you managed to put into words a thing i’ve always been thinking about our new “social media society” and it is simply perfect the way you explained how reality began to feel since the internet has reached people’s lives, which has now become a fine line between the what-ifs and the could’ve beens. more people should realize that the line can actually be surpassed and once you’ve done that you’ll be able to really find yourself.
This is something I think about a lot. I experience the “boxing in” trope quite a lot as a director in the film industry, people love to categorise. What has struck me in recent weeks is that when an artist dies, people tend to look at their life from a birds-eye perspective, as pattern seeking as we humans are, we search for a through-line in things. The variety of interest can make sense in hindsight. Virgil Abloh is a great example, Richard Feynman too. Great piece! Time to get more hobbies.
This post, and reading through all the comments, really makes it evident how common this "problem" of finding it difficult to find a niche is! For a long time it felt like something I was struggling with while others found their niche and hit their stride. Thank you for sharing your thoughts <3
Wow. Love. As a creative and company founder, I always feel like I shift between my 'professional' hat and my 'girl in her 20s' hat. It can be so hard to just *be* and allow that to be enough, especially with societal pressures. This was such a beautifully written piece!
It’s really frustrating how social media pigeon holes you into a niche. If you post about a wide variety of things it’s like the algorithm doesn’t know what to do with you. And people can’t decide if they want to follow you or not. We seem to have lost the ability to see people as multidimensional beings, who may have a wide variety of disparate interests, partly because we need to present ourselves as having “picked a lane”.
I love this so much, genuinely do. I have so much hobbies right now that it feels almost overwhelming to define who I am, rather than enjoying the fluidity of it all. This perspective makes so much sense!! And I think this trend of categorizing ourselves is just also our human nature to crave a certain sense of "belongingness" 💛💛💛
I’m glad you re-shared. Boy has it felt nourishing to spend less time on Instagram these days and more time right here reading long form. I totally resonate with the pressure to categorize myself and admittedly have toiled over my IG bio, especially when I went independent and started marketing (ugh) my business there. Reading this felt like a relief.
I feel like especially nowadays, there seems to be such a push to put everything into neat little boxes, but what you say is so true: "more difficult to define often just means more engaging, more exciting, more interesting." Perhaps if more people start resisting the social media pressure to niche-ify, we might open the door to greater nuance!
This felt affirming for me as I never felt like I fit a “niche” and people kind of always joked around with me or told me it was my adhd that made me want to try so many different things and be interested in so many paths. It’s also why I love Substack. I feel I can share about anything here. 🤍
Wow, it's like my very thoughts were put into words! As someone who works in marketing / social media, this "niche" thing has certainly been baffling to me. In business / startups, this I can understand why there is such importance to choosing one. But on a personal level, it just seems like an oversimplification of who we are as people. And I think it devalues all the other facets that we have, turning into some kind of trope or stereotype, when we are so much more than that.
I honestly think, with the rise of short-form lo-fi content that we see on TikTok, this oversimplification is amplified because content has to capture an audience's attention within 30 seconds. This then contributes to our waning attention spans, and eventually our brain cells. It's simply seems impossible to say or explain what we are and what we do in those 30 seconds. But how else could we compete in that oversaturdated market? We have no choice to. Or we do, but it's the road less travelled.
This is why I never really bothered picking a niche. That's the choice, lol. Although, I do have a few bio taglines up on sleeve in case I or someone might need it.
you managed to put into words a thing i’ve always been thinking about our new “social media society” and it is simply perfect the way you explained how reality began to feel since the internet has reached people’s lives, which has now become a fine line between the what-ifs and the could’ve beens. more people should realize that the line can actually be surpassed and once you’ve done that you’ll be able to really find yourself.
Thank you! 🥹🥹
This is something I think about a lot. I experience the “boxing in” trope quite a lot as a director in the film industry, people love to categorise. What has struck me in recent weeks is that when an artist dies, people tend to look at their life from a birds-eye perspective, as pattern seeking as we humans are, we search for a through-line in things. The variety of interest can make sense in hindsight. Virgil Abloh is a great example, Richard Feynman too. Great piece! Time to get more hobbies.
This post, and reading through all the comments, really makes it evident how common this "problem" of finding it difficult to find a niche is! For a long time it felt like something I was struggling with while others found their niche and hit their stride. Thank you for sharing your thoughts <3
Wow. Love. As a creative and company founder, I always feel like I shift between my 'professional' hat and my 'girl in her 20s' hat. It can be so hard to just *be* and allow that to be enough, especially with societal pressures. This was such a beautifully written piece!
thank you so much for re posting this, as a new subscriber i never would've seen it otherwise. It's a beautiful piece, thank u <3
Thank you!! ☺️
Definitely adding Surely You’re Joking to my tbr pile! Great post.
It’s really frustrating how social media pigeon holes you into a niche. If you post about a wide variety of things it’s like the algorithm doesn’t know what to do with you. And people can’t decide if they want to follow you or not. We seem to have lost the ability to see people as multidimensional beings, who may have a wide variety of disparate interests, partly because we need to present ourselves as having “picked a lane”.
Oh I thoroughly enjoyed reading this ❤️
I love this so much, genuinely do. I have so much hobbies right now that it feels almost overwhelming to define who I am, rather than enjoying the fluidity of it all. This perspective makes so much sense!! And I think this trend of categorizing ourselves is just also our human nature to crave a certain sense of "belongingness" 💛💛💛
I’m glad you re-shared. Boy has it felt nourishing to spend less time on Instagram these days and more time right here reading long form. I totally resonate with the pressure to categorize myself and admittedly have toiled over my IG bio, especially when I went independent and started marketing (ugh) my business there. Reading this felt like a relief.
Absolutely the same, especially with IG & marketing my business… 🥲
I just want to thank you for sharing this post. Everything you write here 💯🙌🏻
thank YOU so much for reading!!
I feel like especially nowadays, there seems to be such a push to put everything into neat little boxes, but what you say is so true: "more difficult to define often just means more engaging, more exciting, more interesting." Perhaps if more people start resisting the social media pressure to niche-ify, we might open the door to greater nuance!
This felt affirming for me as I never felt like I fit a “niche” and people kind of always joked around with me or told me it was my adhd that made me want to try so many different things and be interested in so many paths. It’s also why I love Substack. I feel I can share about anything here. 🤍
Thanks for sharing
Wow, it's like my very thoughts were put into words! As someone who works in marketing / social media, this "niche" thing has certainly been baffling to me. In business / startups, this I can understand why there is such importance to choosing one. But on a personal level, it just seems like an oversimplification of who we are as people. And I think it devalues all the other facets that we have, turning into some kind of trope or stereotype, when we are so much more than that.
I honestly think, with the rise of short-form lo-fi content that we see on TikTok, this oversimplification is amplified because content has to capture an audience's attention within 30 seconds. This then contributes to our waning attention spans, and eventually our brain cells. It's simply seems impossible to say or explain what we are and what we do in those 30 seconds. But how else could we compete in that oversaturdated market? We have no choice to. Or we do, but it's the road less travelled.
This is why I never really bothered picking a niche. That's the choice, lol. Although, I do have a few bio taglines up on sleeve in case I or someone might need it.
Loved this! Thanks for sharing! 🤍