They’re all around us. We live in a society that is awash in words. If you buy, like, a pillow, it will have a warning label with yet more words. A pillow!
I’m adding yet more right now. Sorry!
I subscribe to a mailing list (sooooo many mailing lists, tbh) in which the writer sells a writing course and so he is routinely telling people they should write [more words].
By contrast, I think folks should shut up unless they have something to say. “But what if they have something to say, but it’s just locked away in the depths of their minds?” You ask. “Good!” I say. Naw, I’m just kidding. I’m all for self-expression, but all-too-often, inciting people to write is a front for commercial behavior: folks aren’t writing something profound and important to civilization. Rather, they’re filling the interwebs with babble — more babble.
I don’t mean to come off as anti-self-expression. I am specifically against using superficial personal experiences as entrepreneurial activity. When I was a kid, I remember a movie came out called “My Left Foot.” It was about (I think—I’ve never seen it) a guy who was paralyzed and nevertheless became a painter because he learned he could move — you guessed it — his left foot enough to paint with it. That’s amazing. I would read his blog (if he had one…I dunno why I’m assuming he’s real…or even a he…). In this era of information, we are awash in low-quality information. Gossip and like celebrity news. And for what? Does that stuff improve …anything?