Liz Cultivates | L.M. Fern

This week, we talked all about digital content and how it differs from physical media — but also how, in the end, digital content does take up physical space, just not in a way that everyone thinks about.

We spend some time in this episode railing against online content, but I want to be exceptionally clear here: I do not think digital media is inherently a negative thing. When technology brings us access to more information, greater knowledge, deeper connections with our communities, it’s objectively, innately positive. When we move further from that, we get into the idea of digital content as a mechanism and vehicle for capitalism, which is my main gripe with it. The distinction here between “media” and “content” is huge.

As we say in the episode, “content” as the term used to describe this type of media puts the emphasis on the container — where the content is housed, instead of the writer/artist who produces it. As such, by the very nature of the word itself, it is a vehicle for commerce in a way that other forms of art and media are not.

I think it’s worth re-reading Alex’s first blog post from the Too Solid substack, which we spend some time talking about. He notes:

Content is work that must work. It has to connect with an audience, it has to sizzle, it has to be compelling. Note how “content” itself is the agent in these constructions, performing extraordinarily animated, human-like actions for enraptured audiences, while the creators themselves are less visible and more isolated. This content-as-prime-mover notion is especially evident in the seemingly redundant term “content marketing.”

Too Solid, “Content: The emergence of a hazardous concept“

We also talked about the piece by Leo Marx, “Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept,” which Alex is riffing off in his blog above. It’s a fascinating read about how “technology” came to be as both a word and as an “agent” in itself — because often, technology is considered something that itself acts on other things, rather than a tool that humanity/society invents and then uses.

I absolutely felt like I could talk about this for hours, so this will not be the first or last time we discuss technology as agent or digital content as a mechanism for capitalism.

What do you think? I’d love to hear what others think about our idea of digital vs. physical content. I definitely want to revisit the topic.