Evan, there is SO MUCH I wouldn’t have found that I ended up loving and enjoying if you didn’t post it. I’m a mom to a toddler who loves pop culture and I simply do not have the time or desire (or money!) to seek out long form essays and interviews from traditional media outlets to get my pop culture fill. In my view, you carefully and intentionally curate content that I’ve often loved in and of itself so much that I do go and look further into the source material. I don’t have the attention span of a goldfish, but I do have the awareness of what makes my time spent engaging worthwhile, and you cater to that perfectly. I love what you do and thank you for it!
Yes, it's the curation for me. There is just SO MUCH out there and I find people whose points of view (because I do think Evan has one) I admire or find engaging or interesting to weed through all the garbage. Same reason I have trouble shopping at a department store and have to find the curated boutiques have a style I like - otherwise it's all so overwhelming I just give up.
Proud of you Evan! What a refreshing take on online criticism. To me, by posting this, you are leading by example about how someone should react to criticism about them online. The fact that you could allow some of that criticism to be constructive is such a win in todays all or nothing online discourse and hater-ade. This is what adults do when they disagree: they have a conversation and work it out. Thank you for reminding us all how to behave, online and offline. PS-I love all your content and like to think of having more of a beta fish brain than a goldfish brain.
After listening to this week’s episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Search Engine, I found Losgar’s assertion that “Accounts like Evan’s are directly responsible for the declining traffic in publishing” particularly striking. In this episode, Search Engine dove into how significant changes to Google are going to favor AI-generated answers from various websites over human-written articles. While this change hasn’t happened yet, it made me think about when media outlets like Cosmo, refinery29, Huffpo et. Al become obsolete for me, a longtime reader.
Contrary to what Losgar says about me (former Cosmo reader, current goldfish), my interest in the publication didn’t decline when I became a follower of ERK’s or even when I became a Shut Up Evan subscriber. It happened when Cosmo stopped writing for me and starting writing for SEO. Publications have gotten crappier in an attempt to get noticed by Google, which in turn has caused them to be forgotten by readers. I’ve traded magazine subscriptions for paid newsletters and yes, free, writing from people whose prose, opinions and creativity I find interesting and entertaining. What can I say, for a small goldfish brain like mine, this works just fine.
I am but one goldfish but there are maybe 5 or 6 incredible shows I would not have discovered if not for you, which I have then turned around and recommended to a dozen other people. Whether you call that kind of influence being an arbiter or just a fan girl, it doesn’t really matter to those of us who benefit. There’s clearly a unique talent behind what you do, which is precisely why I trust the things you highlight and am willing to give them a second look when they otherwise might fall off my pop culture radar.
Evan you aren’t just a fan girl, you’re the community creator for all of us fan girls! You’re consistently one of the only pop culture writers that regularly changes things up, offers nuance and builds relationships with creative people that give us content beyond what the same ole same old star making machinery gives us. I won’t speak for everyone but I appreciate you and what you do!
Love this. It’s painful to be called out but also important to reflect on the bits that may be fair. Done with class and dignity. Interested in the chat to come
Love you Evan. You always direct me towards new things to explore, watch and read that I would never have heard of without your IG. If you ever post a spread or stills I always follow it to the source material to find out more xxx
Evan, there is SO MUCH I wouldn’t have found that I ended up loving and enjoying if you didn’t post it. I’m a mom to a toddler who loves pop culture and I simply do not have the time or desire (or money!) to seek out long form essays and interviews from traditional media outlets to get my pop culture fill. In my view, you carefully and intentionally curate content that I’ve often loved in and of itself so much that I do go and look further into the source material. I don’t have the attention span of a goldfish, but I do have the awareness of what makes my time spent engaging worthwhile, and you cater to that perfectly. I love what you do and thank you for it!
To be clear- it’s me (not my toddler) who loves pop culture though I do hope I’m raising her to love these finer things in life :)
Yes, it's the curation for me. There is just SO MUCH out there and I find people whose points of view (because I do think Evan has one) I admire or find engaging or interesting to weed through all the garbage. Same reason I have trouble shopping at a department store and have to find the curated boutiques have a style I like - otherwise it's all so overwhelming I just give up.
Proud of you Evan! What a refreshing take on online criticism. To me, by posting this, you are leading by example about how someone should react to criticism about them online. The fact that you could allow some of that criticism to be constructive is such a win in todays all or nothing online discourse and hater-ade. This is what adults do when they disagree: they have a conversation and work it out. Thank you for reminding us all how to behave, online and offline. PS-I love all your content and like to think of having more of a beta fish brain than a goldfish brain.
After listening to this week’s episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Search Engine, I found Losgar’s assertion that “Accounts like Evan’s are directly responsible for the declining traffic in publishing” particularly striking. In this episode, Search Engine dove into how significant changes to Google are going to favor AI-generated answers from various websites over human-written articles. While this change hasn’t happened yet, it made me think about when media outlets like Cosmo, refinery29, Huffpo et. Al become obsolete for me, a longtime reader.
Contrary to what Losgar says about me (former Cosmo reader, current goldfish), my interest in the publication didn’t decline when I became a follower of ERK’s or even when I became a Shut Up Evan subscriber. It happened when Cosmo stopped writing for me and starting writing for SEO. Publications have gotten crappier in an attempt to get noticed by Google, which in turn has caused them to be forgotten by readers. I’ve traded magazine subscriptions for paid newsletters and yes, free, writing from people whose prose, opinions and creativity I find interesting and entertaining. What can I say, for a small goldfish brain like mine, this works just fine.
I am but one goldfish but there are maybe 5 or 6 incredible shows I would not have discovered if not for you, which I have then turned around and recommended to a dozen other people. Whether you call that kind of influence being an arbiter or just a fan girl, it doesn’t really matter to those of us who benefit. There’s clearly a unique talent behind what you do, which is precisely why I trust the things you highlight and am willing to give them a second look when they otherwise might fall off my pop culture radar.
Evan you aren’t just a fan girl, you’re the community creator for all of us fan girls! You’re consistently one of the only pop culture writers that regularly changes things up, offers nuance and builds relationships with creative people that give us content beyond what the same ole same old star making machinery gives us. I won’t speak for everyone but I appreciate you and what you do!
Love this. It’s painful to be called out but also important to reflect on the bits that may be fair. Done with class and dignity. Interested in the chat to come
Love you Evan. You always direct me towards new things to explore, watch and read that I would never have heard of without your IG. If you ever post a spread or stills I always follow it to the source material to find out more xxx