there's almost no space for writing anymore that's joyful or an attempt to be creative. hardly anyone is playing around with form or even just trying to entertain. so much of the joy has been sucked out of the internet unless its crowdsourced by platforms from ppl who aren't paid
and i think it has a profound effect! i don't spend nearly as much time online doing anything enjoyable. the time i spent doing that i now use to consume hard news (which fucks you up!) or stuff adjacent to a crushing news cycle. it's ruthlessly efficient and bad for the soul
anyway this seems to just be the broad theme of the internet over time - everything scales up, the art and joy are slowly drained out of it. some folks at the top make some money, the rest of us jack up our consumption and feel worse and worse for it.
this isn't to discount the great stuff that pops up. and yes — newsletters are a fun place for people to experiment. but broadly...this is the trend. efficiency at scale over art/entertainment/creativity.
anyhow! those of us who spend too much time online are constantly saying it feels worse and worse on here & while this isn't the only reason it's a huge part of it. there are so few places that have the space to focus on creating joy online that there's no escape from the ugh
