Nothing to Write in the Age of Content

a spontaneous rant

I’ll be honest today, I really have nothing to say.

No thoughts on technology, musings on AI, funny stories serving as lessons, or even a burning desire to smell the ink and grease of this gorgeous typewriter. But I also have no more work today, no other writing to attend to, and half an hour to kill before I
have to pick the kids up from school.

So why do I feel guilty about not writing?

A writer has to write. Otherwise they are not existing as a writer. Some need to write every day, others weekly, some more or less. But I'm not feeling any guilt as a writer for not wanting to bang on these keys, but as that modern ape chained to the typewriter and screen: a content creator. Ugh.

My job is to create content, words spelling out ideas for books, articles, posts and brands. This is what I get paid to do, but then there's the other content.
"Content", I should call it, the raw material of the internet, the carbon of social media, the images and videos, blog posts, memes, quips, comments, and other stuff that fills the screen with something other than Excel sheets.

We are told that content is crucial, a necessity for our professional and personal platforms, the measurable output of our online influence, the currency of this young century. I've had a blog, posted photos and rants and many snarky Tweets, and now a newsletter written on a typewriter! I do this partly because I want to and enjoy it, but the more content you create, the more you must produce.

Like the prolific monkey, the best of times always brings the blurst when it comes to churning out content. But churn we must, because volume matters more
than anything, and the mill requires its grist.

Every content creator feels this limit at some point. The Tweets slow and then stop. The blog posts are three lines. The YouTuber broadcasts from bed. What began as an act of creation loses steam at a constant pace. No one can have an endless supply of ideas on tap. Not even Ezra Klein or SS Sniperwolf.

Sometimes you have nothing to say, but you still bang at the keys, because you feel like you have to. Or, you just want to kill time before driving kids to Hebrew school. Either way, the content is made, consumed, forgotten, and the feeling
returns.

Until next week!