For any content creator, like myself, it’s incredibly easy to bifurcate ourselves along two paths.
- Everything you create is going to change the world. I am important.
- Nothing you create has any impact on the world around you. I carry no value.
Some voices over time have profound power on society. They hold the capacity to elicit widespread mimetic behavior. And many an author have snowballed down this thesis – for better or worse. There’s a saying that goes: You’re never as good as they say you are; you’re also never as bad as they say you are. Or maybe that was just a paraphrase of Lou Holtz‘s line: “You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.”
So, the flip side, the rise of citizen journalism has led more and more people to share transient perspectives of themselves or of the world in the form of social content. With the occasional goal of turning such fleeting outlooks into enduring memorabilia. Be it through Medium or TikTok, Substack or Instagram, YouTube or Clubhouse. A blog like this or a podcast. Yet when zooming out, we see the incremental impact of each additional voice is often drowned in the noise that populates the 21st century internet.
The truth, really, is somewhere in the middle. Where exactly? I don’t know. And frankly, it’s different for each genre and speaker out there.
Yet that doesn’t mean we should stop. At least for me, in knowing that I have positively impacted just one person’s life in a meaningful way is enough of a reason to continue. And if there’s a ripple effect beyond myself, then I am steps closer to having a life worth beyond a single century.
Brian Armstrong of Coinbase recently wrote via a blogpost. “The tools for distribution have become democratized, and every company can become a source of truth.” In a similar way, each individual – a company of one, a solopreneur in her/his own right – can become a source of truth. Each individual is a platform for the story we ourselves want to tell that isn’t misinformed or misaligned with post-production and traditional media incentives. Of course, it’s still up to us to have a head above two shoulders. Every individual can become a source of truth. But that doesn’t mean every individual is a source of truth. It’s up to our own judgment to think critically and act accordingly.
But let’s be honest. What I write isn’t journalism. It’s just a formulation of opinions and anecdotal observations over the course of time. While I try to approach my content from as much of an unbiased and informed perspective as possible, reality is I’m still missing something. In many ways, each of you is learning how I learn as I learn. Or maybe you’re already two steps ahead.
Photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash
#unfiltered is a series where I share my raw thoughts and unfiltered commentary about anything and everything. It’s not designed to go down smoothly like the best cup of cappuccino you’ve ever had (although here‘s where I found mine), more like the lonely coffee bean still struggling to find its identity (which also may one day find its way into a more thesis-driven blogpost). Who knows? The possibilities are endless.
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