Xplisset — thank you for the citation, and for taking this all the way down to the bone.
When I wrote about the January shift, I didn’t have a “theory.” I had a bodily signal: the oxygen changed, and nobody put a sign on the wall. So I started collecting writer reports — and it turned out it wasn’t “in my head.” It was a synchronized pattern across unrelated accounts.
Your piece names the hidden truth behind polite product language: when the feed becomes the front door, it reshapes the culture. “MTV-ization” lands not because video is “bad,” but because visual becomes the passport to distribution, while text becomes a niche practice for people already inside.
And thank you for the brutally honest section about building the video machine. That’s exactly the quiet shame many of us carry: you spend the weekend on lights, software, rehearsal — then realize the writing is stranded backstage, treated like the secondary thing.
One more layer you nailed: the fear of sending emails. After each “normal” email, there’s a wave of unsubscribes / email-off toggles — and you start self-censoring frequency to protect your own base. That’s not creative work anymore. That’s conditioning through loss.
So yes: this isn’t personal failure. It’s a product shift. And readers feel it as sharply as writers do.
The question I want to leave hanging:
if the “main room” is now the feed, what’s left in the “quiet room” of email — besides loyalty without discovery?
If an email comes in notifying me about a new video, I delete without even opening...even if it is from the Democracy goddess Heather Cox Richardson lol. I do not want to watch videos. I absorb information better by reading than by listening. Thanks for this important information about how Substack is changing.
Super clarifying! I have wondered why I’m suddenly seeing every video and needing to dig for material to read. I came here to appreciate those who write and to read, read, read. A clue for me, as a reader, is the subtle tone of panic underlying a couple of my favorites. It has been what seemed like an over-emphasis on readers unsubscribing. It just seemed like an unusual vibe. At one point, that vibe crept into my head and had me looking backward. Hey, wait, what? Did I miss an important post? Am I one of the folks they are talking about, who didn’t show up, didn’t read or restack or comment? And then that began to be problematic for me. Too much like the big social media platforms, for which I have little patience.
Writers gotta write. And readers gotta read. Give me words; my brain is fabulous with creating the images and with connecting the dots. Give me flexibility to go slow or do a skim. Time to take a pause when I read a quote that blows my mind open.
XPLISSET I subscribed because I admire your writing and your delivery of an idea. If video is dressing up, just know that’s not what drives my subscription- just as you pointed out so well in your post!! I’m a sweat pants and hoodie reader, old school and okay with that. I’ll try to do the vids occasionally, but reading is my bag.❤️
Here is what’s going on I’m gonna say it straight up. Capitalism isn’t just about profits, it’s about growth. Substack has shareholders demanding ROI. Growth is the fuel to show those ROI stats on paper.
Ok now writers and readers is just a foundation for them not the primary driver of growth. That app feed is the funnel that gets new prospects who will eventually become paying subscribers.
Ya think someone coming in through an app feed populated by short notes, short vids with bright captions, and eye catchy pics are all of a sudden going to start reading long form, hell, or even short form essays?
Thanks for the explanation and links! As I have said previously multiple times in multiple places, I am on Substack to read well-reasoned posts/articles. Sure, I watch videos (usually the ones contained in footnotes or posts) but I mainly read posts. I am struggling with the new presentation. I thought I had accidentally changed my settings.
I do like and restack posts but will try to comment more often.
A million thanks for explaining all of this. I will read, read, read!
I wondered why things were changing before my eyes.
Do what you must, but keep your writing coming! I read books. That's why I can stay with a post for more than a paragraph or two before scrolling on to some other shiny object on my screen.
Oh, and another annoying thing about substack is how many writers are using choppy, "dramatic," un-original AI to write. You can spot it by the repeated use of short "It's not this. It's that" type of sentences. And overuse of repeated one-sentence paragraphs such as:
Lev Parnes writes this way.
So does Dean Blundell.
And Virgin Monk Boy.
They think they are being dramatic.
They aren't because it's overused.
There's no flow.
We didn't learn to read this way after second grade.
I think using AI is fine, but authors should have to admit to it. How can I trust what someone is telling me, if they can't even fess up to using AI to help them, or be bothered to edit it into something more unique and human?
“The core trick is variable reward.” Takes me back to my graduate school days and how robust a variable schedule of reinforcement is. Check out BF Skinner’s “Schedules of Reinforcement”
This essay is so right on. I have commented before when you were talking about producing a video….i came onboard with Substack because of great writing I found. That is why I stay. I do participate in the feed sometimes, reposting memes. But my preference is to read the essays which I get thru my email. I am like the reader above - I don’t “tune in” to scheduled live streams nor do I open notices of such I receive via email.
Thanks once again for such beautiful and comprehensive writing.
Thank you for this. Very helpful, informative for people like me, knowing little about how substack works. I also learn better by reading than hearing. The MTV and the pharmacy ad analysis are on the nose.
I find it maddening that I have subscriptions, including paid subscriptions, that I can't read via a browser - getting repeated messages to "read this on the app!", install the app to keep reading.
I too hit delete on email notices to video (yes, even from HCR). There’s something seemingly unserious about it. I restock and share to Facebook because likeminded friends are still there.
Xplisset — thank you for the citation, and for taking this all the way down to the bone.
When I wrote about the January shift, I didn’t have a “theory.” I had a bodily signal: the oxygen changed, and nobody put a sign on the wall. So I started collecting writer reports — and it turned out it wasn’t “in my head.” It was a synchronized pattern across unrelated accounts.
Your piece names the hidden truth behind polite product language: when the feed becomes the front door, it reshapes the culture. “MTV-ization” lands not because video is “bad,” but because visual becomes the passport to distribution, while text becomes a niche practice for people already inside.
And thank you for the brutally honest section about building the video machine. That’s exactly the quiet shame many of us carry: you spend the weekend on lights, software, rehearsal — then realize the writing is stranded backstage, treated like the secondary thing.
One more layer you nailed: the fear of sending emails. After each “normal” email, there’s a wave of unsubscribes / email-off toggles — and you start self-censoring frequency to protect your own base. That’s not creative work anymore. That’s conditioning through loss.
So yes: this isn’t personal failure. It’s a product shift. And readers feel it as sharply as writers do.
The question I want to leave hanging:
if the “main room” is now the feed, what’s left in the “quiet room” of email — besides loyalty without discovery?
If an email comes in notifying me about a new video, I delete without even opening...even if it is from the Democracy goddess Heather Cox Richardson lol. I do not want to watch videos. I absorb information better by reading than by listening. Thanks for this important information about how Substack is changing.
Super clarifying! I have wondered why I’m suddenly seeing every video and needing to dig for material to read. I came here to appreciate those who write and to read, read, read. A clue for me, as a reader, is the subtle tone of panic underlying a couple of my favorites. It has been what seemed like an over-emphasis on readers unsubscribing. It just seemed like an unusual vibe. At one point, that vibe crept into my head and had me looking backward. Hey, wait, what? Did I miss an important post? Am I one of the folks they are talking about, who didn’t show up, didn’t read or restack or comment? And then that began to be problematic for me. Too much like the big social media platforms, for which I have little patience.
Writers gotta write. And readers gotta read. Give me words; my brain is fabulous with creating the images and with connecting the dots. Give me flexibility to go slow or do a skim. Time to take a pause when I read a quote that blows my mind open.
XPLISSET I subscribed because I admire your writing and your delivery of an idea. If video is dressing up, just know that’s not what drives my subscription- just as you pointed out so well in your post!! I’m a sweat pants and hoodie reader, old school and okay with that. I’ll try to do the vids occasionally, but reading is my bag.❤️
Thank you Melody!
Here is what’s going on I’m gonna say it straight up. Capitalism isn’t just about profits, it’s about growth. Substack has shareholders demanding ROI. Growth is the fuel to show those ROI stats on paper.
Ok now writers and readers is just a foundation for them not the primary driver of growth. That app feed is the funnel that gets new prospects who will eventually become paying subscribers.
Ya think someone coming in through an app feed populated by short notes, short vids with bright captions, and eye catchy pics are all of a sudden going to start reading long form, hell, or even short form essays?
Thanks for the explanation and links! As I have said previously multiple times in multiple places, I am on Substack to read well-reasoned posts/articles. Sure, I watch videos (usually the ones contained in footnotes or posts) but I mainly read posts. I am struggling with the new presentation. I thought I had accidentally changed my settings.
I do like and restack posts but will try to comment more often.
A million thanks for explaining all of this. I will read, read, read!
I wondered why things were changing before my eyes.
Do what you must, but keep your writing coming! I read books. That's why I can stay with a post for more than a paragraph or two before scrolling on to some other shiny object on my screen.
Reading works better for me. Have you ever read a book and then watched the movie? The book is aways more
Or the book may be less because it doesn't have a Hollywood romance tacked on.
Oh, and another annoying thing about substack is how many writers are using choppy, "dramatic," un-original AI to write. You can spot it by the repeated use of short "It's not this. It's that" type of sentences. And overuse of repeated one-sentence paragraphs such as:
Lev Parnes writes this way.
So does Dean Blundell.
And Virgin Monk Boy.
They think they are being dramatic.
They aren't because it's overused.
There's no flow.
We didn't learn to read this way after second grade.
I think using AI is fine, but authors should have to admit to it. How can I trust what someone is telling me, if they can't even fess up to using AI to help them, or be bothered to edit it into something more unique and human?
“The core trick is variable reward.” Takes me back to my graduate school days and how robust a variable schedule of reinforcement is. Check out BF Skinner’s “Schedules of Reinforcement”
This essay is so right on. I have commented before when you were talking about producing a video….i came onboard with Substack because of great writing I found. That is why I stay. I do participate in the feed sometimes, reposting memes. But my preference is to read the essays which I get thru my email. I am like the reader above - I don’t “tune in” to scheduled live streams nor do I open notices of such I receive via email.
Thanks once again for such beautiful and comprehensive writing.
You nailed it. Skinner’s name came up in my research for this but I didn’t want to get tooo tooo deep.
I'm with you. I like reading more
Thank you for this. Very helpful, informative for people like me, knowing little about how substack works. I also learn better by reading than hearing. The MTV and the pharmacy ad analysis are on the nose.
I find it maddening that I have subscriptions, including paid subscriptions, that I can't read via a browser - getting repeated messages to "read this on the app!", install the app to keep reading.
No
This is so very well done, Xplisset. Thank you.
Exactly. N-O spells NO! I'm no luddite but there isn't enough meat in a video for my taste.
A definite concern
"The writers want to write. The readers want to read. And I am not letting a timeline talk me out of that."
You damn right. That's what I'm here for. To R-E-A-D!!! Not to watch some GD movie.
I too hit delete on email notices to video (yes, even from HCR). There’s something seemingly unserious about it. I restock and share to Facebook because likeminded friends are still there.
What if there was a readable transcript attached? Would you have deleted this if I had read everything you just read in a video attached?
I found you through your posts in Robert Reich's Substack columns. Appreciate your candor about the trials and tribulations of doing the video.
The core trick is variable reward.
consistent then "intermittent rates of reinforcement"... for the behavior geeks among us 😉