Hate to break it to ya… But Substack Notes, the estranged, homeschooled cousin of Twitter, is probably not bringing you a million subscribers.

I’ll continue to use Notes, of course because there’s no point spending hours writing something and *not* telling people that it exists.

With a sad predictability, I am again beholden to another social media app and I shall dutifully ’note’ to promote.

And yeah, if I was seeing massive success from Notes, I wouldn’t be writing this.

It’s easy to lament a tool that you’re not very good at using.

And I’ll admit, I’m not good at using Substack Notes

There are a few reasons;

I don’t write zingers.

I wish I could fire off a quick sentence that would touch the heart of a scroller. I just need more words. I like building a case, taking a stroll through a subject, cooking a full meal.

I don’t like fluff.

Most of the viral Notes I see just sound so insincere. Or overtly obvious. Or LinkedIn slop. Clearly, I’m a) wrong, b) pretentious or c) both - because they’re viral. I don’t think you should dumb down your message for likes and most of what I see feels so cardboard.

I am inconsistent.

I don’t have five breakthroughs a day. I don’t want to manufacture five breakthroughs a day. The key to anything is consistency but I’m busy painting and I don’t want to stop every few hours to post. I post when I feel like I have something to say and, honestly, that isn’t very often.

Grow Grow Grow

There are thousands of notes sent out each day, encouraging growth via the Notes app. “This is how I gained 5million subscribers by using Notes everyday” etc

I do know something about audience building, I have over 100k followers on both instagram and TikTok.

I understand the game here and I think building on Substack can be more valuable than on other platforms. That’s because of ‘time spent’.

Writing on Substack can foster a deeper connection. 10k Substack subscribers > 100k TikTok followers.

Here, readers will block off 10 minutes to sit with your words. You can go live on Substack and the retention seems much higher than that of other platforms because we’re here to engage and deep dive.

Every week thousands of creatives spend an hour with me, listening to my podcast. I made a very deliberate choice by bringing it to Substack.

The content delivery here is slower than the scroll ‘n like of other platforms. But Notes is speeding everything up.

When I open my feed, it feels like thousands of artists are now reaching new audiences and thriving due to their regular ‘noting’.

How many users aren’t, though? 60%? 80%? More?

Most of us are just scrolling.

Ironically, many of us have ‘given up’ or drastically cut down on other social medias. That was the hook of Substack in the first place.

I’m currently battling a powerful phone addiction. It’s bad, so in recent weeks I’ve made some changes. No social media before midday, for me has been, I’m going to say, revolutionary.

But recently I realised my ban didn’t include the ‘stack.

As I reach for my phone at various intervals before midday, Substack has been filling the void.

But as Luciana Cole they/them says; Substack is a social media, you cunt

Our time is being siphoned away, again but we’re somehow okay with it because here, it’s rustic and folksy and crafty and nice.

But when you think about it, there’s something a bit weird about clicking *like* on a digital photo of an old book, with a caption about ‘old book smell’ and ‘getting back to the important things in life’.

Of course this type of content does well, because it resonates. It should be celebrated.

But instead of sending us reaching for the nearest battered novel, it just delivers us enough dopamine to keep us on our phones.

Ah yes, books. I can almost smell it through my screen. Scroll.

The thing that annoys me the most and I suppose was the catalyst of this little rant, is the engagement farming.

Every day I see posts along the lines of “Dear Algorithm, please connect me with the smaller Substacks. They don’t have many subscribers, but damn it, they speak from the heart”

THOUSANDS of replies from desperate writers who won’t end up gaining any new readers.

They may, however, be scooped into the OP’s funnel, where the promise of growth is too good to resist.

I read a note the other day, the author was complaining about how much viral content he was being served on Substack, and said; “I honestly don't want all the viral posts but interesting writing and interesting points of view”

But Substack doesn’t have a team of curators, selecting niche, undiscovered (but good) content. It has an algorithm.

The algo decides what’s interesting, based on what people interact with. Substack continues to grow and has over 20million monthly active users.

It’s not that niche any more, everyone is here now.

The internet ‘flattens’ culture as the snake of popular content eats its tail.

That’s not to say that the algorithm isn’t excellent at knowing who you are. Sometimes I’ll find my self in the wrong corner of Substack.

A lot of what I get served, for example, is anti Ai.

My algorithm knows I hate that shit but there is very definitely a pro Ai contingent on this app.

They are existing away, patting each other’s backs while I do the same, each safe in our little echo chambers.

On the topic of Ai, I suspect - I CAN’T PROVE IT - but I suspect, that 87% of Notes are written with Ai and that makes me disproportionately angry and disappointed.

There are some incredible creators here, using Notes but I’m so paranoid that I probably dismiss a bunch of human written bangers. The whole thing just feels infected now.

I learnt the other day that you can change the settings of the Substack app so upon opening, your default tab isn’t the notes feed. I’ve implemented this, we’ll see how it goes. My plan is to get back to carving out time on the weekends, to read the newsletters I care about.

I know that Notes isn’t really the problem. I use it as a distraction, even though I don’t enjoy it.

And I’m not here to piss on your cornflakes, if Notes works for you, hey - rock n roll, diva.

But I do think it’s worth asking; is Substack Notes, serving you or maybe, is it just a distraction that’s keeping you from making your best work?

(Thanks Danny Li and Healing Through Writing for their notes used in this essay)