- BTW
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- Did You Miss Me?
Welcome Back!
You may be wondering how you got here. Allow me to explain.
BTW is my new, rebranded, and re-platformed newsletter. I was formerly The Internet User Experience on Substack, and then a few things happened (some of which I wrote about in my last Substack post).
First, over the winter holidays, and after my last post about child influencer legislation in the United States, I became horribly sick: A nasty cold turned bronchitis, sinusitis, and antibiotic-resistant double ear infection. I was knocked out and sick for almost a month and cleared up just in time to start the spring semester at my university.
Second, when I recovered enough to think about restarting my newsletter, I had to finally face what had been happening on Substack for the past few months: The encouragement by site leadership to platform Nazis and White Nationalists. Long-time readers know what I always say – that there’s no such thing as a perfect social media platform. But my newsletter has always been deeply personal to me in a way my material on other platforms hasn’t. I will never tell you where you should and shouldn’t spend on the internet, but I didn’t have to lead my audience to a place that was staunchly against my beliefs. I knew if I continued this project I would not house it on Substack.
Third, I’m a professor, and I started a new academic semester. I have a new (and amazing) class this semester that I can’t wait to write about here, actually, since it’s essentially a class on how to be a professional content creator. The new course prep was a fair amount of work, but it has been worth it.
All of a sudden, I blinked, and it was no longer cold, dreary January, but approaching Spring and my peach tree is blooming in my front yard.
And there’s no shortage of things as of late that I have longed to write about. I’ve missed my newsletter – and I hope at least a few of you have too.
What’s New?
First, obviously the name. While The Internet User Experience was my attempt to bridge users, culture, and technological infrastructure, I felt the project moving away from this original mission to be more technological and cultural information. I wanted a new title that reflected this public scholarship and my accessible research insights. BTW, or “By the Way” felt appropriate – a bit of internet lingo that reflects someone adding something to a conversation they believe someone may not already know. The rebrand was something I had wanted to do even before Substack’s Nazi problem, and moving to a new platform felt like the perfect moment to do so.
Second, no more paywalls. While I know I deserve to be compensated for my labor and expertise, I won’t lie, putting a paywall on my last newsletter but a lot of pressure on me. I love writing this newsletter, but the expectations were a bit much for me to manage. Does this mean less frequent posts? Yes. My goal is once a week – maybe once every two weeks. This is meant to be fun for me, not a chore.
You Imported Me Without My Consent; I’d Like to Leave.
Fair! You can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email or page, depending on how you’re reading this.
Why Beehiiv?
I researched a lot of platforms to move to. I was looking for something that was one, free; two, user-friendly; and three; could easily import Substack data. Ironically, Substack is actually a bit easier of a free platform to navigate, but given the politics, it was no longer an option. There are a lot of options out there these days, and Beehiiv is a bit more “business-y” than Substack’s social blogging, but I’m excited to keeping diving into the features. I looked at Ghost. I thought about going back to Medium, where I was years ago. But, I think I’ve landed on the right one.
When Can I Expect the First Actual Post?
Soon! I’m aiming to do a write-up of the U.S. House of Representative’s vote on whether or not to ban TikTok outright in the country. The vote is tomorrow, so I’ll probably have an analysis for you on Wednesday.
Source: PixaBay via Pexels
What’s Been on my Mind Lately?
ReesaTessa & long-form social media content
Book influencer culture, reviewing bombing, and the proliferation of fanfiction…into everywhere and everything (Everything I have ever learned about the Omegaverse has been against my will…).
The Princess of Wales conspiracies and accusations of AI/manipulated/doctored images.
Child influencer legislation, and just because we’ve begun to make progress on financial protections, we still have a long way to go regarding the moral, ethical, and legal.
What Have I Been Reading in Research?
The Woman of the Far-Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization by Eviane Leidig.
An Autoethnography of “Making It” in Academia: Writing an ECR “Journey” of Facebook, Assemblage, Affect, and the Outdoors by Phiona Stanley.
“Honestly, I Think TikTok has a Vendetta Against Black Creators”: Understanding Black Content Creator Experiences on TikTok by Camille Harris, Amber Gayle Johnson, Sadie Palmer, Diyi Yang, and Amy Bruckman.