Why write?

Hello, me! So far my ‘writing life’ has consisted of essays, texts, letters, emails, and the occasional article for The Futurist. Mundane.

What is the purpose of writing any more? We express ourselves on social media with short tweets, flex on insta, or message friends and family. Where’s the space for long form writing to an audience or yourself?

Currently, there is a movement towards writing newsletters on Substack, blogs on Mirror or Medium, and threads on Twitter. This sort of writing is informative, original content creation. The movement stems from a shift to a creator economy that arises from the current ‘empty’ state of the internet. The web2 Internet is mostly populated by intelligent filtering algorithms, bots, sensationalists and influencers. The lack of humanity and community is astounding. Hence, web3 (not the topic of this first post). Therefore, users want to add more meaning to their posts, and are embracing long form.

So, I thought I would add my two cents to the writing trend. But, this is not the only incentive to start writing (properly).

Here are a few:

1. No doubt, as a first go, this is shit. So… I want to improve my writing.
2. Writing consolidates thoughts and learnings.
3. Writing explores ideas and has a multiplier effect to generating ideas.

Ultimately, this is for myself. As you can see, all the reasons I have given are entirely selfish. I will refer to this post in the future to reinvigorate my passion (although I wouldn’t say I am passionate now). And I shall refer to the reader as if it is my future self. Therefore, I do not need any disclaimers if you are not me, but just in case: I will be honest, often wrong, but thoughtful.