19 Comments
Aug 15Liked by Martin Brodsky

I have a YouTube Channel that I started 2 years ago. Ironically, I have no interest in being famous, but I do like being creative and sharing things that I create with the world. I am constantly checking with myself to make sure I'm still doing it for the right reasons (i.e. connecting with interesting people in the places I travel to, documenting my own knowledge and experiences for myself). It can be difficult to stay the course when the incentives (views, money, etc.) can push you in the opposite direction.

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Sometimes I feel like creativity and capitalism are antithetical. Good on you for staying the course.

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Aug 16Liked by Martin Brodsky

Hey Martin! My friend Jon sent me this article (he commented below), and it resonated with me a lot. I used to be a vlogger and I got so fed up with filming every second of my life that I quit doing it. Writing a weekly article is so much easier on me and makes me feel I have more balance. Love your work and I'll be following you from here on out.

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Thanks, Thomas! I’ve been digging all of your stuff, as well.

You know, a thought just occurred to me that when you’re always on (be that vlogging or influencing or putting up any kind of performance, in the continual quest to gather clay for content), it doesn’t leave much room to breathe, to think, come up with interesting things to say. We need to maintain and protect that space for all the good stuff to rise to the surface.

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Aug 15Liked by Martin Brodsky

Nice essay Marty. Similar vein: I picked up FILTERWORLD by Kyle Chayka at the library, it was serendipitously sitting on the shelf and I was killing time. It’s about the algorithms that run our lives now, if we let them. There are some overdone and repetitive chapters, but by and by it’s a great in depth analysis of how social media works, and how it’s got us in a death grip.

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I like Chayka’s stuff. Been reading Our Band Could Be Your Life . . . feeling inspired by the give-no-fucks DIY attitude.

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I feel the same way, Martin, although I don’t use social media in the way you’re talking about. I’m in my sixties. Like many people my age, I now live in a place I neither grew up in nor resided in for most of my adult life. The close friends I have, people I see in person socially, are all either people I knew from my hometown where I haven’t lived since 1980 or from the city I lived in for other 30 years and left for good over 7 years ago. The people I know locally are close neighbors, people I’ve done community theater with, or people in my Zumba Gold class. They are nice folks but it’s very difficult in my situation to cross the line into dinner parties and heart-to-heart talks.

As for influencers, pffft! I don’t do Tik Tok because the Chinese government can kiss my ass. I don’t do Twitter/X because Elon Musk can also kiss my ass. The writing gurus have little influence on me because I already know I don’t want to spend time marketing, which is what most of their advice is about. I check Facebook to keep up with old face-to-face friends that live too far to visit with much, if at all. Lately, I’ve made it a point to try to get together for breakfast or lunch with those folks when we’re in the same area. I’m taking a car trip to the Smoky Mountains in October and plan to see some old friends along the way. It’s easier refreshing old relationships you know were good rather than trying to forge new ones with people whose dance cards are already full.

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Here's another story I wrote a while back that I think you might like . . .

https://martinbrodsky.substack.com/p/out-of-loneliness

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Thanks for this, Denise. You know, I'd agree that refreshing old relationships is underrated. A few years ago, a friend I hadn't spoken to in ten years called me on my birthday and after we hung up following a long conversation, I felt so excited simply from reconnecting. I'm more of a caller than a texter, but I'd say this is one thing lost by so much communication heading toward the latter.

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"I don’t live my life for the content, but to be content." Emphasis on the correct syllable! I'd say you've got this thing pretty well figured. You and I have/are serving the same clientele - CEO's, corporate chieftains, even rock-n-roll stars. And it's always the same, someone called it "The LONELY cry of the top dog!" I write about it often because it's so E M P T Y. So press on my friend, 'looking forward to the hope that lies before us...'

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"The LONELY cry of the top dog!" Ah, that's gold.

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yes, yes so much yes. this is perfectly articulated. substack is the only place I feel like I can just not care about the reaction, focus on the writing, but even here the standard social media cognitive patterning risks creeping up sometimes

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Totally agree. Even though Substack is inching toward more social-media-ization, the kind of engagement here is soo much better than any other platform. Beating a dead horse here, but X is such a wasteland now—as the former prime location for writers, it puts into stark contrast how positive this community on Substack really is. Though I still would rather hang out with everyone in person.

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Thanks for this. It makes me want to move on to influencers in my own newsletter. Sometimes the drive to be the influencer reflects something perhaps that is quite different to the content of the influence. There has to be a comfortableness with that role which might necessarily contain distance from others.

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I would love to see you dissect the motivations of influencers.

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Thank you for the shout! And agreed on the birthday thing... seeing a few years worth of HAPPY BIRTHDAY messages in my LinkedIn inbox from people I NEVER talked to, but they were eager for any excuse to "engage," it's just gross. Great post!

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Thanks, Seth! Love your stuff. And the addition of the nature shots in your posts are great, exactly because they're indistinct, almost unremarkable images that we so often pass by without noticing (I'm guessing that's kinda the point). Always appreciate the reminder to slow down and appreciate everything around us.

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It's nice to have online connections, but meeting with people in person is better. Unfortunately, I can't connect with most of my online connections IRL because they live far away from me, but I can do that with people in person.

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I feel you. It's definitely not feasibly with a lot of our online connections, but that makes it all the better when we travel and can actually put a face (or more like physical presence) to the name.

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