The Internet could help us make this a better planet, but we must learn how to use it
This morning I got a nice email from a newsletter I never subscribed.
Here below you will find almost the full text, I only censored the reference of the sender as it is not an important information: is the behavior of the sender that matters – more on this later.
Hello,
I’m back…
For the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the best way to connect with you—not just through another newsletter, but by creating a kind of quiet space where we can meet.
You know how the internet feels these days.
Everything is fast, loud, designed to grab your attention for just a second before moving on to the next thing.
But what if there was a space that felt different? A space that felt quiet, normal, inviting—a place where you and I could pause for a moment, sit together, and reflect?
I don’t mean anything dramatic—just like sitting down with a friend every now and then, in a quiet room, having a conversation.
Many of you know me as a photography editor and photographer, and if you’ve followed my work, you know I love minimalism. I love images that don’t shout but instead make you pause for a second. My photography has always been about that sense of quietness—and that’s exactly what I want to bring into something new.
I’m starting to create short videos. Simple, honest, quiet monologues. Not scripted, not overproduced—just me, sharing thoughts, ideas, and spontaneous reflections as they come to me.
They won’t be photography-related. This is our most personal space.
Some will be deep, some will be light, but all will be real. And more than anything, I hope they’ll make you pause for a moment, reflect, and maybe even see things in a way you hadn’t before.
I’ve created a YouTube channel called **************, and it would mean the world to me if you’d subscribe and be part of this journey.
If you do, just hit reply to this email and let me know. As a small thank you, I’ll personally write back to you—I’d love to hear your thoughts, connect, and make this feel like a two-way conversation.
This isn’t about growing numbers. It’s about creating a quiet space in a noisy world, where we can think, reflect, and talk about things that matter.
Thanks for being here. I appreciate you more than you know.
@@@@@@
P.S. Subscribe to ************** here. It would mean more to me than you know.
Wow! Finally a different voice, someone “swimming against the flow”!!
Watch out, I mean really interacting, not just a like, a follow or any other devilry these platforms invent to keep up loosing time. As a matter of facts I’m sick of all these fake interactions and I’m starting look at social platforms as social-failures rather than tools able to connect people…
On YT I found out that most of the content creators I found do create not exactly to share and connect. Their main interest is to keep you watching as, apparently, they got a revenue based on how many minutes they get viewed – no matter the content.
This is so clear every time Apple – or any other well established brand – releases a new piece of hardware. A ton of people talk about these products before and after the release telling the same things you can read on the press release or the official web site. Most of the time I do not find the information I’m looking for in these videos so I ended up in not entering the platform anymore.
We (my wife and me) stopped looking at television years ago to avoid advertisement (however not only for that reason) and now we are invaded by advertisement on the Internet.
I was grown in a world where you had to pay when you wanted to get something. Nowadays it has changed to a world where we have to pay NOT to get something.
So we pay to eat organic food (our grand-grandparents had that for free), we pay not to see advertisement – and, lately, this is even not enough: think about the cheapest plan on Netflix or Amazon Prime that introduced advertisement even if they charge almost 40 Euros per year…
These platforms were created to make a business on us, filling our minds with advertisement for products that we do not need, no matter what they promise.
So I immediately emailed him back to check how true was the intention of this guy and, possibly, to create a real connection.
I like to be transparent, here is my email:
Hi @@@@@@,
It’s a nice idea and concept that I’m also thinking to do since some months.
I’m not a photographer, I simply use a camera to represent my ideas and feelings. In this process I learn about myself and other people while trying to keep growing as a human being.
If I can suggest something, I would not use YouTube as the platform as a “quiet space in a noisy world”: it is exactly the opposite of your beautiful message! It is like talking about peace while being in a military dress fully armed, if you see what I mean.
Things are changing, I’m sick to feed always the same monsters, giving them more and more power… it does not take us to a better world.
To contribute creating a better world for future generations we must find new ways, more coherent with our view.
There are different technical solutions that are more “in sync” with your message like, for example, a simple WordPress blog hosted on your server. Using CloudFlare you can now easily share videos in a minimal way, at a really affordable cost, without the distraction of advertisements and all the suggestions made by YT while trying to sell us something we do not really need. That will also fit your concept of minimalism – that I truly like.
Pardon me if I sound rude but this is my way to say thank you for trying to do something new in a world where people are getting overwhelmed by a technology that, if properly used, can help us in modeling our future the way we want rather than the way centers of power are trying to do (and they seem to succeed really well).
At the end of the day: “this isn’t about growing numbers”, right?
Thank you so much for writing back to me and sharing your thoughts.
I absolutely understand what your thinking is here and it actually aligns with mine.
Sharing my non-photographical thoughts on a YouTube channel is actually an idea that works fine for me. Of all the social media platforms, YouTube is the only place where I find, follow, and enjoy content from people I respect the most. Very often – quiet, insightful conversations. I follow people I respect and I only watch their content.
For starters, it is a place which creates the least obstacles for me and also gives me a chance to find my audience.
I hope you will enjoy some of my upcoming reflections.
Warmest regards, @@@@@@
What a delusion every time I try to create a connection and get such a similar slap on the face.
People like easy things, I understand. But please don’t try to trick me with your splitted tongue.
Newsletter unsubscribed.
I just want to underline that this does not stop me in having faith in other humans – yesterday I met and was able to connect with a 24 young man that has a super clear vision about how to live on this planet: he brought true inspiration, a lighthouse if you like, that made me realize some important things about myself and how to live on this planet – more about him in a future post.
This morning I hoped to get another gift from the Universe but I was wrong: no problem I will concentrate on yesterday’s meeting and forget today’s guy right after I publish this post.
Once again, the best way to connect with me (and other humans) is in person. Social platforms are useful to make a business (and being used by who created them).
Peace
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