More than gatekeeping the locations (which I do) how about we all gatekeep OURSELVES a little more. We are literally giving away free data to these companies so they can give us an algorithm so we buy more shit or get brainwashed into some belief system.
Thanks for this! One of my 2024 intentions was to cook more from my cookbooks. I did but also struggled with the constant barrage of recipes from social media and even Substack now. 2025 will be a year of paying more attention to my attention.
All fired up, in a very good way!! just ask someone how to make a something, call a friend call your aunt. This is the best way.
You also touched on the parasocial, something quite out of hand and gross. There are a couple people I’ve been following for years whom I’m having to seriously reevaluate.
Wonderful, thoughtful post, Alicia. It pushed me over the line to spring for a paid subscrip. Looking forward to paying much closer attention. Thank you for this excellent work!
So so appreciate all of these thoughts!! Two quick personal shares it's prompted: 1) I busted out cookbooks for the holidays! (Isa's holiday cookbook makes me happy). 2) So, I used to be straight-up addicted to Diet Coke. multiple cans a day, everyday. In college, I was also part of the group organizing to get Coke kicked off campus because of the abuses in Colombia. I literally hid my Diet Coke from my activist friends in total shame, while also organizing hardcore to get the contract canceled (we did!). anyway, I *should* have felt ashamed and also the collective organizing mattered more than my individual choice, but I think it's a good example of those tensions co-existing. (I cured myself of the Diet Coke addiction in 2008 with the help, for better or worse, of the book Skinny Bitch. the 2000s! what a time!)
Starting backwards, we need a real look back at SKINNY BITCH because it changed so many lives!!! I was addicted to Red Bull in this era, so I’m not one to throw stones, lol, and I love this honest reckoning!
Also love that you brought out cookbooks this season—having to cull my books to move has caused me to really have a hard look at why I’m lugging these around. Isa and Terry Romero’s baking books were my BIBLES! I keep wanting to make their vegan cheesecakes again 😭
You were ahead of a big wave of thinking about/reporting on the politics of attention. Ezra Klein has been writing about it and podcasting on that topic for the last couple weeks, and I just read the Atlantic piece by Derek Thompson on loneliness which is deeply entwined with attention/media/technology, as you have described here. Thanks for the timely (prescient) piece!
when you wrote "performative vulnerability," it made me think of something I've been noodling on lately. it feels like everything and everyone is one big performance, one big spectacle. In some random searching and reading I learned about kayfabe, or the "tacit agreement between professional wrestlers and fans to pretend that wrestling events, stories, and characters are real. This includes portraying rivalries, competition, and relationships as genuine."
I think influencers and their audiences also have this tacit agreement! What’s weird is when someone seems to project story lines onto you and you weren’t privy to the performance they were watching! 😂
More than gatekeeping the locations (which I do) how about we all gatekeep OURSELVES a little more. We are literally giving away free data to these companies so they can give us an algorithm so we buy more shit or get brainwashed into some belief system.
100%!!!
Thanks for this! One of my 2024 intentions was to cook more from my cookbooks. I did but also struggled with the constant barrage of recipes from social media and even Substack now. 2025 will be a year of paying more attention to my attention.
Oh, that’s such a good way of putting it: “paying more attention to my attention”!
All fired up, in a very good way!! just ask someone how to make a something, call a friend call your aunt. This is the best way.
You also touched on the parasocial, something quite out of hand and gross. There are a couple people I’ve been following for years whom I’m having to seriously reevaluate.
Wonderful, thoughtful post, Alicia. It pushed me over the line to spring for a paid subscrip. Looking forward to paying much closer attention. Thank you for this excellent work!
Thanks so much, Leslie! Excited to have you in the fold.
phenomenal and a real breath of fresh air, thank you thank you
An honest and refreshing perspective, as always. Thank you Alicia.
Thank you for reading!
So so appreciate all of these thoughts!! Two quick personal shares it's prompted: 1) I busted out cookbooks for the holidays! (Isa's holiday cookbook makes me happy). 2) So, I used to be straight-up addicted to Diet Coke. multiple cans a day, everyday. In college, I was also part of the group organizing to get Coke kicked off campus because of the abuses in Colombia. I literally hid my Diet Coke from my activist friends in total shame, while also organizing hardcore to get the contract canceled (we did!). anyway, I *should* have felt ashamed and also the collective organizing mattered more than my individual choice, but I think it's a good example of those tensions co-existing. (I cured myself of the Diet Coke addiction in 2008 with the help, for better or worse, of the book Skinny Bitch. the 2000s! what a time!)
Starting backwards, we need a real look back at SKINNY BITCH because it changed so many lives!!! I was addicted to Red Bull in this era, so I’m not one to throw stones, lol, and I love this honest reckoning!
Also love that you brought out cookbooks this season—having to cull my books to move has caused me to really have a hard look at why I’m lugging these around. Isa and Terry Romero’s baking books were my BIBLES! I keep wanting to make their vegan cheesecakes again 😭
Ohmygosh that vegan cheesecake! And yes totally, Skinny Bitch deserves a retrospective of sorts…
starting the year off with a bang 🔥🔥🔥
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
You were ahead of a big wave of thinking about/reporting on the politics of attention. Ezra Klein has been writing about it and podcasting on that topic for the last couple weeks, and I just read the Atlantic piece by Derek Thompson on loneliness which is deeply entwined with attention/media/technology, as you have described here. Thanks for the timely (prescient) piece!
Appreciate this! Thank you for pointing these out—I’ve been in book edit mode and will make a note to read them when I’m out of the weeds!
Gladly! If that description isn’t enough, I would be happy to send links.
when you wrote "performative vulnerability," it made me think of something I've been noodling on lately. it feels like everything and everyone is one big performance, one big spectacle. In some random searching and reading I learned about kayfabe, or the "tacit agreement between professional wrestlers and fans to pretend that wrestling events, stories, and characters are real. This includes portraying rivalries, competition, and relationships as genuine."
which kind of feels accurate??? 😂
I think influencers and their audiences also have this tacit agreement! What’s weird is when someone seems to project story lines onto you and you weren’t privy to the performance they were watching! 😂
oh yeah total context collapse!
Amazing writing again, Alicia. Thank you
Thank you!