Glad you've decided to check out our blogs!
I must agree that I favor connections which feel real to me, where I am able to have an actual conversation with an individual. I feel like a lot of the web has become soul-less SEO-littered content and it's almost like there is no way back from that.
However, discovering new places on the web to read the voices of real people is liberating and exciting.
I have also been getting engaged in long-form content, although I have been attracted to listening to the audio of YouTube documenaties and videos. I have found a lot of avenues for education on my passions through this medium, which suprised me at first.
The connection between the listener and the author is extremely interesting. I have noticed I create a connection in my head with the creator of choice when I listen to someone talking. When I turn off this video and choose something different such as music, the mood drains. It's almost like you have cut off someone from their conversation.
I have always wondered why my mind will act like this, although I think it does have a slight reflection of society and potential goals of media outlets. I can't determine if this connection I speak of is a positive or negative for society.
On Tue, 14 Jan 2025, Brendan Jercich wrote:
To answer your question, Aidan, I’ve been thinking recently about how podcasts are a singular medium in the way they engender parasocial relationships—which is a strained way to say “I keep feeling like the strangers I listen to in the car are my best friends.” Thinking too about how they are a branch of the web that is highly portable and resistant to algorithmic platform interference, as long as you didn’t get locked in by Spotify, in a way that newsletters clearly want to be… as long as you aren’t locked in by Substack.
I like my physical neighborhood and I wish my digital sense of place was more like it. So I'm drawn to the idea of having a connection to the people whose work I follow, however tenuous—like a shared server mailing list—rather than attaching my emotions to complete unknowns. Subscribing to your blog and to sneak’s now!
On Jan 12, 2025, at 10:39 PM, lxu@tilde.club wrote:
Hey Brendan,
This is an interesting question, what brought you to become interested in wanting to hear other people?
Although I must say in these times, it's hard to find real people.
I have a blog over at https://blog.aidxn.fun I also write a lot (more creatively, though most of it is sad) on my Tilde page.
- Aidan / lxu
On Mon, 6 Jan 2025, Brendan Jercich wrote:
That’s it, that’s the whole question. Where can I hear or read you, tildes? (I myself have neither. For now.)
—Brendan