#and knitting tutorialists

[crosspollytaupe]

Hmmm so this entirely completely accurate but my addition is that it reminds me of a point I often make in conversation about the flip point of view, citing this post

I cite this to explain "when I ask you for recommendations on knitting tutorials, I'm asking you for help to find the second kind. I know how to find the first kind." It kind of frustrates me that I even have to cite this, but it feels like most people just don't seem to understand "no I'm not looking for the most viral, slickest-marketed tutorial, I'm looking for the good one."

It reminds me of a conversation my cousin and I had after playing a social deduction game at the family reunion, and he noted that our uncle who was just reading everyone perfectly and giving accurate descriptions of the implications...thinks climate change is a hoax. (And the shared context we had is that this uncle is legitimately smart; it's not a case of him just happening to run this one thing.) That's how I feel on even having to explain the difference in the screenshotted post. That Why are there so many smart people who don't get this? feeling.

As a person wanting to learn to knit, to read books, to listen to music, rather than the person wanting to teach, to write, to sing; I hate being on the receiving end of this article as well. The frustration it cites from Bethany Consentino's TikTok

She’s hopeful that there’s a better way to set up the system. “A lot of stuff is broken,” she says, “And nothing’s going to fix itself. Everybody needs to be proactive and figure out a way forward. Of course, that’s challenging, but I don’t think the answer is to throw your arms up and go, ‘Well, it just is what it is.’ I’m not an ‘it is what it is’ person, I want to figure out how to make it better, or how to make it at least more fulfilling for me as a human being in my one God-given life.”

is the same frustration I feel looking for good art. (Insert the usual "whatever that phrase means to you" caveat to the phrase "good art.") I don't think the answer is 'It is what it is, just accept high-marketability, low-quality results like the rest of us do.' I want to figure out how to make it better.

And then on final notes: —I assume 'how to make it work' involves some sort of collaboration between people with my frustration and people with Bethany's frustration. (And tbh, everyone is both people to some degree, especially given the article's asides about LinkedIn.) —This is a rant that I've gone on before; I haven't pondered this thought in terms of classism, but given OP's comment in the context of the rant I made, I certainly will be. —It's quite possible there's some Vox-y explanation of the learner/reader/listener side too, but if there is, I haven't seen it. (And would appreciate being pointed to it.)

More than that, you’ve got to actually spend your time doing this stuff on the off chance that the algorithm picks it up and people care about what you have to say. You’ve got to spend your time doing this even though it’s corny and cringe and your friends from high school or college will probably laugh as you “try to become an influencer.” You’ve got to do it even when you feel like you have absolutely nothing to say, because the algorithm demands you post anyway. You have to do it even if you’re from a culture where doing any self-promotion is looked upon as inherently negative, or if you’re a woman for whom bragging carries an even greater social stigma than it already does. You’ve got to do it even though the coolest thing you can do is not have to. You’ve got to offer your content to the hellish, overstuffed, harassment-laden, uber-competitive attention economy because otherwise no one will know who you are. In a recent interview with the Guardian, the author Naomi Klein said the biggest change in the world since No Logo, her 1999 book on consumerism and inescapable branding, came out was that “neoliberalism has created so much precarity that the commodification of the self is now seen as the only route to any kind of economic security. Plus social media has given us the tools to market ourselves nonstop.”

Oh hell yes. An article that supports my half-joke that a corporate app's demand for constant self-promo is technically classist.