevant to me. Isn't it capitalism that reduces our value to $s? And thus our art is only valuable as content?

I think this is a common misconception of the comparison between "capitalism" and other forms of economic distribution. It's not capitalism that equates everything to dollars, it is how the universe works. This was the beauty of Karl Marx's thinking. He postulated that the best way to measure value is in the amount of human labor that goes into the output. However, once you have a medium to equate the value of a new chair into labor then I can come up with an another transformation to equate that labor into some defined quantity of glass beads. It turns out that choosing Labor as the "value" is completely arbitrary, and so dollars (or yen or gold) works just as well as a medium for conversion.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#149

Post by _DeadFred_ »

golergka wrote: post #138
doctorwho42 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to the hyper capitalist world that has been created over the past 60 years. This is the result of always needed growth in your economic system.

Economic growth is another way of saying "improving people's lives". An economic system which always needs to improve people's lives is a good thing, actually. When you compare modern first world to 60 years ago, people's lives have significantly improved. And if you do the same in developed countries, the difference is unbelievable.

Problem is the 10-20 year window doesn't look so good.

Only vampires don't realize you can't suck every last drop out out. Every good manager knows you can't count on more than 80% employee utilization in the best circumstances with the best people. Now companies expect zero hour employees (part time employees who are guaranteed zero hours/zero schedule but expected to move their lives around their job, which is one of three part time jobs they need to survive) to do more than that by requiring employees do the manager's job of finding shift coverage off hours using their personal phone, etc while also being 100% utilized during work hours, with zero overlapping roll coverage. That isn't sustainable and no way live, and is an unreasonable expectation from a zero hour job.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#150

Post by Dansvidania »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #147
wisemang wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, my brother-in-law have described “content” as being the “love language” of our boomer dads.. the sharing of material (surprisingly often on TikTok these days) that none of us really care about yet continually gets sent out to us. Seemingly the favoured way to keep in touch.

Not a boomer but honestly every year that passes I can tell my cognitive decline by how much harder it is to not send these things to my kids. I have a folder full of them marked 'inheritance' so that I can be assured my kids will find it when they scour my computer after I'm dead. They are going to be so stoked!

As someone that is on the receiving end of such a content feed, I thank you for your attempt not to send things.
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