About last week's piece on print media (and other thoughts)
or, why I'm sliding into your DMs this week
Hello, nerds!
So many new faces on here this week. Most of you were brought here by last week’s post:
Last week's deep dive into print media and digital content saturation resonated in ways I didn't expect. For those just joining (hello!), this is what I attempt to do here—unpack the stories we buy with our products, examine the maze of brand loyalty, identity, and belonging. We dissect our brand crushes and how they shape us, and ask whether brands (or social media) can really build "community" or if it's all just an elaborate performance.
While I loved working on last week’s post, well-researched pieces take time. So while next week's deep dive marinates, here's what's been on my mind since that unexpectedly lively discussion about print media and digital burnout.
So while next week's deep dive marinates, I have something more brief today: a question/invite to you, and a more visual moodboard of inspirations and brain-scratchers.
On Being Human Online
I suspect many of you who found that piece above resonated with its underlying current of digital burnout.
There's a particular extremely Substack-y flavor to being simultaneously tired of AND tethered to the internet—analyzing its effects while actively participating in its machinery. Classic toxic relationship behavior, no?
AND YET.
This tension was on my mind all week as notifications kept rolling in. New subscribers. Thoughtful replies. Unexpected shares. Between dopamine hits, I've been wrestling with my relationship to these platforms—both as a creative and as a human being.
I don’t know about you, but there's something deeply unsatisfying about how I exist in these spaces, Substack et all:
always crafting content, feeling the constant pressure to generate something new and noteworthy, yet spending most of my time as a passive scroller/reader/favorite-r, watching other lives and thoughts drift by without real connection.
It's strange how we've reduced "social" to metrics and content schedules, when it’s Latin root, "socialis," speaks of genuine bonds and alliances.
On my dashboard, I see where you're all reading from - US, Philippines, Spain, Italy, Germany, Chile, Nigeria, Indonesia - hello! Each of you making room in your crowded feeds for my musings feels like a huge deal.
Maybe it's just another newsletter subscription to you, but I feel like… maybe there's space for something more interesting here. Like... a conversation. Human to human.
So that said, quick heads up: if you get a DM from me in the next few days, it's real. It’s a little challenge I’ve set for myself: instead of just theorizing about meaningful online connection, I figured I'd actually attempt it. (Or, feel free to click the button below to say hi and tell me which city you’re from!)
Visual Inspo for The Week
I actually started writing this week's brand strategy roundup. Had the links lined up and everything. But it's election week in the US, and the tension is THICCCCC.
In lieu of a link roundup, I’ll leave you with a visual moodboard of where my brain is at lately:
What’s been inspiring you lately? Any local/smaller artists, photographers, typography nerds, fascinating minds I should check out? Feel free to reply to this e-mail and send me any insider tips—I’m tired of seeing the same ol’ top creatives online.
See you nerds next week, hopefully with democracy still intact. ;-)
Until then,
Arriane
P.S. If you're new here, you might enjoy diving into these previous pieces that are longer form and contains deeper research:
And a link roundup + artist feature:
Loved your piece on print media. I just wrote a deep dive on Takashi Homma, aiming to spotlight interesting artists who don’t get as much online exposure, with insights from an art director's perspective :)