# notes --- - [[{2.5a} bad art is not unique to social media]] - [[{3.1e} social media engagement is reproductive labor]] – contributes to culture-making - social media is a creative and conversational medium, not an offer or service # Highlights --- > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Jay told me that he spends 95% of his time on a platform either creating or engaging in his comments. He only spends 5% scrolling or consuming content. > [!action]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > I'm currently reading a book of essays written by sci-fi and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin. The first section contained mostly speeches she delivered to various writers' groups. The second section was made up of forewards she wrote for the reprinting of other people's books. And the third section is book reviews she wrote and published in various places. In other words, Le Guin was immersed in the world of writing, publishing, and reading. > > this is a super interesting way to look at essays -- essays tend to be reactions, and of course things like reviews count in that area, depending on the level of how it's done, I guess (?)... Just think this is a neat, new (?) way to think about essays / publishing. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Communities of Craft > > vs [[communities of practice]]? > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > How we interpret the content form is every bit a part of the art as the content itself. Similar to identity performance… Observation / consumption is as important as creation. > [!check]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > How we uphold or subvert the expectations of the form is part of our culture-making. > > love this!!! ^997994 Consumption is culture-making. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > The "social" aspect of the medium is key to its form—and how we might create with it. Social media aren't social simply because someone else can reply or leave a comment. Social media are social because they constitute a broader social infrastructure. They form collective conversation. Just because a speech act occurs on a platform designed to be "social" doesn't mean it's a work of social media. Without the social component, it's merely a copy of previous broadcast media. > [!check]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > **A meme is an artifact of social interaction and iteration.** > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > **to fully understand the conversation, one must be part of it.** > > [[{7a2a} context collapse]] :) > [!check]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > we create not as solitary geniuses but as custodians of story, knowledge, and culture's building blocks > > **creativity is a cultural act** > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > great creators consume what others create so that they can become greater creators. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Still, you might be wondering, isn't social media different? Is there really value in exposing yourself to that kind of brain-rotting knee-jerk verbal vomit? > > **Look, people make bad art in every medium.** > > rethinking social media as a *medium*... can also link this back to me being on tumblr again! there is bad art on every platform, too, but ppl can still gather w something worth sharing... also curation as a medium?? > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > social media platforms started to emerge, they gave us a new medium and fresh forms to create with > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > part of what made the forms in this medium new was that the observer was no longer at a remove > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > also allowed users to build off of each other's work. You could reference someone else's work as you put out your own work. It became a type of citation—a nod to those who were part of the lineage of your work. > > relevant to [[INBOX/fleeting/a new way to web]] > [!highlight[](a%20new%20way%20to%20web%201.md)0 > > the point of creating social media is to be in conversation with other social media creators, both directly and indirectly > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > **I see my work as part of a larger discourse between many thinkers, writers, and practitioners—rather than a service I perform for the people who subscribe or follow me.** > > YES, social media should not be seen as a SERVICE to others! it's a means of expression, even in professional settings, even as "marketing", it is conversation / creativity. we lost the plot when we started seeing social media as an offer. > [!action]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > here's (part of) what he said when I pushed back on his allocation of time and expressed concern about how social media users post and run rather than participate in the broader conversation: > >There was this, like, old principle of the internet. I forget who came up with it early on. It was like the 99-1 principle. Like 90% are lurkers. 9% are kind of casual users, commenters. And then 1% are the creators, the publishers, the people creating content. And I think that holds true and maybe even has gotten worse. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Getting to know people personally is different from immersing yourself in the community of your craft. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > You can gain valuable insight from a paid, private community, and the insight you gain from engaging with the broader discourse is a different beast. The social context of a private community is just too siloed and self-selective to give you real taste for what's happening beyond its digital walls. > > you need walled gardens AND > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Male-coded social media accounts might be expected to "wow" their followers with tips, tricks, and insights. While female-coded social media accounts might be expected to demonstrate care and concern through their constant presence on the apps. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > while a man’s not being boring will scale with relative ease to a larger audience, a woman’s developing a relationship with each student obviously won’t > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > women and woman-identifying people are often tasked with both the “wow” and the care. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > “genius aesthetic”: it describes our tendency to think that the meaning of a work of art comes out of the specific mind of its creator, not out of the preexisting rules that creator worked within nor the broader spirit of the society and time. > > connect w rubin -- creativity happens when the universe is ready for what you're sharing -- all involved in broader context > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > The opposite of excessive care is a sort of proud disconnection from the collective. It's solipsistic disinterest in the cultural community one is a part of. The genius aesthetic gestures broadly to human potential and the good of humanity—but eschews relationship with the community. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Men are allowed to articulate a bold vision for the future—while women tend the hearth fires of social engagement. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Some creators, predominantly men but not exclusively, align themselves with platform founders more than the common (feminized) user. > > this is interesting. is the cozyweb a "feminine" thing? like, how much of the way the internet is changing comes down to being as simple as these gender disparities? ^151576 > [!check]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > In this way, I think it's possible to see the consumption of social media as a form of reproductive labor. > > holy shit > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > Productive labor is labor that produces value in the form of goods and services. Reproductive labor, on the other hand, is labor that reproduces labor power—most often other people's but also one's own. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > parallel between masculinized productive labor and masculinized content creation. Men used to spend the day at the factory making stuff. Today, men spend the day filling their social media scheduler with profound insights. Men used to come home to a clean house, stiff drink, and dinner on the table at 6pm. Today, men receive the likes, comments, and shares that refresh their creative drives. > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:24 GMT-0400 > > We've learned to venerate the 'creative person' because they represent this ideal form of value-producing worker. > > just more infiltration of corporate ideas > [!highlight]+ Wed May 15 2024 11:53:51 GMT-0400 > > The content creator is a producer in a world of content consumers. > >The moral value communicated here is clear. Do you want to be part of the 1% or part of the 99%?