I have a confession to make: Being a full-time LinkedIn ghostwriter has made me, well… chronically online.

While yes, I am Gen Z, that doesn’t mean I’m blind to how harmful 10+ hours of screentime a day is.

I think a lot of us can relate to feeling like technology is using us, versus us using tech.

But I’ve been doing some digging recently, and it's making me completely rethink how I show up online (and how I advise my clients to show up).

This YouTuber, Jared Henderson, is fantastic. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is that the attention crisis we live in didn't start with Mark Zuckerberg or TikTok's algorithm. It started in 1833.

A printer named Benjamin Day launched The New York Sun - the first "penny newspaper."

The problem was that newspapers cost far more than a penny to produce. So, he had to run ads. To sell those ads, he had to sensationalize… a LOT.

I mean, his first headline was called “Melancholy Suicide,” for crying out loud. From then on, it only got crazier.

The modern translation:

As the video put it: "We didn't just lose our attention spans. They were stolen."

And in 2025, people are finally saying: enough.

I was also reading a report put together by the lovely Daisy Morris about her predictions for social media in 2026. Her findings fit right in with what we all see happening:

Naturally, the countercultural response is to lean as far as you can into what’s real.

WGSN (the global trend forecasting authority) is calling 2026 "The Great Exhaustion."

People aren't leaving social media entirely - they're changing how they use it. "Slowcial media" is replacing the constant churn.

Now, that’s all well and good for our personal lives. But what does it say for those of us who create content for a living?

So what does all this mean for those of us who do need to show up online professionally?

Unless you're willing to put in time, energy, and real intention to create community, cutting through the noise will be harder than ever.

Here are the 5 shifts I'm seeing (and applying with clients):

Intimate spaces are where real loyalty is built. Things like Discord, Circle, small communities - not just your social feed. Your LinkedIn becomes the breadcrumbs to the deeper connection.

Series content (borrowing TV formats) is outperforming one-off viral posts. People want something to come back to and something they remember you for.

People don't want more polished content. They want human content. Early internet aesthetics are making a comeback: horizontal vlogs, "shit posting," (AKA why memes are doing so well on LinkedIn), nonchalant sharing that doesn't feel like it's trying so hard.

Creators like @olivia.unplugged (which is powered by the app Opal) are thriving because they stopped asking "will this perform?" and started asking "does this reflect what we actually care about?"

Like intermittent fasting, but for social media. Seasonal content, batching, showing up when you have something to say, not because you "should."

I don’t know everything that’s going to happen, obviously. But what I can confidently say is that the patterns are there, and the quicker we adapt and “hit the ground running,” so to speak, the better off we’ll be.

P.S. If you're struggling with what to post or how to make your content strategy actually work without selling your soul, reply to this email. I read every single one.