How Substack Taught Me Never to "Like" Again

And why you should be more conservative with your Likes as well

Recently, an update to Notes came to pass and this update made everybody very mad. It seemed like an innocent enough update. We could “follow” fellow Substackers via Notes (which we were already treating like the best social media platform we never dreamed could be real) instead of feeling forced to subscribe to them. Seems like a win-win idea, right? Little did we know how wrong we were.

No sooner did this innocent update roll out did we start to see immediate repercussions. Strapped to the back of the “follow” update was the “Like” insanity child. Born of a strange idea we never asked for. And if we had I am sure we all would like to take it back!

Now, instead of just seeing the fresh new ideas and questions we’ve come to love about Substack, free of ads and the other fluff we hate from other places, here we are in the land of confusion.

I see more “Likes” on my timeline than actual Notes. Sure, some are restacking instead, but I didn’t realize just how few and far between real communication was happening until the “Like” swarm hit. Now I find myself having to scroll past no less than a dozen “Like” posts before I get to something that someone actually wrote that I want to comment on. By the time this happens, I am:

1. Annoyed.

2. Fatigued.

3. Confused.

4. Over it.

That last one is the real problem, as I see it. Once I’m “over” something it typically means my brain has rewired itself to feel the previous three all at once even before I’ve encountered, or in this case opened, the app. Why do I want to feel those emotions every single time I open an app? Better to just avoid the thing altogether. It doesn’t take much for this to happen and without even realizing it I use the thing less and less till I’ve stopped using it altogether. I am nearing the stage where opening Substack to look at Notes and actively participate in that community will cease. And that bothers me on so many levels.

THIS NEVER SHOULD’VE HAPPENED

I realize this is likely a “me problem” but if you are feeling similarly, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

I’m annoyed that I should be feeling a similar way to how I felt back during my bird visit days. Five years ago I was an active twit. I was on there 24/7. Twitting and the like. Pretty soon I was fatigued by the whole notion of “twit twit twit and pray to be seen.” I had better things to do. I decided to work around the system. Surely I could make this place my own with what little controls that were available to me, right? So I went about attempting to game the system. I crafted Lists and only visited the Explore page. I did what I could but there were too many holes in the ship. Why was I wasting so much time trying to salvage what was unsalvageable? My confusion quickly led to me being over it. So over it, in fact, there be no twits on my phone and any remnants I may have acquired of it on my computer or other devices are 100% wiped clean. I AM TWIT FREE!

Fast forward to Substack Notes. A place far and away unlike any twit I’d ever encountered. A breath of fresh air. Free from pesky annoyances. I actively enjoyed spending time waist deep in the Notes of anyone and everyone who was present. And what’s more, I was never tired or drained from the time I spent in Notes because I came away either with knowledge or dropping knowledge on someone else. To help or be helped was a concept I never thought possible. It just made sense. I never wanted to leave.

WHY I’M MAKING SUCH A BIG STINK ABOUT “LIKES”

To put it simply, because I see the writing on the wall. It starts with “Likes” but before we know it, the next “update” will be couched as the best thing they could’ve done for the community but I guarantee it will come with it’s own set of challenges and confusion. Sure, I could try to live with the “Likes” issue and overlook it or allow myself to be frustrated for a time and then get that little hit of dopamine when I finally encounter a real post in Notes. I could probably suffer this way for 30min before I had to exit quickly. Is that what Substack wants? Maybe they realize we’re all spending too much time scrolling and communicating in Notes so this is their way of giving back by shouting at us to “LEAVE THIS PLACE AND GO WRITE ANOTHER EMAIL!”

If that is the case, I thank you, Substack Gods! It is true, that ever since I’ve found myself spending less and less time in the new land of confusion and annoyance I am writing way more content to send via email to my subscribers.

However, I enjoy meeting fellow Substack users and learning from them. There’s no place else where I can get that kind of community. Not on Discord or any other platform. And to have it in the same place where I create my content is ideal.

Was Notes broken? Certainly not. If anything, it was perfect. And maybe that’s why it was changed in this way. I notice all too often that it’s the things we find perfect that are immediately altered. Their creator thinking it can be made “more perfect.” So they tinker and toil and think they’ve done a great thing when in fact they’ve managed to take what once was perfect and tarnished it. I hope that the Substack Gods realize their colossal mistake and go back. If they continue on this road it will make it unfixable. And what is unfixable, as we all know too well, turns perfection into an absolute and total TWIT.

NEVER USING “LIKE” AGAIN

On a positive note (on Notes) what seeing so many “Likes” on my timeline has made me realize is that perhaps we’ve all become complacent with this feature. Instead of saying how we feel, why we “Like” what we’ve just read, we rely on a button to convey that sentiment and move on. It becomes something we do without even realizing it. Does every single post/comment need to be “Liked”? I would argue the answer is no. They do not. And yet, I will received 10 Likes to my post or comment and zero comments. Sure, seeing something get all those Likes can be gratifying but pretty soon you realize just how empty that can be.

Receiving Likes tells me nothing. I am left with more questions than answers:

• Why did you like it?

• What did you like about it?

I challenge all of us to STOP using the Like button. It should not absolve us from actually saying something to each other. And guess what, if you don’t have anything to actually say, then don’t. I much rather receive zero Likes and 2 comments than 20 Likes and zero comments. One far outweighs the other. We need to stop being so lazy and free-wheeling with our Likes. There, I said it. And this is coming from someone who used to be just as foot loose and fancy free with the Like button as well. It got to the point where I would click the Like button before I even read the comment! What?! That’s insanity!

Immediately after I realized Notes would take my innocent Like push and place it smack dab on other peoples timelines, I stopped. I will never Like again. The last thing I want to do is disrupt someone’s Notes experience because I’m throwing around my Likes like candy on Halloween night. Be the person you wish others to be. Don’t disrupt someone else’s Notes experience because you feel this urge to Like before you read.

Now, you don’t have to be exactly like me. If you really need to or want to Like something, by all means, go ahead. I’m just suggesting we THINK more about the Likes we give rather than just giving them.

The way we instinctively look both ways before we cross the street, we need to read it through before we click that Like button.

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What are your feelings about this whole Like situation happening over on Substack Notes? Have you felt this shift at all? Perhaps you don’t even know what the heck I’m talking about? Well, you can visit Notes and see for yourself. I’ve oft heard it described as so much better than the other Twits out there. But as you’ve read, only time will tell if that holds true…