I am going to quote Robin Sloane at length now, because this seems very true:
"Last week, I joined hosts V. V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell on their Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast to talk about “social media after Twitter”.
I mention this in our conversation, and I want to underscore it here: where the internet is concerned, we are in a crisis of discovery. Anyone with interesting new work to share — their own or someone else’s — rummages in the tool shed, looking for a seed spreader or a slingshot, and emerges with an egg beater and a single unmatched glove. Is this all we’ve got??
Maybe it seems odd to make that argument while the great algorithmic engines of YouTube, TikTok, etc., pump away, stronger than ever, powering a whirlwind of media unprecedented in history. They do sometimes circulate interesting new work; they do sometimes sell books. But that’s the breath of the gods, and I don’t want gods. I want tools.
I suspect there is no easy remedy. Or, maybe I mean to say: if it’s easy, it’s not a remedy. For example, if the Twitter clone called Threads becomes widely used, if its discovery algorithm really starts to pop, if it becomes a place where a new writer can build a meaningful audience … won’t that solve this problem? Of course not! Anyone who has used Instagram for more than six months, and therefore experienced its slippery caprice, understands this.
The strategy is the same as it always was: cultivate small, sturdy networks of affinity and interest. Connect them to each other. Keep them lit.
Bookstores and libaries have had this down for decades, of course. These days, their rock-solid reliability feels like a super power.
I always have a lot (too much) to say on this subject. You’ll find more such rumination in the podcast."