the other day I saw a girl on TikTok saying Substack was the hottest/trendiest/best social media to join right now, advising everyone to not walk but RUN to make themselves a presence and a newsletter and whatnot.

Am I the only one who doesn’t like that idea? I don’t log in thinking this is a social media app. It is a space for writers and readers to connect. I feel the newsletters, poems, stories, lit mags, etc I read here are too sacred and wonderful to be thought of as “one more social media profile to have.”

Any thoughts? Am I a gatekeeper?