This peculiar app cured my doomscrolling (and repaired my dopamine receptors)

We did it, we cured boredom. Humanity now has an infinite speeding river (do not let anybody ever inform you it is only a trickling stream) of low-cost dopamine hits which have all however eradicated the clean areas in a day.

Your browser is taking greater than half a second to load? I guess you are already 4 swipes down the

TikTok

For You Page
. Coworker droning on throughout a gathering that positively might’ve been an electronic mail? You have already all caught up on who went on spring break the place. There are a myriad of rabbit holes I might dash down to specific all types of despair on the notion, however as a substitute, I would quite inform you concerning the one I stumbled down that would imply hope for us all.

Mockingly, the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel got here to me in a TikTok message. A pricey good friend — who has essentially the most uncanny expertise of discovering diamonds within the roughest of locations (I couldn’t ask for a greater thrifting accomplice) — all the time manages to share essentially the most niched-down media with me. She just lately despatched a thread that had gone viral: the actual Substacks that some TikToker had been studying that week.

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Substack, the unlikely hero

And the rationale life is instantly whimsical once more

Substack is an internet platform and neighborhood of writers, journalists, poets, and creators of all types to publish and probably even monetize their content material, which could be despatched on to their viewers’s emails. It’s like bloggers made their very own social media platform — which is strictly what they did. The house feed is paying homage to

X
(previously Twitter), with a timeline of content material, photos, and, most significantly, sneak peeks of full posts. If it piques your curiosity, you possibly can click on on an excerpt in your feed to learn the remainder of the written publish.

After tooling round and shortly getting my bearings, the algorithm shortly obtained its personal about my studying haunts. Whenever you first make a Substack account, it prompts you to pick the subjects you are fascinated about.

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Historical past and philosophy? Verify. Well being and wellness? I am there. Popular culture? I truly opted out for as soon as — I am tailoring this app to be like my very own private library, serene meadow, and beachside escape, thanks very a lot.

All of the sudden, I used to be gently bombarded with essentially the most considerate hopecore. I had cultivated a feed of content material that was uplifting, academic, and — a lot to my delight — extremely poetic and eloquent. It made a former English main in me really feel like I used to be again within the USC Humanities constructing strolling to British Romantic Lit.

Persistence, expensive reader

No, severely. Substack has the ‘feed’ factor of the quick-hit dopamine littered feeds you discover on X, Instagram, and TikTok, however you open the app with the intention of studying one thing long-form. Persistence and curiosity are the landlords, and if you happen to aren’t prepared to pry your consideration span open for greater than 4.5 seconds, you will signal your personal eviction discover.

Substack is a spot to hone in on one or two particular items of content material and be current with them. I am speaking about sitting with these Substacks like your dad used to with the morning paper — steaming black espresso in his mug — earlier than the day started.

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I’ve discovered 4 or 5 favorites to date — the War Kitchen Substack sitting stoically on the best pedestal. I had been following it on Instagram for years, however I used to be ecstatic to see the remainder of the iceberg via studying its long-form content material. Speak about a espresso companion.

Opening a Substack grabs my consideration and focuses it on one topic for the subsequent couple of minutes — the antithesis of the scroll. Extra importantly, it is a topic I consciously selected quite than the whirlpool of mind rot, miserable information, and unrelatable influencers.

Substack is a aware social media app. It acts as a residing library, not 1,000,000 voices vying on your well-worn consideration.

Can I write on Substack?

The display is your oyster

It is fully free to make your personal Substack account and get writing. I’ve buddies and colleagues who write their very own private essays every time they really feel prefer it, and others who as a substitute use it as a e-newsletter to maintain their long-distance buddies knowledgeable about their lives.

Some creators select to paywall a few of their content material, however that does not imply it’s important to pay something. Nevertheless, if you’d like entry to all their content material, you possibly can subscribe to particular person Substacks and select between their fee tiers.

One thing I believe the platform did properly was letting writers hold a lot of the cash — round 90% minus credit card fees.

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How do I discover Substacks to learn?

You in all probability know creators on there already

Substack / Pocket-lint

Substack has gained substantial traction since its launch in 2017. There are over 20 million active users monthly, and has just lately surpassed 5 million paying subscribers. If the ‘hundreds of thousands’ discuss hasn’t satisfied you {that a} long-form content material platform is prospering proper alongside giants TikTok and Twitter, I would advise you to hop on the app your self and see if sparks fly.

All these numbers to say, a few of your favourite content material creators on different social media platforms might very properly have already got their very own Substacks. Like my favourite War Kitchen Instagram account did, my favourite content material creator, Kyle Prue, launched his personal satirical Substack. Seek for your favourite influencers and see if their writing seems, too.

Nevertheless, do not write off Substack’s algorithm. Simply since you want extra endurance to learn the content material doesn’t suggest you will want it to search out it. Who is aware of, you could be impressed to jot down your personal publish. As a author myself, I urge you to place pen to paper (err, fingers to keys?) and see what spouts out — you would possibly simply shock your self.

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