I started working at a magazine in 1994. For any type of factual writing or just to get a quote or some basic information, I had to call someone and speak to them. I did not like this, but there were no other options. I did end up getting a lot of unexpected information and ideas. I might find out an interesting thing on the internet, but I'm not discovering it myself. I'm not the first to hear or read this bit of information. I can agree or disagree with it or reinterpret it, but it's not totally mine. Even if I bring my own voice, it still feels like "content."
Hey Katie, first, I'm so excited for you! It's awesome that you'll get to meet your nephew for the first time! :) I'm happy for you too!
I hope you're having a nice trip.
Your post resonated with me deeply as someone who is a writer and artist and who also has friends who are also writers and artists.
"It’s the conceit of Content I’m against. What the rise of Content as form has done to our habits, our memories, how we interact with art and culture, with each other. The speed it promotes, the sheer volume it promises, that we use the word ‘consume’ as a preface for it because by nature, it’s disposable. To consume Content starts off feeling easy, innocuous, but the associations with the verb give away pretty aptly the sensations that follow: drain, exhaust, waste."
This is so true. We're fed with an infinite storm of content by the algorithms of different sites. There are so many videos, so many articles, so many images, etc. They're set up to keep our eyes glued to our devices. And yet, both content and people's attention (as I remember journalist Chris Hayes mentioning in his book, "Sirens Call") is commodified. They're treated as data points, as items to profit on and exploit by so many, like data brokers, big tech, and more. And, as you touched on in your article, with so many layoffs, the ending of so many publications, writers and artists not being fairly compensated (something that has worsened with the rise of AI), and AI itself "creating" articles and art pieces, it's becoming more and more dire.
I've never sought mass readership and I mostly create as an outlet for fun (I'm continuing to submit microfiction (because I love writing) while also writing stories for the fun of it and drawing for fun too), but even so, I can't help but feel... I'm not sure how to describe it.... marginalized? Alienated? Feeling like I'm just left behind as this wave of AI surges forward? It's probably a mixture of it. I worry too for fellow writers and artists - friends, strangers, and acquaintances alike.
And it worries me how much the algorithms expect people to create AND post what they make. Otherwise, they no longer get as many views. It's so toxic and harmful. Everyone needs breaks. And yet, this is never factored in. The human element. The person behind the art, the writing. The common humanity we all share.
"Will we have favourite sports writers, culture writers, political writers, writers who exist in the middle ground between authors and working writers — or working writers, at all — in 10 years? In five? What happens when all the news we get, in basketball or beyond, comes from AI instead of the voices we look forward to and stow away for later, or drop what we’re doing to read?"
This is one of my worries. Like you, I fear that AI will just create everything and we (writers, artists, etc.) will just be left behind, lost as algorithms feed videos, pictures, articles, etc. "created" by generative AIs. And much of it will likely be short, never capturing the nuance or detail needed to understand the complexities of it all, as people swipe and click away in seconds.
Why I feel so strongly about this is because writing, drawing, filmmaking, etc. are all creations from our hearts. The characters I draw, the microfiction that I write, etc., they all contain a part of me. They come from my mind, my heart. It helps me express myself. And I'm thinking that this is the same for you and all the other writers and artists who I know. To me, with everything going on (rise of AI, cuts to publications and newsrooms, etc.) it feels like we're losing a part of ourselves, our humanity.
"We don’t just leave the things we read on the screen or the page when we put them down, we take them around with us. These tender little tide pools in our heads for the facts to bubble around in, hot houses of the heart for ideas to sprout from. We use critics, artists, writers as lenses for the world, for how we hone our own curiosity, and I don’t just mean it figuratively"
Yes!! I know I've learned so much about our world from others, like historians, writers, artists, and more. Their perspectives and stories (not just what they write but their life stories too) open our minds, our hearts. And, they can speak to us. There have been times where the shows that I see, the books that I read, etc., speak to something I'm struggling with and give me hope. And there are many times in which what I read, see, etc. have hit my heart.
I see this as the beauty of the written word, the art and other creations - the ability to connect to our hearts through the content that is created.
"The everyday translators of experience who you trust, and the lighting bolts of form that jolt us at an emotional, spiritual and intellectual level. Singe us back to our senses. " Exactly. 100%!
"Where I was worried I would lose what made me stand out by working my way in, that influence, concentrated here, spread — there’s a handful of basketball podcasts and properties now that cite being safe spaces to delve into the emotional elements around the game itself, that use ‘feeling’ or a synonym of in their titles; at All-Star, a major, national reporter found me at the back of a press conference to tell me something I wrote changed the way he writes. Basketball Feelings is now the most consuming, but also the most stable, place I’ve written for — then or since. "
I'm so glad that you created Basketball Feelings and kept going in spite of your worries. You do such a good job in showing the throughline between sports and society as well as the emotional aspects of the sport, and providing reflections about life itself. I think (and probably ruminate way too much) about life a lot and basketball's long been one of my favorite sports (though I am not able to watch much these days due to busyness), so your writing hits home for me.
"One way as the only way has never led to anything good, or lasting, in human history. A big statement to set up alongside a complaint of forced uniformity in basketball media, but at a fundamental level all writing exists in relation to the world it’s trying to reflect. It seems a crisis of ourselves, existentially unnatural, to stop looking. "
I couldn't have said it any better myself.
Great article again, Katie :). Sending you all my support and very best wishes!
I started working at a magazine in 1994. For any type of factual writing or just to get a quote or some basic information, I had to call someone and speak to them. I did not like this, but there were no other options. I did end up getting a lot of unexpected information and ideas. I might find out an interesting thing on the internet, but I'm not discovering it myself. I'm not the first to hear or read this bit of information. I can agree or disagree with it or reinterpret it, but it's not totally mine. Even if I bring my own voice, it still feels like "content."
Singe us back to our senses indeed 🙏
Hey Katie, first, I'm so excited for you! It's awesome that you'll get to meet your nephew for the first time! :) I'm happy for you too!
I hope you're having a nice trip.
Your post resonated with me deeply as someone who is a writer and artist and who also has friends who are also writers and artists.
"It’s the conceit of Content I’m against. What the rise of Content as form has done to our habits, our memories, how we interact with art and culture, with each other. The speed it promotes, the sheer volume it promises, that we use the word ‘consume’ as a preface for it because by nature, it’s disposable. To consume Content starts off feeling easy, innocuous, but the associations with the verb give away pretty aptly the sensations that follow: drain, exhaust, waste."
This is so true. We're fed with an infinite storm of content by the algorithms of different sites. There are so many videos, so many articles, so many images, etc. They're set up to keep our eyes glued to our devices. And yet, both content and people's attention (as I remember journalist Chris Hayes mentioning in his book, "Sirens Call") is commodified. They're treated as data points, as items to profit on and exploit by so many, like data brokers, big tech, and more. And, as you touched on in your article, with so many layoffs, the ending of so many publications, writers and artists not being fairly compensated (something that has worsened with the rise of AI), and AI itself "creating" articles and art pieces, it's becoming more and more dire.
I've never sought mass readership and I mostly create as an outlet for fun (I'm continuing to submit microfiction (because I love writing) while also writing stories for the fun of it and drawing for fun too), but even so, I can't help but feel... I'm not sure how to describe it.... marginalized? Alienated? Feeling like I'm just left behind as this wave of AI surges forward? It's probably a mixture of it. I worry too for fellow writers and artists - friends, strangers, and acquaintances alike.
And it worries me how much the algorithms expect people to create AND post what they make. Otherwise, they no longer get as many views. It's so toxic and harmful. Everyone needs breaks. And yet, this is never factored in. The human element. The person behind the art, the writing. The common humanity we all share.
"Will we have favourite sports writers, culture writers, political writers, writers who exist in the middle ground between authors and working writers — or working writers, at all — in 10 years? In five? What happens when all the news we get, in basketball or beyond, comes from AI instead of the voices we look forward to and stow away for later, or drop what we’re doing to read?"
This is one of my worries. Like you, I fear that AI will just create everything and we (writers, artists, etc.) will just be left behind, lost as algorithms feed videos, pictures, articles, etc. "created" by generative AIs. And much of it will likely be short, never capturing the nuance or detail needed to understand the complexities of it all, as people swipe and click away in seconds.
Why I feel so strongly about this is because writing, drawing, filmmaking, etc. are all creations from our hearts. The characters I draw, the microfiction that I write, etc., they all contain a part of me. They come from my mind, my heart. It helps me express myself. And I'm thinking that this is the same for you and all the other writers and artists who I know. To me, with everything going on (rise of AI, cuts to publications and newsrooms, etc.) it feels like we're losing a part of ourselves, our humanity.
"We don’t just leave the things we read on the screen or the page when we put them down, we take them around with us. These tender little tide pools in our heads for the facts to bubble around in, hot houses of the heart for ideas to sprout from. We use critics, artists, writers as lenses for the world, for how we hone our own curiosity, and I don’t just mean it figuratively"
Yes!! I know I've learned so much about our world from others, like historians, writers, artists, and more. Their perspectives and stories (not just what they write but their life stories too) open our minds, our hearts. And, they can speak to us. There have been times where the shows that I see, the books that I read, etc., speak to something I'm struggling with and give me hope. And there are many times in which what I read, see, etc. have hit my heart.
I see this as the beauty of the written word, the art and other creations - the ability to connect to our hearts through the content that is created.
"The everyday translators of experience who you trust, and the lighting bolts of form that jolt us at an emotional, spiritual and intellectual level. Singe us back to our senses. " Exactly. 100%!
"Where I was worried I would lose what made me stand out by working my way in, that influence, concentrated here, spread — there’s a handful of basketball podcasts and properties now that cite being safe spaces to delve into the emotional elements around the game itself, that use ‘feeling’ or a synonym of in their titles; at All-Star, a major, national reporter found me at the back of a press conference to tell me something I wrote changed the way he writes. Basketball Feelings is now the most consuming, but also the most stable, place I’ve written for — then or since. "
I'm so glad that you created Basketball Feelings and kept going in spite of your worries. You do such a good job in showing the throughline between sports and society as well as the emotional aspects of the sport, and providing reflections about life itself. I think (and probably ruminate way too much) about life a lot and basketball's long been one of my favorite sports (though I am not able to watch much these days due to busyness), so your writing hits home for me.
"One way as the only way has never led to anything good, or lasting, in human history. A big statement to set up alongside a complaint of forced uniformity in basketball media, but at a fundamental level all writing exists in relation to the world it’s trying to reflect. It seems a crisis of ourselves, existentially unnatural, to stop looking. "
I couldn't have said it any better myself.
Great article again, Katie :). Sending you all my support and very best wishes!