“ My biggest regret as a writer is how deeply shaped I’ve been by social media my entire career. For someone who’s written at length about the need to resist digital formation, more often than not, I’ve relied on heavy social media use to both bring me interesting pieces of writing and tune the hum of my thinking.”
I feel like it is going to take 30 years for me to unlearn the past 15 years of digital formation.
To me it's like short form video, and even long form video.
As YouTube and people sending links to videos gained popularity every year from 2010 to 2020 I can't tell you how many times I would just ignore them because I'm not a video guy.
If someone wanted me to watch something I'd say send me a transcript and of course nobody ever did.
I now have YouTube premium and finally started watching more but my God I hate videos but that's what 99 % people want to consume so I watch several people didn't want to make videos that I read pivot to video
I mostly missed out on short form video. That didn’t come until relatively late for me. Long form video, on the other hand, is probably the one thing I miss the most. There are some YouTube essays that remain some of the most thoughtful works of art I’ve ever seen.
You are a rare voice of prudent honesty (without exhibitionism) about media technology and your engagement of it. You are resisting the siren songs of cyber-seduction, which are in our ears and in our minds. As an older brother, I feel this temption as well. When we come to the crossroads of integrity verses impact, we must chose integrity.
It is God's work in God's way that we should seek, not going viral or more likes or subscriptions. Seek first the Kingdom and all that you need will be given to you. Matthew 6:33.
May God bless your endeavors, which are thoughtfully pursued.
What a refreshing attitude this is. I wish more (particularly in our tribe of the Christian internet) would seek faithfulness over fame.
I am and will continue to be a subscriber, but I do have a question related to that. If I think someone else may benefit from reading your work, will there be a means for them to sample or preview?
That's a great question. Obviously, you can always forward the emails to someone for free (I can't prevent this, nor do I want to). Alternatively I'd be interested to work out some sort of pay per article system but as of right now that would require way more work on the back end than either party would want.
Thanks, Samuel. For your honesty, your conviction, your wisdom is finding the best way to care for your family and to bless those who value your "content." (I hate the content creator notion, too.)
I, too, have had to wrestle with the temptation to fire off content that I hope will get wide attention. It's a miserable game. Better to be thankful for the small "walled garden" that I've seen grow in my one year on Substack, and for thoughtful feedback and slow-but-steady growth. Fortunately, praise God, since I'm ensconced in my retired-old-guy bubble now, I don't have to rely on this platform for income; indeed, the idolatrous desire for virality is WORSE than it could be, since it's purely about praise, glory and fame...and not about income for the family!! Arghh. Lord, forgive me.
Thank you for this very honest post. Being a writer is an exhausting, humbling rollercoaster ride and I can't imagine anyone in their right mind doing it unless they're driven internally and can't help themselves, and/or they feel called by God to do it. That's always been true of writing as an occupation, but throw in today's technology and "writing for free" and algorithms and the lure of content creation, and the decisions become mind-boggling even as they take us further from how God is intending for us to use our gifts. I really appreciate your thoughts on this and I wish more writers would talk honestly about it -- about the hard choices they've made and why.
I really respect your work, even when I disagree. I am refreshed that you care more about the truth than about being right. I hope you feel better and I still want your post about above-ground living. All the best!
thank you for such a good post. I prize your (digital) wisdom. Beyond this, I have no profound thoughts to share other than you have helped me see better.
Just subscribed. I value your work at your optimal pace, brother. Write percolated thoughts. You are a gift to the broader church, and we must steward you wisely.
"So the book of fame needs to be shut and not reopened. It’s not the goal, and it’s not going to happen whether it’s the goal or not...."
I try to remember that I have an "audience of One" when I write. However, I also have the luxury of no longer being the breadwinner for a family, so I can write five minute sermons for free. Still, I share your struggles on a much smaller scale...
Praying God will bless and direct you in this transition.
i'm frankly disappointed by the decision to go behind a paywall. I would urge you to make the subscription cost minimal. I read a TON of different people and they all seem to be moving behind a paywall on substack and each wanting between $5 and $10 /mo. If I read ten people a month (and it's way more than that) then we're easily talking over $100 /mo in subscriptions.
This is not a sustainable model. We used to lament the bundles that cable tv brought us but the reality is it was a reasonable cost for a bunch of channels we wanted but some we didn't. The era of a plethora of independent writers each wanting $5-$10 is going to break the system completely and reduce eyeballs.
The most I will pay for an independent voice is $1 /mo. That's it. $12-$15 /yr. fwiw
I don’t need to repeat what you have just said. Everyday I come across a new write of whom I would like to read more. I could easily spend a couple of thousand dollars a year in Substack subscriptions. I don’t have that. Publishers used to gather writers into what we called journals or magazines. Somebody is going to rediscover that format. It will be after Substack has passed on.
And posts like this will be why I continue to subscribe to your Substack. Thankfully I've only interacted with Substack by email, so much of the social media allure you write about is abstract to me.
Thank you for your quality, your heart, and your hard work, and your character. And - I'm serious about this - if there is someone who truly would like to continue benefitting from your work but can't afford the paywall, please let me know through DM or email, and I'd be willing to sponsor someone else as a gift to them. Your work is worth it.
A feed pays the writer in a visible number, and slowly retrains the person chasing it.
The wall changes what counts as payment, a few hundred known faces paying in attention no algorithm can mint. Curious what the writing does once the meter is gone.
I have never found their app on iOS or Android to be very good. I use both phone systems and they feel like two 75% done apps that two teams built instead of one.
They also put lots odd restrictions and extras on things like text selections and normal ability to just copy and paste from an app instead writing it as special to generate their own little features that I just don't use whatsoever.
I like getting email notifications and I consolidate all my app notifications on Android, on iOS I just turned them off because it was so obnoxious and iOS sucks at notifications.
Also I I just cannot use any of their social media type features on here, bit of I can tell some people use it but generally speaking most most substacks that I've ever paid for and everything don't even utilize most of it even the top 10+% ones, at least for what topics I read
My favorite thing to do is to tap a notification it opens the app and I tap the share button to immediately send to my browser and it it's just better to read.
Anyway, sub stack has been very easy for me to ignore as a social media piece but I only skim a few articles and then I'm off of it
Sorry you've had to to get in a rut of seeing all of that as of yet another one
“ My biggest regret as a writer is how deeply shaped I’ve been by social media my entire career. For someone who’s written at length about the need to resist digital formation, more often than not, I’ve relied on heavy social media use to both bring me interesting pieces of writing and tune the hum of my thinking.”
I feel like it is going to take 30 years for me to unlearn the past 15 years of digital formation.
To me it's like short form video, and even long form video.
As YouTube and people sending links to videos gained popularity every year from 2010 to 2020 I can't tell you how many times I would just ignore them because I'm not a video guy.
If someone wanted me to watch something I'd say send me a transcript and of course nobody ever did.
I now have YouTube premium and finally started watching more but my God I hate videos but that's what 99 % people want to consume so I watch several people didn't want to make videos that I read pivot to video
I mostly missed out on short form video. That didn’t come until relatively late for me. Long form video, on the other hand, is probably the one thing I miss the most. There are some YouTube essays that remain some of the most thoughtful works of art I’ve ever seen.
Dear Mr. James:
You are a rare voice of prudent honesty (without exhibitionism) about media technology and your engagement of it. You are resisting the siren songs of cyber-seduction, which are in our ears and in our minds. As an older brother, I feel this temption as well. When we come to the crossroads of integrity verses impact, we must chose integrity.
It is God's work in God's way that we should seek, not going viral or more likes or subscriptions. Seek first the Kingdom and all that you need will be given to you. Matthew 6:33.
May God bless your endeavors, which are thoughtfully pursued.
Very encouraging. Thanks so much, Dr. Groothuis.
What a refreshing attitude this is. I wish more (particularly in our tribe of the Christian internet) would seek faithfulness over fame.
I am and will continue to be a subscriber, but I do have a question related to that. If I think someone else may benefit from reading your work, will there be a means for them to sample or preview?
That's a great question. Obviously, you can always forward the emails to someone for free (I can't prevent this, nor do I want to). Alternatively I'd be interested to work out some sort of pay per article system but as of right now that would require way more work on the back end than either party would want.
Thanks, Samuel. For your honesty, your conviction, your wisdom is finding the best way to care for your family and to bless those who value your "content." (I hate the content creator notion, too.)
I, too, have had to wrestle with the temptation to fire off content that I hope will get wide attention. It's a miserable game. Better to be thankful for the small "walled garden" that I've seen grow in my one year on Substack, and for thoughtful feedback and slow-but-steady growth. Fortunately, praise God, since I'm ensconced in my retired-old-guy bubble now, I don't have to rely on this platform for income; indeed, the idolatrous desire for virality is WORSE than it could be, since it's purely about praise, glory and fame...and not about income for the family!! Arghh. Lord, forgive me.
Go slow, and keep up the good writing.
Thank you for this very honest post. Being a writer is an exhausting, humbling rollercoaster ride and I can't imagine anyone in their right mind doing it unless they're driven internally and can't help themselves, and/or they feel called by God to do it. That's always been true of writing as an occupation, but throw in today's technology and "writing for free" and algorithms and the lure of content creation, and the decisions become mind-boggling even as they take us further from how God is intending for us to use our gifts. I really appreciate your thoughts on this and I wish more writers would talk honestly about it -- about the hard choices they've made and why.
I really respect your work, even when I disagree. I am refreshed that you care more about the truth than about being right. I hope you feel better and I still want your post about above-ground living. All the best!
thank you for such a good post. I prize your (digital) wisdom. Beyond this, I have no profound thoughts to share other than you have helped me see better.
Cool.
Just subscribed. I value your work at your optimal pace, brother. Write percolated thoughts. You are a gift to the broader church, and we must steward you wisely.
"So the book of fame needs to be shut and not reopened. It’s not the goal, and it’s not going to happen whether it’s the goal or not...."
I try to remember that I have an "audience of One" when I write. However, I also have the luxury of no longer being the breadwinner for a family, so I can write five minute sermons for free. Still, I share your struggles on a much smaller scale...
Praying God will bless and direct you in this transition.
You’re a good man, Samuel
i'm frankly disappointed by the decision to go behind a paywall. I would urge you to make the subscription cost minimal. I read a TON of different people and they all seem to be moving behind a paywall on substack and each wanting between $5 and $10 /mo. If I read ten people a month (and it's way more than that) then we're easily talking over $100 /mo in subscriptions.
This is not a sustainable model. We used to lament the bundles that cable tv brought us but the reality is it was a reasonable cost for a bunch of channels we wanted but some we didn't. The era of a plethora of independent writers each wanting $5-$10 is going to break the system completely and reduce eyeballs.
The most I will pay for an independent voice is $1 /mo. That's it. $12-$15 /yr. fwiw
I don’t need to repeat what you have just said. Everyday I come across a new write of whom I would like to read more. I could easily spend a couple of thousand dollars a year in Substack subscriptions. I don’t have that. Publishers used to gather writers into what we called journals or magazines. Somebody is going to rediscover that format. It will be after Substack has passed on.
And posts like this will be why I continue to subscribe to your Substack. Thankfully I've only interacted with Substack by email, so much of the social media allure you write about is abstract to me.
Thank you for your quality, your heart, and your hard work, and your character. And - I'm serious about this - if there is someone who truly would like to continue benefitting from your work but can't afford the paywall, please let me know through DM or email, and I'd be willing to sponsor someone else as a gift to them. Your work is worth it.
A feed pays the writer in a visible number, and slowly retrains the person chasing it.
The wall changes what counts as payment, a few hundred known faces paying in attention no algorithm can mint. Curious what the writing does once the meter is gone.
I have never found their app on iOS or Android to be very good. I use both phone systems and they feel like two 75% done apps that two teams built instead of one.
They also put lots odd restrictions and extras on things like text selections and normal ability to just copy and paste from an app instead writing it as special to generate their own little features that I just don't use whatsoever.
I like getting email notifications and I consolidate all my app notifications on Android, on iOS I just turned them off because it was so obnoxious and iOS sucks at notifications.
Also I I just cannot use any of their social media type features on here, bit of I can tell some people use it but generally speaking most most substacks that I've ever paid for and everything don't even utilize most of it even the top 10+% ones, at least for what topics I read
My favorite thing to do is to tap a notification it opens the app and I tap the share button to immediately send to my browser and it it's just better to read.
Anyway, sub stack has been very easy for me to ignore as a social media piece but I only skim a few articles and then I'm off of it
Sorry you've had to to get in a rut of seeing all of that as of yet another one