Is Substack still the right place?
For me, for now, yes
We are only 2 months into a new year and already I’m reading how Substack is increasingly becoming an unsafe space for many creators who are experiencing depressingly familiar, but nonetheless horrific, abuse.
It is also only 2 months since I wrote about how I thought Substack was ‘the right place at the right time’ for me to find a home online after I chose to deactivate my other social media platforms.
As a chronically ill person, online spaces are a lifeline for me, but the other platforms were no longer doing ‘more good than harm’ for me.
So what now?
Do I have to resign myself to the fact that all social media platforms will eventually become hostile, unsafe spaces - or, do I take some solace in the fact that there is an active resistance against this?
I’m choosing the second option; fighting back to keep this platform for as long as possible as the space I wanted when I choose to write here; a place for longer form, more thoughtful writing and reading.
A place where like-minded and positioned writers gather with generosity and inspiration.
I still see mostly that inspiring, gentler, more thoughtful, more resonant writing in the Substack I have so far experienced - I’m not naive to think that there will not be changes and I am not choosing to be ignorant to the abuse that is clearly here.
I am choosing to stay for now and continue to write in the ways that I want to express - and to read.
I also know that I feel so much better here than I did when posting daily and ‘checking in’ on other social media platforms - the relative absence (so far) of ads and trending sounds and ‘viral trends’ is in itself worth it for me to stay.
Here’s to fighting together to keep this our kind of writing community x
