Is the Age of Posting Over?

This is not an episode about whether or not you should delete your social media accounts — we've had that conversation, and we'll keep having that conversation. Instead, this is an episode about all the weird habits we've developed around posting: posting on vacation, posting (or not posting) when sick or on leave, posting about your everyday life to your 200 followers like you're an influencer. It's about what compelled us to start posting in the first place — all the small pleasures of knowing things about people — and how those pleasures have been wrung out of the process.

Social media taught us a different way of telling the story of our lives. But now those stories feel dystopian and uncanny. Is it the end of posting as we knew it? Kathryn Jezer-Morton, author of the fantastic new book The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything, joins the pod to work through these questions and more.

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Show Notes:

• FOLLOW KATHRYN'S GREAT INSTA!! (lol) No seriously, follow her here.
• Buy THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE here
• All of Kathryn's fantastic writing on The Cut re: parenting / social / everything in-between
• The NYT review of The Story of Your Life I briefly reference is here
• If you're interested in Kathryn's dissertation on momfluencers
• The Marie Claire piece on vacation posting reference by one of the questions: I'm Not an Influencer. So Why Do I Feel Pressure to Post Holiday Photos?

We're currently looking for your questions on the following topics:

• WTF IS GOING ON WITH TELEVISION RIGHT NOW with Phil Maciak and Kathryn VanArendonk — podcasts-as-television, Netflix's Second Season Problem, what the networks aren't learning from Widow's Bay, ask us more!
• WOMEN LEAVING THE (CHRISTIAN) CHURCH — what are you seeing, what are you curious about, what are they leaving for?
• VENMO CULTURE: People who won't let you treat, people who say they're gonna Venmo you after you put a big dinner on your card and then don't, the utility (and annoyance) of Splitwise, Venmo-ing for a $4 coffee... convince Melody that there's an episode here
• LOW KEY SUPER RICH PEOPLE — ever since I read this piece on 'American Gentry' I've wanted to do a big episode about how the real (diffuse) wealth in this country is people who own care dealerships, HVAC companies, and other "pass-through" S-Corps. How does that wealth persist, what power does it wield, why do they vote the way they do, WHO ARE THEY, REALLY? (We're talking with some economists who've really crunched the numbers on this, so it's gonna be fascinating)
• THE LATEST IN BOOK TRENDS with Alyssa Morris (from our very popular BookTok episode!). Ask Alyssa about whatever you're seeing in the book world: covers, genres, how it's handling fan-fic, BookTok trends.....
• JOURNO-INFLUENCERS with s.e. smith — yep, another episode on influencers, this time on how they're changing the norms of journalism. What journo-influencers do you follow and what makes them compelling? What's the future of journalism when it's wed to this style of promotion? Is it actually anything new? Ask away!
• Anything you need advice for/want musings about for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything — it’s literally the name of the segment.

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