Navigating the Landscape of Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Content

"No one is ever completely safe from the critical gaze of a culture steeped in the makeover ethos." —Micki McGee

I have a theory that you can measure the decline of any social media platform by the time it takes for its feed to become a firehose of unsolicited advice. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are all sludge piles of advice now, but it took them years to devolve. TikTok took maybe 18 months. Substack Notes? Like 3 months. Threads? Instant.

Most of us (I think) can agree that the vapid posturing that occurs through posting advice on social media makes a platform less enjoyable. I don't open one of these apps in the hopes that I'll learn the one weird trick that can turn my frown upside down or give me six-pack abs. What we once loved about these platforms is how people shared their everyday descriptions of life, love, family, and curiosity. But much of that mutual exchange of experience has been ceded to the commercial interest of advice.

After all, we love advice. We also hate advice. We love it when someone can tell us what we should do next. And we also hate being told what we should do next. So what gives? Today, a description of why that is. But first, things are going to get awkward.

Footnotes:

• Read the written version of this episode.
• Awkwardness: A Theory by Alexandra Plakias
• "Signs of social awkwardness and 15 ways to overcome it" via BetterUp
• Self-Help, Inc by Micki McGee
• Self-Help, LLC - a special What Works series exploring the business and culture of self-help

• (00:00) - EP 493: Why We Just Can't Quit Advice Culture
• (19:44) - Credits