If we're not just making content, what are we making? writingslowly.com

@writingslowly Yes content is a biz asset for marketing & commerce. Content Strategy turned the corner on that. Authors, artists, designers et al. as creative talent have been commodified or struggle down the Long Tail.

@writingslowly great question, reminds me of Jenny Odell’s “Our very idea of productivity is premised on the idea of producing something new, whereas we do not tend to see maintenance and care as productive in the same way.”

@Skarjune in the struggle for position will the so-called content providers seize the means of containment? Or find other ways to break out of the established containers? Or even sideline the very idea of containers at all? Each of these seems unlikely, but constant change is happening anyway.

@zelle so much to unpack here. I'm thinking about how modernism always says, 'Make it new!... but exactly like this.' So office blocks look the same, highways, Instagram photos, TikToks, pop videos, Substack - all endlessly new, within tight containers. Also thinking: +1 for maintenance and care.

@writingslowly Here’s another lens. Ad-infested pages, sensational content, only in it for the money type of production. These usually carry the patina of newness (look here, familiar topic, repackaged just for you!) but nothing substantially new. And it works. Good enough repackaging gets enough clicks.

The corpus linguist in me can think of a two-step alternative: (1) no point in rescuing “content” from other words it attracts as you pointed out (block, provider, etc.) and (2) instead of a collective noun, think of a constructive metaphor. Obsidian fans talk about maintaining a digital garden. I think about Natalie Goldberg’s composting metaphor when I write in my journal, micro-blog here, etc.

@rscottjones maybe that’s what’s making me uncomfortable about the WordPress interface. I just want to write, but feel like I’m expected to fill the blocks with ‘content’. A clash of paradigms?

@rscottjones “Two myths currently limit our collective imagination: the myth that advertising is the only possible business model for online companies, and the myth that it's too late to change the way platforms operate. On both points we need to be a little more creative.” - Tim Berners-Lee

@rscottjones yes, it’s horrible. And even worse: not being a brand because you’re a person? That’s turned into a brand too.