Controversy sells and rage generates clicks.
This is bad for artists, bad for creators, bad for people trying to share their work.
Unless of course, your work is creating rage. . . Then you’re in luck.
Social media algorithms have a lot of us confounded. The fact is, I can post a picture of my face and get a certain number of likes & interactions.
I get way more if I post a picture of my dog’s face (which makes sense… LOOK at that face).
If I post something about one of my books that cost me countless hours of labor, love, and tears, on the other hand, I’m lucky if two people see it.
But I bet if I posted something controversial, if I said some truly bombastic things, people would start reacting one way or another, and the algorithms would think, ‘gosh the folks love this!’
So, I figured I’d give it a try today.
Here are a few of my (not at all) deeply held, deeply unpopular opinions. Feel free to argue. Feel free to get mad. Feel free to call people names.
And I’ll laugh it all the way to the bank (#sarcasm).
• Hamilton isn’t nearly as good as it was made out to be.
• Pizza in North Jersey is better than New York pizza and Chicago-style pizza is just a casserole with dough.
• Baseball is better with steroids.
• The Lord of the Rings movies are boring.
• Modern country music is rubbish.
• Peak Ronaldo was better than peak Messi.
Okay. That should do it. I believe I have successfully managed to offend everyone on earth. Won’t be long until I’m buying Twitter from Elon.
Here’s the issue though, all of us fall for this kind of clickbait from time to time and the people who are trying to get rich & famous off of us know this.
Rather than being incentivized to make good content, then, they just stir the pot.
And what’s the result?
Rather than creating meaningful art, we create meaningless arguments.
It’s everything from politics to sports to how we consume the news.
And the worst part is, it doesn’t leave us feeling satisfied, either. We get mad for a minute, we post a cathartic comment, and then we get moved on to the next thing that’s supposed to enrage us.
In falling down these wormholes, we lose sight of our values, and often, we lose sight of our friends.
So, friends, for those who are here, I just want to say thank you. From the bottom of my heart.
I can’t tell you what it means to me when you post an honest review of my writing.
I can’t tell you how much it means when you share a photo of my book.
Because whether you like my writing or not (and I realize, my work is not for everyone) each interaction means we’ve successfully cut through the noise, the rage, and the chaos, and had a truly human moment of sharing something together.
There’s lots more to come, lots more that I’ve been pouring my heart into, and I can’t wait to share it with you. Thanks again for being here for it.
Brandon