Everyone Is Their Own Media Outlet
Has Substack finally kept the promise?
The first time someone ever showed me Twitter, I didn’t get it. After all, at the time it was simply a rolling stream of consciousness—a bunch of 140-character microbursts from usernames I didn’t recognize. Standing there at that MeetUp group of early podcasters in 2007, I couldn’t understand everyone else’s exuberance over what someone had “tweeted” earlier in the day. I mean, if you weren’t there to see it, the thought had long since evaporated.
Knowing full well the social faux pas I was about to commit, I couldn’t resist blurting out the question anyway.
“What is the whole point of this Twitter thing?”
“Oh, they’re still in the early stages of development. This is going to be BIG.”
I remember thinking I should keep an open mind. Hey, it could happen. After all, back in 1995 when I first read how “software apps were going to be Internet based someday”, the scope of my imagination was limited to maybe storing my Word docs on someone else’s server.
So given how I was using SaaS in dozens of previously unimagined ways a dozen years later, I kept an eye on Twitter. The platform evolved so quickly I saw the light in mere months, not years.
By 2008 I (weirdly) had more Twitter followers than anyone in San Antonio.
I found myself holding court at “Tweet Ups”, which—if you can believe it—were IRL cocktail parties back then for everyone locally who was big-time into Twitter. A few dozen folks would show up. Then over a hundred. We started flying in guest speakers like Robert Scoble. Eventually it all became unmanageable.
Indeed, these were still the “early days” when Twitter was still The Next Big Thing. I was getting invited to parties with the cool kids. Mayoral candidates wanted me on their side. And yes, I was asked to speak at nascent Twitter conferences.
The first time I did so, I innocently decided to present on how “Twitter Is Your Own Media Outlet”.
I basically got laughed off the stage.
Beside the central premise itself being admittedly preposterous, people were quick to remind me “that’s not what Twitter is for!”
Now, if you were a relatively early adopter of Twitter yourself, you remember that persistent battle cry. It was the Swiss army knife of Twitter criticism. Back then, if you didn’t answer the original baseline question, “What are you doing?” you were in clear violation of Twitter etiquette.
But with 20/20 hindsight, we know what happened. Mainstream usage took a steamroller to that boundary. The celebs all started showing up, specifically because—yes—Twitter was where they could control their own media narrative, eventually with a blue checkmark.
Fast forward to the present, where quite literally anyone really can become an “influencer” (read: “their own media outlet”).
For sure, even before Twitter, blogs had made that promise. And while many smart and effective people capitalized, the “blogosphere” was still a relatively disjointed entity, what with each person running their own WordPress installation at GoDaddy.
Podcasting played a similar role, originally positioned as sort of “audio blogs”, eventually blurring the lines between “v-logging” and “video podcasting”. But the masses didn’t have the time, energy or the general wherewithal to prioritize doing anything requiring real, actual production.
Twitter was different. Everyone was on a common platform which enabled a captive audience. Suddenly if you were able to find your “tribe” (or “echo chamber, if you’re of the cynical sort), then BOOM…you had a broadcast.
The problem? Most rational people soon found out how fraught it was to try to figure someone out based on 140 characters.
Along came more social media than we bargained for. (Anyone remember Utterli?) The platforms that have stuck—and thrived—undoubtedly have catered to leisure and frivolity. That’s no “get off my lawn” complaint. Instagram and TikTok are what they are. And yes, I’m on both.
Even Clubhouse, that elixir for COVID ennui such that it was, had a shelf life. For sure, I opened my own “room”. But as it turned out, back out here in the “new normal” ain’t nobody got time for that.
Enter Substack.
For the first time since launching our first podcast in 2006, I’ve found my happy place. And yes, I say that perhaps in spite of being a relatively successful early adopter of Twitter BITD.
This, friends and neighbors, is what “having one’s own media outlet” was always SUPPOSED to look like.
I mean, first of all, it literally looks like it.
But what’s more, it’s a haven for mostly intelligent, well-formed opinions—all in an ecosystem where one’s voice is easily discovered and heard. That just might be the magic combination, and I’m all-in.
Are you with me?