1. I Offer You Nothing
2. Why Did I Stop/Pause Creating?
3. Speaking of Which, I Dislike the Term Content - A Semantic and Pragmatic Study (Short Version) Read more
I OFFER YOU NOTHING
Seeing everyone else doing something made me feel strangely inadequate for my own inaction. In a digital world where seemingly everyone is creating "content" and the feed is constantly screaming for attention, I’ve been wondering where I fit in. I often feel like I offer "nothing" to my followers - no consistent substance, no funny bits, just a chaotic mix of retweets/shares and occasional life-updates. It’s an eternal tug-of-war between "this is my account and I can do what I want" and the guilt of not providing something "valuable" to the people who follow me.
The truth is, my creative process is mostly a solo act born out of necessity. As a tired and not rich bear, I’ve learned to be self-sufficient, creating for myself and my own ships or OCs because I don't have the energy or funds for much else. While I’ve moved away from using Twitter as an open diary (shoutout to my messy Obsidian journal for doing the heavy lifting now), I still feel that occasional sting when I post something publicly and get no engagement. It makes me question why I post at all, but I think I've realized that for me, platforms like AO3 or Tumblr are mostly just archives - I’m throwing my work into the wild and letting it exist there, regardless of who sees it.
Ultimately, my mind is just incredibly loud. Between coding frustrations, aviation facts, Virtual YouTubers, manga, manhwa, anime, games, etc, there’s too much going on to ever fully translate into a public post. I wrote this because my journal was getting too cluttered and I needed to find some coherence in the noise. I might not have a clear "point" or a grand conclusion, and I know I’m probably a bit of a weirdo for being this open, but letting these thoughts out helps me understand them. If I’m a multi-fandom chaos who offers nothing but my own niche interests once in a blue moon, if any, then so be it.
WHY DID I STOP/PAUSE CREATING?
If you ask me why I stopped/paused drawing and writing for so long...even now, I can't quite answer that with certainty. It's something I must mull over and untangle for a long time. But my conjecture is: depression and starting another hobby, namely coding. While I found joy in my coding - or to be more precise, indie web - endeavors, it's not something a lot of people notice and appreciate nowadays, unlike artworks and fanfics. Long gone is the days of "mainstream" Geocities, personal websites, and fan sites. A bit unfortunate, perhaps, but such is the fate of a niche hobby. At the very least, I know I'm not alone. Shoutout to my indie web neighbors!
SPEAKING OF WHICH, I DISLIKE THE TERM CONTENT
A Semantic and Pragmatic Study (Short Version)
In the past, I once mentioned that liked the term "content creator" because it felt inclusive, but my feelings have shifted over time. To explain why the word now feels icky, I have to look at it through two linguistic lenses: semantics and pragmatics.
In linguistics, semantics is the study of literal, dictionary meaning. According to Merriam-Webster, the noun "content" means: substance; gist; meaning; significance; something contained; the principal substance (such as written matter, images, music, etc.) offered by a website or on social media. Semantically, it’s a perfect umbrella term. It doesn’t care if you are an illustrator, a writer, a musician, or a coder; if you put something inside a medium, you are creating what is inside. This is why I liked it at first, as it gave standing to creators usually sidelined in the general internet term of "artist" but are still making things.
However, pragmatics is where the trouble starts. Pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning - how a word is actually used in society. In the current landscape of the internet, the pragmatics of "content" have shifted over time, from creative expression to industrial commodity. The pragmatic use of the word now implies something disposable. It's a filler with no merit or artistry that keeps people scrolling, a quick and mindless consumption with no substance and depth.
In the context of today's internet, when the word "content" is used, it isn't just describing a medium; it's describing a unit of consumption. Semantically, a poem and a 5-second clip of a dancing cat are both "content," but pragmatically, the word strips away the human intent behind them. It turns a labor of love into a metric - something to be measured by engagement rates rather than by the connection it makes with another person. By calling it "content," creators - whether they are illustrators, writers, coders, or dreamers - become suppliers for the algorithm. Machines that exist solely to endlessly churn out products.
And I know for a fact that I am not alone in noticing this pragmatic use of the word and disliking it.
Because the world uses "content" pragmatically to mean constant output, I noticed that many hobbyists often fall into a trap. We start to view our own private joys - our OCs, our ships, and our loud thoughts - as unrealized products that haven't been "packaged" for a public feed. The internet asks, if it's not "content", does it even exist? This creates a pressure to constantly extract value from our hobbies, to churn things out just to be visible, turning a stress-free hobby into something that feels like work. But a hobby shouldn't be a job; it should be a sanctuary where we are allowed to create things that are messy, private, and - most importantly - commercially useless. Not everything has to be monetized.
Of course, I'm not saying that applies to everyone. It certainly does not apply to a professional who has to make ends meet. One may argue that the word "content" isn't always used with the "mindless consumption" context, and that is true - it's simply that the heavy association has soured it for me. And I understand that right now, there isn't exactly any direct equivalent to the term "content" that can replace it (not as far as I know, at least). I'm not telling you to stop using it either, you are free to keep using it. This is just my personal opinions and feelings.
2. Why Did I Stop/Pause Creating?
3. Speaking of Which, I Dislike the Term Content - A Semantic and Pragmatic Study (Short Version)
I OFFER YOU NOTHING
Summary of my blog post.
Seeing everyone else doing something made me feel strangely inadequate for my own inaction. In a digital world where seemingly everyone is creating "content" and the feed is constantly screaming for attention, I’ve been wondering where I fit in. I often feel like I offer "nothing" to my followers - no consistent substance, no funny bits, just a chaotic mix of retweets/shares and occasional life-updates. It’s an eternal tug-of-war between "this is my account and I can do what I want" and the guilt of not providing something "valuable" to the people who follow me.
The truth is, my creative process is mostly a solo act born out of necessity. As a tired and not rich bear, I’ve learned to be self-sufficient, creating for myself and my own ships or OCs because I don't have the energy or funds for much else. While I’ve moved away from using Twitter as an open diary (shoutout to my messy Obsidian journal for doing the heavy lifting now), I still feel that occasional sting when I post something publicly and get no engagement. It makes me question why I post at all, but I think I've realized that for me, platforms like AO3 or Tumblr are mostly just archives - I’m throwing my work into the wild and letting it exist there, regardless of who sees it.
Ultimately, my mind is just incredibly loud. Between coding frustrations, aviation facts, Virtual YouTubers, manga, manhwa, anime, games, etc, there’s too much going on to ever fully translate into a public post. I wrote this because my journal was getting too cluttered and I needed to find some coherence in the noise. I might not have a clear "point" or a grand conclusion, and I know I’m probably a bit of a weirdo for being this open, but letting these thoughts out helps me understand them. If I’m a multi-fandom chaos who offers nothing but my own niche interests once in a blue moon, if any, then so be it.
WHY DID I STOP/PAUSE CREATING?
If you ask me why I stopped/paused drawing and writing for so long...even now, I can't quite answer that with certainty. It's something I must mull over and untangle for a long time. But my conjecture is: depression and starting another hobby, namely coding. While I found joy in my coding - or to be more precise, indie web - endeavors, it's not something a lot of people notice and appreciate nowadays, unlike artworks and fanfics. Long gone is the days of "mainstream" Geocities, personal websites, and fan sites. A bit unfortunate, perhaps, but such is the fate of a niche hobby. At the very least, I know I'm not alone. Shoutout to my indie web neighbors!
SPEAKING OF WHICH, I DISLIKE THE TERM CONTENT
A Semantic and Pragmatic Study (Short Version)
In the past, I once mentioned that liked the term "content creator" because it felt inclusive, but my feelings have shifted over time. To explain why the word now feels icky, I have to look at it through two linguistic lenses: semantics and pragmatics.
In linguistics, semantics is the study of literal, dictionary meaning. According to Merriam-Webster, the noun "content" means: substance; gist; meaning; significance; something contained; the principal substance (such as written matter, images, music, etc.) offered by a website or on social media. Semantically, it’s a perfect umbrella term. It doesn’t care if you are an illustrator, a writer, a musician, or a coder; if you put something inside a medium, you are creating what is inside. This is why I liked it at first, as it gave standing to creators usually sidelined in the general internet term of "artist" but are still making things.
However, pragmatics is where the trouble starts. Pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning - how a word is actually used in society. In the current landscape of the internet, the pragmatics of "content" have shifted over time, from creative expression to industrial commodity. The pragmatic use of the word now implies something disposable. It's a filler with no merit or artistry that keeps people scrolling, a quick and mindless consumption with no substance and depth.
In the context of today's internet, when the word "content" is used, it isn't just describing a medium; it's describing a unit of consumption. Semantically, a poem and a 5-second clip of a dancing cat are both "content," but pragmatically, the word strips away the human intent behind them. It turns a labor of love into a metric - something to be measured by engagement rates rather than by the connection it makes with another person. By calling it "content," creators - whether they are illustrators, writers, coders, or dreamers - become suppliers for the algorithm. Machines that exist solely to endlessly churn out products.
And I know for a fact that I am not alone in noticing this pragmatic use of the word and disliking it.
Because the world uses "content" pragmatically to mean constant output, I noticed that many hobbyists often fall into a trap. We start to view our own private joys - our OCs, our ships, and our loud thoughts - as unrealized products that haven't been "packaged" for a public feed. The internet asks, if it's not "content", does it even exist? This creates a pressure to constantly extract value from our hobbies, to churn things out just to be visible, turning a stress-free hobby into something that feels like work. But a hobby shouldn't be a job; it should be a sanctuary where we are allowed to create things that are messy, private, and - most importantly - commercially useless. Not everything has to be monetized.
Of course, I'm not saying that applies to everyone. It certainly does not apply to a professional who has to make ends meet. One may argue that the word "content" isn't always used with the "mindless consumption" context, and that is true - it's simply that the heavy association has soured it for me. And I understand that right now, there isn't exactly any direct equivalent to the term "content" that can replace it (not as far as I know, at least). I'm not telling you to stop using it either, you are free to keep using it. This is just my personal opinions and feelings.
Related: >>47Fold