I post every Saturday at 3:00 pm. Every Saturday. Or at least, I used to.

I’ve missed a few weeks—and I’m aware how ironic that is coming from the self-proclaimed number one promulgator of consistency. At first, it was nothing. I was busy, AP exams took up a large chunk of time (I did fantastic on those, thanks for asking), but mostly, the deep inspiration wells in my head ran dry.

So I took a bit of time, posted the last of my backlog, and then…

I wrote when the urge overtook me. For future reference, this is a terrible strategy. When you say, “I’ll write when I feel like it,” you end up writing somewhere between never and almost never.

But I got my break, my breather, my gulp of fresh air. I sang Kumbaya and ate cherries by the beach or whatever normal people do to relax. But now I’m back, the inspiration Gods have started returning my emails, and…

Substack has changed. I wasn’t gone for that long, but the change is impossible to ignore.

Substack has become—trigger warning: the following word is provocative and provokes outrage in all intellectuals—social media.

What started as a fun, calm, anti whatever is going on in the social media space, has become exactly what it sought to destroy. I found myself reading notes more than anything else, and not even the cute, inspirational quotes your grandma passed down. Now it’s memes and screenshots of tweets (Xs??). The articles themselves are harder to find than I remember, and maybe I’m not using this app right, but why are there no categories?

I want to read about what people are doing. I want romance and struggle and a good, not-too-fictitious narrative where I can rally behind a real person.

Maybe that just means adding a creative nonfiction category or a search bar that actually finds something related to what you’re talking about. I’m not sure (my parents were accountants, I don’t solve problems, I identify them).

Whatever it is, it’s not the short-form TikTok rip-off that I’ve never used and would happily never use until I die. It feels like every platform adds new forms of media faster than Disney can destroy a franchise. Why can’t each platform specialize in a certain form of content? Is that such an alien idea?

YouTube can have long-form video content, TikTok the short videos, Twitter’s Ex can have short text, and Substack can have long text. Instagram, snap, and whoever is left can fight over the scraps.

Anyway, the point I’m making is: Substack has changed. Whether for worse or better, we’ll see.

Whatever the case, Substack is an escape from traditional social media. Let’s keep it that way.

—Charlie

PS: Now that I’ve returned from my little hiatus, you should subscribe. Cus why not?