Everyone's a content creator these days. Even your uncle is posting pictures of his meals and writing about how #blessed he is. And you know, while that's not my cup of tea, there's nothing inherently wrong about that. It's great even, so long as it's authentic. But it usually doesn't strike me that way; it usually feels more like they've become a social media coordinator, sharing—and selling—a fake version of themselves to you. He's become a brand

If you were to stumble across Uncle Brand's online presence, you'd likely be amazed with what an interesting and humble and cultured and well traveled person Uncle Brand is. And is that so wrong? He's only creating what he's seen other people do after all. Only giving you what you want. Why not put your best self out there?

And maybe Uncle Brand has a little something unique he does, that one emoji he always uses or that obsession with ramen. And maybe he starts attracting an audience. He's reliable! He's relatable! He's authentic! He's safe!

But an audience is something you have to maintain, something you have to grow. The audience didn't come for Uncle Brand the man; they came for Uncle Brand the brand. So he starts refining his brand, churning out more content, gets a better camera for his photos. He's got more resources now and can ape what big brands do.

In some ways, the internet became too real, too tied to the real world. You can even make real money on the ol' www! But when this happened, rather than the internet liberating us from the old, we just recreated the old incentives and shallowness and commercialism. But shittier and more random. Youtube celebrities are mostly just shittier celebrities. Instagram is mostly just shittier magazine and food and travel photography. Internet journalism is mostly just shittier journalism. So much online content is pre-internet content just pushed on a new channel.

And what's so wrong with getting real? Uncle Brand is all in. He's a souper star! The Martha Stewart of ramen. By now, Uncle Brand is using his brand to hawk stuff too. He's using his brand to hawk other people's brands. Promote, promote, promote. Sell, sell, sell.

The internet defies generalization. There are certainly great communities and forums and subcultures and people creating amazing stuff out there today. More than ever even. But the internet as many people experience today is indeed quite different from what I original loved. It feels like all the incentives are wrong; platform incentives resold to creators and users as their own.

I don't want to be a brand. I don't want what old world is selling: the celebrities, the popularity contests, the consumption, the fear of judgement. I just want to create awesome stuff and have fun and try something new. And I want connect with people who are doing the same!