Looks like we got ourselves a classic case of writer’s existential dread, brought to you live from the mean streets of Substack, where the number-one fear ain't failure, it’s not being smart enough for the cool kids’ table. You got seasoned blog veterans missing the Wild West days of WordPress, Tumblr, and whatever dark corners of the internet we all used to overshare on before the algorithm overlords took over. Now, everybody’s staring at the blank page, paralyzed by the idea that their thoughts might not be deep enough.
"This whole "Substack is an echo chamber of intellectual posturing" thing, well, yeah. Every platform eventually fills up with people trying to sound smarter than they are. Welcome to the human condition. But guess what? You don’t have to participate. You don’t have to play Thought Olympics against some 23-year-old with a degree in Existential Crisis Studies. Just write what you want. The good thing about Substack? Nobody’s stopping you.
And let’s talk about this “I’m too self-conscious to post” epidemic in the comments. People saying they sat on their first post for a YEAR? That’s not a writing problem that’s an overthinking problem. You’re not submitting your work to be enshrined in the Library of Congress. You’re not drafting the next Magna Carta. If the pressure’s too much, you might just be taking this a tad too seriously.
Every platform these days is engineered to make us feel like we’re performing for some invisible panel of judges. But back in the day, when you were cranking out three blog posts a day you didn’t care who was watching. You just did it. And that’s the key. Stop worrying about what will “do well” and just do well by yourself.
If you wanna write like you’re 15 again, then do it. Write like nobody's reading. Hell, maybe nobody is reading. That’s freedom! That means you can say whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want. You don’t need Substack to hand you a warm, fuzzy community.
Same. I feel self conscious on here and took forever to publish my first post because I was afraid of not having anything important enough to say (when all I really want is to read and write about books and personal experiences - not quite meaning of life stuff). We don’t all have to be philosophers.
I don’t think the echo chamber is limited to 20-somethings. I’m trying hard to curate my incoming feed on here, so I’m extra critical. I see one person have an interesting take on something, then others regurgitate it. They are academics and “professionals”. It’s fine and good when it’s a dialogue on a topic but more often I don’t see any acknowledgement of the original author, it’s put forth as their own brilliance and then praised like it is.
This was such a fun read! Your teenage self sounds like an absolute force! I’m still new here, but I can already see how easy it is to get caught up in expectations rather than just writing for the joy of it. Love that you’re letting go of the pressure and making space for what feels right—feels like a lesson worth holding onto.
I am feeling this and definitely not saying it. It does feel like thought daughters and Joan Didion wannabes are around every corner. Then one part of me is bummed, because why can't I be that? For me, I feel unworthy to even TRY to articulate an observation as a professional non-writer. I also miss the days of just churning out my brain in a way that felt good. THANK YOU. And I hope that you can shake the echo-chamber when you can.
This feels more like a self-belief that a blog by an adult needs to fit some sort of criteria of adulthood. Go back to writing your passion with abandon and it will come back to you.
But I do see a lot of fluff and how to grow and other types of posts. But what I’ve also found is a very queer and politically engaged community and quite a few writers that have been a joy to follow.
We are here. And we are supportive. It’s just a matter of persistence in searching for your tribe. But hi 👋
Totally agree with most of this! I signed up for Substack last year and was too paralyzed to post for fear of sounding not smart enough, or not having anything actually important to say, comparing myself to the more prolific and popular writers on this platform. This year, I decided to heck with all that! I’m just going to write what I want and not keep my posts in a perpetual “editing phase” so I have an excuse not to post. And honestly, this mindset shift has been SO freeing. I don’t care if no one reads my blog (no one is right now, lol) but I DO care about sharing what I have to say! I hope you experience something similar ❤️
i resonate so deeply with this! i posted regularly on a blog all throughout middle school and highschool and i didn’t spend hours re-reading my drafts before i posted and no one read it and i didn’t really care ; here it sometimes just feels like another competition and i’ve never wanted to compete or convince people i’m a “thought daughter” or whatever that trend is—i just want to write whatever stupid lil thing i wanna write and be able to enjoy it the way i used to
As a 50+ woman coming on here to find community, I feel like you’ve summed up my whole experience here. I’m not really interested in the intellectual competition, I just wanted to find different opinions and perspectives on a variety of subjects, including books, and maybe get back into journaling more like I used to when I was in my 20s. But it doesn’t have the vibe of tumblr (I’ll have my tumblr until I die lol). Maybe it’s just me, but there’s a lot of superiority on here that I find hard to relate to.
This resonated with me because even though I do curate my feed and edit my followings quite often, I feel like if left unattended, my feed will fill up with some variation of the same idea.
And then, there's the Notes - I feel like the sort of "X" dynamic is distracting and unnecessary in a platform that was supposed to be more longer content/thought-inclined than dopamine boosting.
I am not a professional writer, and I use Substack as a creative outlet - a way to escape my day-to-day corporate job. But it is discouraging to think what my place actually is in this community, which sometimes leaves me feeling very self-conscious and unmotivated.
This is so true. Some of these think pieces by people younger than me make me think. But just because it’s Substack does not mean there will be any less flow of misinformation.
Such an interesting take! I’ve been on here consistently for about a month and what I see is a lot of posts about how to get more subscribers. I’m not seeing so many deep, philosophical posts. Maybe you can try to influence your algorithm to get better posts! Not that I know how but it seems like some people do. Good luck!
Aside the 20-something thing (I'm 35 and I'm seeing people my age doing the same that the younger ones), I feel so seen in this article. I'm running a blog now on neocities where no one reads me and I feel so free, like in my teens with my little blogspot blog. I think one of the issues is the competitive nature of social media. Blogspot/Wordpress/Neocities were/are not social media. Substack pushes your stadistics to your face and it can be discouraging. Since I've reached 100 susbscribers I lost my will to write and publish here :(
This. I agree on the substack vs blogspot comparison. I used to run a blogspot back in the day and it was pure joy without the noise and yet I made plenty of connections and even some true friendships. Now I feel like every platform needs to have the “social” component into the mix and by that I mean an algorithm that shows you the highs but also the lows. I’ve only very recently started a substack fooling myself into reviving my glorious days of blogspot but it’s a totally different thing, at least for me.
i really like your take on this! what i like about the platform is that i can get a little bit of everything i'm into on here. if i want some deep,
esoteric insights, i can get that. if i want someone's soul wrenching poetry, i can get that too. but if i want someone's soul wrenching fluff that's also available. it feels like reddit in that way; many sub-genres
Looks like we got ourselves a classic case of writer’s existential dread, brought to you live from the mean streets of Substack, where the number-one fear ain't failure, it’s not being smart enough for the cool kids’ table. You got seasoned blog veterans missing the Wild West days of WordPress, Tumblr, and whatever dark corners of the internet we all used to overshare on before the algorithm overlords took over. Now, everybody’s staring at the blank page, paralyzed by the idea that their thoughts might not be deep enough.
"This whole "Substack is an echo chamber of intellectual posturing" thing, well, yeah. Every platform eventually fills up with people trying to sound smarter than they are. Welcome to the human condition. But guess what? You don’t have to participate. You don’t have to play Thought Olympics against some 23-year-old with a degree in Existential Crisis Studies. Just write what you want. The good thing about Substack? Nobody’s stopping you.
And let’s talk about this “I’m too self-conscious to post” epidemic in the comments. People saying they sat on their first post for a YEAR? That’s not a writing problem that’s an overthinking problem. You’re not submitting your work to be enshrined in the Library of Congress. You’re not drafting the next Magna Carta. If the pressure’s too much, you might just be taking this a tad too seriously.
Every platform these days is engineered to make us feel like we’re performing for some invisible panel of judges. But back in the day, when you were cranking out three blog posts a day you didn’t care who was watching. You just did it. And that’s the key. Stop worrying about what will “do well” and just do well by yourself.
If you wanna write like you’re 15 again, then do it. Write like nobody's reading. Hell, maybe nobody is reading. That’s freedom! That means you can say whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want. You don’t need Substack to hand you a warm, fuzzy community.
Hahah excellent response
One day I decided to make a Substack and wrote my first post within a week. Say what you want to say!!!!!1!!!1!!1!!
I beat you. Set it up in an hour and 24 hours later I made my first post. Also had to edit it three times for spelling mistakes.
Same. I feel self conscious on here and took forever to publish my first post because I was afraid of not having anything important enough to say (when all I really want is to read and write about books and personal experiences - not quite meaning of life stuff). We don’t all have to be philosophers.
God me too, every time I want to post I talk myself out of it with imposter syndrome. I thought this stuff was meant to be fun?!
You’ve got this!!! I’ve been feeling similar, imposter syndrome is a nightmare - but you can beat it 💗
omg yes I didn’t post for a year😭
how are we all experiencing the same thing my goodness
I don’t think the echo chamber is limited to 20-somethings. I’m trying hard to curate my incoming feed on here, so I’m extra critical. I see one person have an interesting take on something, then others regurgitate it. They are academics and “professionals”. It’s fine and good when it’s a dialogue on a topic but more often I don’t see any acknowledgement of the original author, it’s put forth as their own brilliance and then praised like it is.
Yes! This 100%!!!
I’m on day 2 and if I see another “substack is like a message in a bottle…” hahah
😂😂😂
This was such a fun read! Your teenage self sounds like an absolute force! I’m still new here, but I can already see how easy it is to get caught up in expectations rather than just writing for the joy of it. Love that you’re letting go of the pressure and making space for what feels right—feels like a lesson worth holding onto.
The “intellectual competition” feeling rings true for me.
I am feeling this and definitely not saying it. It does feel like thought daughters and Joan Didion wannabes are around every corner. Then one part of me is bummed, because why can't I be that? For me, I feel unworthy to even TRY to articulate an observation as a professional non-writer. I also miss the days of just churning out my brain in a way that felt good. THANK YOU. And I hope that you can shake the echo-chamber when you can.
Thank YOU for sharing your experience. It's so nice to see we're not alone in how we feel!
This feels more like a self-belief that a blog by an adult needs to fit some sort of criteria of adulthood. Go back to writing your passion with abandon and it will come back to you.
I’m not going to say my age because I’m old af.
But I do see a lot of fluff and how to grow and other types of posts. But what I’ve also found is a very queer and politically engaged community and quite a few writers that have been a joy to follow.
We are here. And we are supportive. It’s just a matter of persistence in searching for your tribe. But hi 👋
Totally agree with most of this! I signed up for Substack last year and was too paralyzed to post for fear of sounding not smart enough, or not having anything actually important to say, comparing myself to the more prolific and popular writers on this platform. This year, I decided to heck with all that! I’m just going to write what I want and not keep my posts in a perpetual “editing phase” so I have an excuse not to post. And honestly, this mindset shift has been SO freeing. I don’t care if no one reads my blog (no one is right now, lol) but I DO care about sharing what I have to say! I hope you experience something similar ❤️
i resonate so deeply with this! i posted regularly on a blog all throughout middle school and highschool and i didn’t spend hours re-reading my drafts before i posted and no one read it and i didn’t really care ; here it sometimes just feels like another competition and i’ve never wanted to compete or convince people i’m a “thought daughter” or whatever that trend is—i just want to write whatever stupid lil thing i wanna write and be able to enjoy it the way i used to
I wish we could bottle that energy and enthusiasm from our teens. Even if what we wrote wasn't great, at least we were having fun.
As a 50+ woman coming on here to find community, I feel like you’ve summed up my whole experience here. I’m not really interested in the intellectual competition, I just wanted to find different opinions and perspectives on a variety of subjects, including books, and maybe get back into journaling more like I used to when I was in my 20s. But it doesn’t have the vibe of tumblr (I’ll have my tumblr until I die lol). Maybe it’s just me, but there’s a lot of superiority on here that I find hard to relate to.
This resonated with me because even though I do curate my feed and edit my followings quite often, I feel like if left unattended, my feed will fill up with some variation of the same idea.
And then, there's the Notes - I feel like the sort of "X" dynamic is distracting and unnecessary in a platform that was supposed to be more longer content/thought-inclined than dopamine boosting.
I am not a professional writer, and I use Substack as a creative outlet - a way to escape my day-to-day corporate job. But it is discouraging to think what my place actually is in this community, which sometimes leaves me feeling very self-conscious and unmotivated.
This is so true. Some of these think pieces by people younger than me make me think. But just because it’s Substack does not mean there will be any less flow of misinformation.
Such an interesting take! I’ve been on here consistently for about a month and what I see is a lot of posts about how to get more subscribers. I’m not seeing so many deep, philosophical posts. Maybe you can try to influence your algorithm to get better posts! Not that I know how but it seems like some people do. Good luck!
Aside the 20-something thing (I'm 35 and I'm seeing people my age doing the same that the younger ones), I feel so seen in this article. I'm running a blog now on neocities where no one reads me and I feel so free, like in my teens with my little blogspot blog. I think one of the issues is the competitive nature of social media. Blogspot/Wordpress/Neocities were/are not social media. Substack pushes your stadistics to your face and it can be discouraging. Since I've reached 100 susbscribers I lost my will to write and publish here :(
This. I agree on the substack vs blogspot comparison. I used to run a blogspot back in the day and it was pure joy without the noise and yet I made plenty of connections and even some true friendships. Now I feel like every platform needs to have the “social” component into the mix and by that I mean an algorithm that shows you the highs but also the lows. I’ve only very recently started a substack fooling myself into reviving my glorious days of blogspot but it’s a totally different thing, at least for me.
i really like your take on this! what i like about the platform is that i can get a little bit of everything i'm into on here. if i want some deep,
esoteric insights, i can get that. if i want someone's soul wrenching poetry, i can get that too. but if i want someone's soul wrenching fluff that's also available. it feels like reddit in that way; many sub-genres