Today is Christmas Eve. I’m sitting in a sunlit vegan cafe in Nepal, overlooking a nearby lake. As this year comes close to its end, I feel reflective. This year was mostly spent in the warm, humid climate of Indonesia.
I know now that ending this year in a cold climate is symbolic. If you’ve been reading many of my journal entries, you’ll notice how often I see things in metaphors. I can’t help it.
The coldness of winter reminds me that warmth comes from the choices I make. It’s my choice to turn on the heater and wear warm clothes. It can also be my choice not to.
The temperature is indifferent to my feelings, and can be pleasant or uncomfortable, depending on the choices that I make. I know what it feels like to blame the weather for my discomfort, which I did when I arrived in this colder climate.
I was unprepared for a relatively cold winter, because all my clothes are made for a warm climate. I know this sounds very obvious. Of course, I thought about this before coming to Nepal. But when it comes to my writing, the weather has changed, and I haven’t upgraded my wardrobe to match.
SubStack is a growing platform, in my opinion, because collectively we’re craving authenticity and community. I was already feeling fatigued from the takeover of short-form video content before AI could make interesting videos.
Now that I have trouble discerning whether a video on my feed is taken by a human or generated by AI, I’m losing interest fast. I want to hear human stories. I want to see human emotions. I want to hear about other people’s lived experiences, and how they changed them.
The way that social media has existed for over a decade now has brought us many benefits (I just did a Google search and discovered that Instagram was launched in 2010).
As much as people love to complain about social media, myself included at times, it has brought the world closer together in a way that never felt possible before.
But the current generation of social media can’t take us any further. Something must evolve out of it, and I believe SubStack is a key part of this emerging wave.
I don’t believe any one platform will be the leading energetic container for this massive shift, but what I’m able to share here on this platform feels different than what I can share on my TikTok or Instagram.
I’m excited to connect with you here. I want to read your comments and hear your thoughts about what I’m sharing in these journal entries.
Transitioning to make SubStack my primary platform is uncharted territory for me, but it’s helping me evolve as a writer, and that excites me tremendously.
What do you think about SubStack, and where do you see social media heading?
Love,
Eric
