by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Because of all my obsessive ranting about Gawker over the years, its founder Nick Denton has blocked me on Twitter. I have to say that one kind of hurts — even if, from his perspective, I can see I kinda deserve it.
Now, let me be clear — I’m working on a novel (which is going well, thank you) and so this is just me letting off some steam. Absolutely no one, but NO ONE, listens to me. I really am, for the time being, just talking to myself on this blog. I’m a complete and total nobody. But occasionally, I like to think, I do write something interesting on this blog.
And I know I’m writing some pretty interesting things in the novel I’m writing. Some of them are pretty thought provoking, in fact.
Regardless, I’m old enough now to have some perspective .Looking back on what I’ve experienced, it definitely seems as though occasionally a New Era pops up that changes things in a big way. Thinking back, it seems as though there were big shifts in mass perception just after Watergate and in the 1991-1992 era.
It seems logical to me that…maybe?…the fact that both Trumplandia and Rona are set to end at just about the same time might be enough to reset things? A New Modern era? Young people will reference THIS as “the modern” going forward?
A lot depends on the economy and how stable things are on an economic front. Though, of course, you could say that the next four years may be the last gasp of America as a liberal democracy, so, as such, we’re ripe for some Weimar Republic levels of creativity in a short burst before ICE agents begin to patrol Broadway looking for “non-American themes and ideas.”
I wish I was joking.
But the point is — where’s our new Gawker? It would be fun to have a new Gawker-like site that would follow in the traditions of Late Night with David Letterman, Spy Magazine and Gawker. I know what’s going on — the Internet is just as mature as the rest of media, so the start up costs for a Gawker-like site would be staggering.
The dynamic just isn’t there for a site to grow organically anymore.
As such, I think we’re in for just more of the same. The economics of the infotainment industry as such that we’re just going to have bland everything from here on out.
I’m doing my part to create something fun and different with the novel I’m working on, but it just takes time. Be patient.
