This is extraordinarily true. As a fellow writer, one who is profoundly bad at the game of the Internet, I am often amazed and occasionally appalled at the degree to which “writing” positions and opportunities are disbursed to people who are merely clever in quips, or highly brandable, or influential for reasons wholly unrelated to the craft of writing itself.

I am left to ponder perhaps an extrapolation into the not-too-distant dystopian future: perhaps, soon even, we will only get our writing, our news, our video, our music and our podcasts merely from people who are famous for social media success itself. So, because audiences are already baked in to their personal brand, they can then expand their influence via opportunities afforded to them by traditional publishing houses. And the quality of their content will no longer matter, or perhaps they’ll only deliver lines (written or on-camera) ghostwritten by others, and those who spent their lives perfecting their “crafts” will be usurped by people who spent their lives perfecting their “image.”

Perhaps this will not happen. Then again, half my (paltry total of) 2,100 Twitter followers came from the past 3 months, and nearly ALL found their way there via my Medium page. I’m doing this both wrong and backwards.

All that aside, I really liked this piece. It was decidedly well written. And I wish you enough success in writing so that you can one day retire and live like your favorite Instagram influencer. Cheers, Katie! ☺