Chapters 📖

1. The Mainstreaming of Loserdom [Reading Recommendation] 🛌

2. Is This The Next Big Social Media? 📲

Good morning! 🌤️

Our first piece revolves around bedrotting.

Destructive cultural fixtures have likened us to passive robots instead of the social creatures we should be. You ready for reality? Let’s get it.

Tell the Bees on Substack wrote a piece that got me thinking: Is the hobby-less, unmotivated and antisocial loser the default being of our species?

Okay, so it isn’t just me who’s noticed … right?

There are people don’t do anything anymore, and are proud of it.

Proud! Of doing absolutely nothing!

It’s one thing to have lazy or delayed moments, lethargic afternoons, or slow starts to a task.

Even lazy days — 24 hour stretches of being sedentary and unproductive — agonize me, but I understand them.

It happens, and hey, maybe it helps to realign the positive cycle of habits.

What we have in 2025, (which is already a bleak, uncertain landscape) is a culture of encouraged laziness.

Not just habitual laziness, a whole culture driven by taking it easy, perpetual attitudes of nonchalantly “leaving it for tomorrow”.

The apologists swear it’s self-care. I see it as self-destruction.

If you read this newsletter enough, you know how much I believe in the power of healthy habits for building self.

Time outdoors, social bonding, exercise, chores, responsibilities and difficulties are all necessary to building up the human mind and body.

I shouldn’t have to spell out how antithetical bed rotting is to any of these functions of good health.

And those are just the foundations. To live a fulfilled life, I believe you need to find and pursue a purpose. Purpose in hobbies is a thing, too.

Your purpose can be something as grand as a Housing Freedom revolution, or volunteering your time at your city’s zoo.

People find purpose in so many things, really.

The common denominator is that they go out and find it, and encounter other humans along the way. It’s not always easy; it really shouldn’t be.

Obviously, bedrotting culture isn’t very purposeful or challenging.

But I guess that’s the point… People want a life devoid of purpose or challenge.

shivers 

Anyway, I won’t go on forever about this idea.

You should read the post I recommended on Substack below — it provides strong analysis and context for the (rather grim) picture of what the average consumer bot American is normalizing.

I gave my take on the bedrotting thing on Instagram, and it’s clear there are others who crave that “back then” feeling of being able to connect with loved ones without having to battle with tech.

Maybe that feeling will return soon? I really hope so.

That’s part of what I’m building here with this newsletter and media community — likeminded people who want to return to simplicity and bliss.

Serenity is out there waiting! You’ll just have to leave your bed to find it.

What’s a niche hobby you have, or want to have? Reply to this email, and I’ll share mine!

Social Media’s New Groove 🕺🏽

Remember when TikTok got banned for all of 12 hours?

For some, it was the cataclysmic end to everything — at least it felt that way.

But why? What does TikTok give us that makes it so sticky and addictive?

From a distance, people’s feeds seem to consist of talking head videos, dance trends, memes, makeup and cooking tutorials, historical lessons, and other recreational content. Fun. I get it.

But what is the deep need being met with TikTok content? Is it the need to be communal, like how you feel connected to your church, or family reunion when watching virtually?

I don’t really think so …

What garners mass appeal on social media is confounding. We talked about bedrotting earlier, but that’s just the understudy to brainrot content and culture, which ranges from nonsense to pure filth as far as dignity is concerned.

What people watch is so starkly different than five, and of course ten years ago — it’s like humans have lowered their standard for what’s worth their time.

Dating confessionals seem to be all the rage, even for those not within the dating market.

Some confess to watching the lives of others, almost living through them from thousands of miles away.

But that isn’t community.

It really begs the question: What is the human itch that TikTok is scratching for us with its all-powerful algorithm?

In response to this question, I mostly hear claims that TikTok is a learning platform, and that’s what makes it so valuable.

I disagree. I don’t think you truly learn anything by hearing someone talk about it through a small screen, especially when you’re just waiting to react, or swipe to the next thing.

It’s like when you’re just waiting to respond when someone’s talking to you.

Are you really listening?

The way I see it, TikTok seems to silo users into their beliefs and interests more than connecting them with the other people within that community.

Sure, you can read and engage with comments, but you aren’t likely to see that commenter in the wild again.

And, since this is TikTok we’re talking about, the engagement is unlikely to be positive or complimentary.

I understand that trivial information and informed opinions can be valuable.

But that’s still not really meeting a need …

The innate desire for community and belonging is a need, which, contrary to what I seem to be presenting, can be achieved through social media.

It just depends on which one.

I’m certain that Substack is the next big thing.

It’s the place where people who like to read and write go to interact with others about what they enjoy reading and writing about.

Like the coffee shops used to be! Remember when those had seats in them?

I think Twitter had community going well for a while, (over 10 years ago) before bots, respectability politics, ads and misinformation plagued and seized control of something organic and of high quality, like the Spaniards did the Americas …

Instagram was cool when it was my friends and nothing more.

Now it’s just influencers and people performing. How rich, interesting, boring or poor are you? The world just HAS to know …

Mainstream culture is in a strange place. 

Substack just has this quaint feeling I really enjoy.

That’s huge to me, because social media has the average person obsessed with themselves, or more accurately, obsessed with the things they consume.

I highly recommend checking out Substack.

Notes, (conceptually similar to Twitter or Threads) is appealing because it produces inspirational and optimistic content in the context of a positive and productive community.

I post on there a decent bit, and can recommend you many great writers to check out.

And you won’t be alone — every day there are thousands of people jumping on the platform for the reasons I explained before.

It’s real and uncorrupted, which is rare for social media.

Nothing good lasts forever, though, and this is the internet after all, so there’s a shelf life on how long these platforms stay solvent.

Get them while they’re hot!