Lockdowns, algorithms, and AI — how do I write in this accelerated ecosystem?
In 2016, I wrote an article explaining that for me, my blog was my home. Back then, writing and blogging felt like a rush of joy and a comfort blanket. I took vulnerable pieces of myself, organised them into coherent and creative thoughts, then share them with a quiet, safe corner of the internet where my words could stretch, unfold, and breathe.
I left that corner for seven years.
When I return, I do not find it abandoned. But it definitely transformed. The world has lived through lockdowns, social media algorithms have reshaped attention spans, and artificial intelligence can now generate essays in seconds. Writing with your heart and your guts is no longer the golden standard. Authenticity is no longer alone in my safe corner.
The last time I published on JGC blog, TikTok did not overwhelmed the human attention span and wasn’t compared to an addiction. The last time I wrote here, AI could not draft articles in seconds. The word “lockdown” did not trigger horrible memories and grief.
Seven years later, returning to my blog, my home, feels less like reopening a beloved journal and more like re-entering a whole different, dystopian world.
And quite frankly? While I was gone, the internet feels like it grew up too fast, had an horrifying burn-out, sixty-six identity crises, and ended up hiring an AI assistant to fix everything.
And yet… I’m coming back.
Why coming back to blogging in 2026 ?
For two simple reasons: I missed blogging and the world is not the only one who changed this last seven years: I did too.
Back then, blogging felt like a wonderful exhale. Performance for an algorithm, for clicks and for monetisation never register with me because I didn’t know anything about it. There was no invisible scoreboard measuring engagement for me. I wrote because I had something to say, something to get off my chest, something happy to share to my small community. And if it resonated, people commented and stayed. If it didn’t, I tried again.
Now everything feels optimised. Optimised thumbnails. Optimised hooks. Optimised personalities. Even vulnerability sometimes feels rehearsed.
As a writer and a blogger, I witnessed the internet mutating into something intimidating. My safe corner became a stage.
It took me a long time to accept it and when I did, I had to ask myself if I still had a place in this stage, if I was even legitimate to be part of it. And if I even wanted to be here.
Because a stage comes with lighting. And lighting comes with performance.
And I don’t like that.
Of course, blogging in 2016 wasn’t a writer’s utopia. There were still trends, cliques, comparison spirals back then. But there was also still space for slowness. Space and dare I say fondness, for imperfection. Space to publish a piece that didn’t fit neatly into a content strategy.
Today, slowness feels foreign. We scroll faster. We decide faster. We give up faster too. If the “first three seconds” don’t hook you, you’re gone. If the headline doesn’t promise transformation, you’re gone. If the content isn’t “valuable” enough, you’re gone.
So where does that leave someone like me? Someone who writes to process, not to optimize?
And then there’s AI. I have to talk about this giant colourless elephant. We all do. Because pretending it doesn’t exist is shooting ourselves in the foot and being wilfully ignorant.
AI can generate structurally sound, grammatically perfect paragraphs. It can outline, summarise and brainstorm. It can produce more text (from mediocre to academic) in one minute than I could in an entire afternoon of emotional and cerebral wrestling.
And that’s deeply unsettling. Fascinating but unsettling.
Now, I refuse to judge or castigate people that are using AI to make their life easier. In my professional life, I myself is no stranger to it and unfortunately, working in Tech taught me how stupid it is to ignore it.
The rise and breakthrough of technology is part of the culture with a big C, meaning that it is a part of what JGC blog celebrates; However that does not mean that some of those unfolding must not be questioned.
If words and arts can be produced instantly by AI, the rarest currency in the world becomes our souls, our intentions. Our perspective. our presence.
And that what clicked for me. That is what made me realised that I don’t need hop on the manufactured stage of the 2026 world. I can create my own stage, my own lightening and a performance that will be rooted in everything that makes me who I truly am.
Writing with your heart and your guts is never about being the only voice in the room, it is about being a conscious voice in the room.
My need to make sense of the world never disappear. My love for everything that Culture means: literature, music, podcast, arts, cinema, TV shows, social norms, relationships, mental health, creativity, productivity, technologies, intellectual studies… that love never left me.
If anything, it intensified, and it is now giving me a new purpose.
So, in this half algorithmically curated existence, I’m asking myself three simple questions:
- Can a blog still feel like home in an accelerated ecosystem?
- Can I write and create slowly in a world that rewards speed and scrolling?
- Can depth survive in a timeline designed for entertainment and distraction?
That is what I’m set to discover.
That is why JGC, in addition of the written blog posts, will now walk the path of content creation with multiple media forms, such as videos, podcasts, and arts.
I’m very excited for this new journey, for the creativity and joy it is already bringing me.
Ironically, the acceleration of world can be paralysing but l have a voice, passion and a will to express them. I don’t want to compete with systems on productivity. I don’t want to compete with algorithms on viral content. I want to compete on thoughtfulness.
I want to write and create pieces that take time to digest. Pieces that won’t go viral but will stay with someone. I want to write and create pieces that brings enjoyment, relief, melancholy, imagination and everything that can trigger courage and creativity in you, readers.
Maybe I haven’t changed that much after all.
So, here we go, seven years later, I’m back to my beloved blog, building more of it in new ways and in a different reality. Not to chase trends. Not to win an algorithm. Not to prove anything.
But to see whether slow, intentional writing can still exist.
And to see if a simple and modest blog can offer engaging declensions through videos, podcasts, and art designs.
Thank you for all the subscribers who forgot to unsubscribed this last seven years.
Thank you for all the subscribers who didn’t forget and stayed.
Thank you for all the subscribers who commented during those seven years and before, asking after me and encouraging me to come back.
Thank you for the subscribers who wish to hop in this ride, you are welcome here, always.
Stay magical,
Source and Credits for Image Header : Fantac Cissé
Une version française de cette réflexion est disponible sur Substack. 🇫🇷
JGC Blog – Cultures, Stories & Digital Creation 