Paying attention. We cannot keep paying attention to content that outrages us and offers nothing in regards to solutions. It feels like most apps are full of carnival barkers that continue to get more and more extreme with time. I have been on Meta since 2011 and deleted my accounts. The fact that so many people feel trapped by these apps and dependent on them to conduct business or stay connected to their communities is a big problem to solve. I am thinking about creating a zine. What are some other solutions people see for decentralizing and being more mindful of the content they create?
digital marketing
I don't feel very creative or safe lately. Lately, so much of what I write or create feels meaningless with the current state of affairs in the background, humming like a constant threat.
I have scrapped so much content, and I usually tend to create for the practice of creating.
Then my older son asked me, “Uhma are you writing about what you are feeling + dealing with?”
That’s when I realized I have been busy numbing myself -a type of disassociation or distracting myself to avoid the overwhelm.
Some thoughts:
1) A level of safety if necessary to create
2) Safety can also be found within through practice + discernment
3) Sometimes, we must not run from the fear we feel but toward it to understand
3) Sometimes, because we don’t feel safe, we need speak on that.
Confession: I don’t feel safe lately.
In process: I am building an inner sanctuary of safety to face my fears.
My advice is not to scrap your content, put it into a content library, and revisit it again in the future. The world is hungry for advice, ways to improve, and do things smarter. I suggest you start by asking, "Who is your ideal audience?" What is important to them?... AI inevitably will change the film industry forever. Deal with it. . Many of my friends in the film industry HATE AI. The hate the fact that AI will collapse the status quo in the industry. For some reason they prefer the studios to gate keep everything. I just don't get it. AI filmmaking will democratize the art and allow anyone create movies. Sure there will be a lot of slop, but as in all things, the cream will rise to the top. I'm a screenwriter and I already see how AI threatens what I do. But instead of cursing the darkness, I'm teaching myself to use AI. I'm trying to ride the tsunami instead of being washed away by it.
People can’t sell work they don’t own. Companies don’t want to pay ai users to create stuff that They can’t exclusively control the IP of. Direct to consumer AI tools are just marketing for enterprise level tools for big tech.... I'm wondering how many of you have backed away from "fame."
It comes in all sizes.
The joke about people in radio broadcasting is that it is "the lowest wrung of the entertainment ladder." Even if true, it is still brutal. I had to be better than 300 other applicants for one prestige job I had. Imagine the pressure these days to be an "influencer."
I'd like to know authors' views on what you consider "getting there."
I feel very lucky to be a sort of micro-influencer; I get to have deep impact on a small number of people, many if not most of whom I personally know, rather than a micro impact on a large number of people.... How Google and AI are Killing Travel Blogs Like Mine I just finished reading this blog post by Amanda Williams, a travel blogger of 15 years, on the impact of Google's "helpful content" algo changes and AI on her ability to financial sustain herself.... Is the Thesis/Antithesis/Synthesis dialectic too constraining? Stephanie Lepp has started a project called
Faces of X
– don’t worry, X doesn’t mean Twitter, rather X as infill in the blank
See: https://www.facesofx.org/p/interview-the-glenn-show?r=1gw0e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
She is trying to break people out of either or thinking with very short (5 minute) videos that attempt to steel-man each of the thesis and antithesis perspectives, and then coming in with a synthesis view that explores the potential territory missing in the previous two.
Best just to watch a sample for yourself on facesofx.org (examples videos on Gender, Race, Capitalism, and Abortion, you know, just a few safe and non-controversial starters).
The link for this post is an interview by Glenn Loury, a college professor in which he responds with his thoughts and seems to get stuck in the either/or dichotomy, or in the view that no perspective that can be voiced in a few minutes is sufficient to give the topic its due.
While I love Stephanie’s approach, I am concerned that it may assume more capacity that the average person can meet. You’ll have to watch to get a sense of what I mean.
https://www.facesofx.org/p/interview-the-glenn-show?r=1gw0e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web1 minute into my first video, I’m in a fuck yes to this thing. Feels like there’s more oxygen when I inhale. Where I don’t have concern about the capacity at the moment is that these videos aren’t just out there on YouTube or TikTok.... This is a big update for me: 50 Niche Social Networks by the numbers
I used to think we were up against a graveyard of failed projects. There’s truth in that, but it obscures the vibrancy of the existing social media landscape: There are 30 social networks most of us have never even heard of pulling in 500k+ monthly active users.... I want this tech for music. I have such specific tastes in music, I want to be able to find the people who also find stuff I dig. Like the ultimate version of Pandora. But also the ability to collaborate on music, like the way producers alter songs to the flavor they like, but a bunch of folks could do that process on a song to crowdsource cool songs.
There are 2 sites. The Discogs one and the bandcamp one. Funny thing was that I had a hard time figuring out what they were too - which isn’t good for them.... Left Media Bias bigger than i realized. No matter how you measure (print media, online, page views, paid subscribers, followers, etc) US media leans heavily left, to an extent that surprised me. Most ways I tried back-of-the napkin math have right + right-leaning news sources being below 10%… and even the most generous assessments that include lost of neutral/other outlets still have left + left-leaning above 50% (meaning 5:1 liberal to conservative is the lowest estimate i could find).
Context
The US is pretty evenly split in terms of the two major parties:
> 45% of U.S. adults Republican-ish, 44% Democrat-ish Gallup 2022Some sources
- Allsides Here’s Allsides review
their media bias on Allsides.com here’s the site’s own assessment of its own bias - Googling the top 25 most-subscribed news channels in the United States, and
- Even the more left leaning LLMS can’t help but point out this as a fact of modern media.
Takeaways
First, this gives me empathy for Republicans. Many American conservatives feel like the underdog, regardless of how much power or influence they yield, because in a very real way, they’re not represented in a substantial part of the public narrative making machine—the media—proportionally. The perception of bias is true despite their being popular conservative outlets with sizable audiences, and as a result the left has influence on public opinion.Impact on Public Trust (but also how come Republicans aren’t better at getting media subscribers?)
Second, how come Republicans, who are stereotypically thought of us as having more business acumen or money or something, are getting so handily beaten in the media?
Third, I try not to get involved in politics because I’m scared of loosing connection or turning people off of the value of relatefulness because of my takes, even if they’re nuanced. We’re very good at otherizing people and forgetting to look at nuances. I’m certain I lack nuance. I don’t want a difference of political opinion to get in the way of our connecting. I started writing up this for the TTT email (which I ended up deciding not to send) but I realized others are deeply esconced in politics and way smarter and more educated in the field than I, so I decided to not go there. But here on uptrusting.com I think it’s a cool opporutnity to test; could also be a nice road to empathy, or self-empathy, depending on our identifications.
thank you! I didn’t include youtube influencers- i think its a great question. Tough to answer, especially because of the algorithms that hone in on one thing for us personally and push us in that...