I Am A Recovering Content Creator
In January of this year, I started writing a novel that was kicking around in my head for the last 20 years. I've written more than 10,000 words, in an offline .odt file on my hard drive.
No discoverability.
No likes, comments, or shares.
Just me, a cursor, and my imagination. It struck me how fulfilling it is to write this way! But I already knew that. I had known that since I penned my first "book" when I was eight. I am experiencing writing in a way I haven't in a very long time.
I was never a viral social media star or personality like Zack Evans, a much more well known "recovering content creator." But I was still a content creator.
I was always at the precipice of burnout, consumed with metrics and how to posture for the algorithms and SERPS, steeped in the anxiety of "what happens if this all blows up and I can't make a living like this anymore?"
One day, that anxiety became my reality. First, with a rapid implosion of a popular niche that had previously paid our bills for nearly a decade. Then the throttling of organic social reach paired with the sudden explosion of AI.
I finally threw in the towel. That was it. I would never write online again. My blogging career was over.
Between AI, the enshittification of search engines (and AI snippets making info blogs redundant), and the absolute cesspit that social media has become, I wanted nothing to do with the Internet.
Eventually, it was a relief to wind things down and delete the content creation schedule.
I've since launched an offline business that I truly love, and it's thriving! It feels SO good to get off my computer, to be in the real world more, to make things with my hands, to engage my senses, touch grass, and talk to actual 3D people.
But that love of blogging - of reading and writing on the web - never left me. After being a writer online since '97, I felt sad about retiring from it - like some part of me died.
I'd wax nostalgic for the old web. Reminisce about the "good old days" when the Internet used to be fun, exciting, and dare I say, just a teeny bit smarter? The Internet that was more human, less corporate. Pre-slop. Before the "coaches" trawling with offers, the slop factories, the mega tech bros spoon feeding us outrage bait and distraction to drive ad revenue.
Discovering the Indie Web recently has been a joy. (I really don't know how I didn't know about it until so recently!) I'm especially enjoying Bearblog, and subscribing to RSS feeds again to be more intentional about what and how I consume content online. I've deleted the Facebook app from my phone for the 6th time, but this time, I think it might not come back.
The big thing I'm looking forward to is creating online once again. Blogging, creative fiction, and writing stuff I want to write for whoever finds it. No worrying about algos and seo and fretting over views and engagement. And I'm also tossing out the "it has to be polished and perfect" - I'm going for no-pressure writing here.
These content creator habits may take some time to dismantle, but that's why I'm blogging again on the small web. I want to first and foremost write for myself. I want to write about what interests me - even if my many interests don't all fit neatly into a single (monetizable) niche.
I am a recovering content creator. I no longer have to monetize my words. I've fallen in love with writing from my heart again.
I'm here on the Bearblog platform to fall in love with blogging again, and perhaps create something fun and exciting (if only to me) on the Indie Web.