Gen Z must end mindless doomscrolling to learn something worthwhile. Instead, they can take content into their own hands and bloomscroll on Substack!
What is Substack?
Substack is essentially an email-centered blogging platform in which you write a newsletter to your followers. It also offers the ability to import or create a podcast from the platform and attach it to your overall newsletter, which is a relatively new feature.
Another recent addition is Substack Notes, as shown in the picture below. It is similar to DMing, since your followers won’t be allowed to see it unless they pay or you allow it.
It is kind of like writing a sticky note and leaving it on your desk, where anybody in the house can see it. Imagine your followers as guests in your home. You can decide whether or not to let them in, whereas the people you follow are more like family members who always have access.
How can Substack end doom scrolling?
Substack can help stymie doomscrolling not because it provides more dopamine than typical scrolling but because it encourages a different kind of engagement over time. In fact, you may not even necessarily stop scrolling. You’ll just be scrolling for something more meaningful.
For instance, time spent scrolling could prove enriching if, say, you are looking at something creative, like a compelling story or your favorite author’s wisdom. This scrolling could even be productive by leading you to start your own Substack. From there, you might try podcasting, and before you know it, you’ll be building your own creative projects.
The Substack Post
The Substack Post is a newsletter on the online platform Substack that is curated by the editors of Substack itself. Think of it as an “Editor’s Choice” kind of newsletter. It is broken into several topics, including The Weekender, Unstacked, and News.
The Weekender is a given weekend’s top picks for art, writing, and videos in current culture. The Unstacked portion explores how current writers on Substack are reimagining these trends within Substack.
Within each post, there are several photos sprinkled throughout that pertain to the subjects that are being covered.
An example of what you’ll see on The Substack Post
A recent article discussed the difficulty of translating visuals into language, which is a frustration that all non-visual artists can attest to. According to the article, the result never quite compares to the original, though it certainly adds something new to it.
The article also examined music, particularly how one musician was using the bioelectrical pulses of plants in order to create music. People could then meditate with the plant-sourced music. I found this to be a fascinating use of ingenuity, and all the while, I was learning not just about music but about bioengineering and an unusual application for it.
The article moved on via a subheading to chart the evolution of the English language during the medieval era, which occurred as a result of the Black Death and the subsequent influx of immigrants to London afterward.
What can Substack do for you?
A lot of us here at Trill Mag run our own Substacks. If you are drawn to an article you’re reading on Trill, it might be worthwhile to look up the author and see if they have a Substack as well. Following them can give you a deeper sense of their voice and keep you connected to their work.
As both an avid reader and writer myself, I personally enjoy following the Substacks of publishing houses, but that is entirely up to you and what you want your Substack to be.
Substack is very user-friendly compared to other blogging platforms such as Medium or WordPress. I myself have a Substack under the name Karmical Gray. I also have a Medium and a history on WordPress, though I no longer use WordPress. I consider Medium to be more complicated for a new user than Substack, but WordPress is the most difficult of all.
Is there a future for you as a Substack writer?
In my opinion, Substack balances the “ease of access” to “features available” ratio rather well.
It’s also easy to make your Substack page look clean and professional, especially your homepage. Conversely, WordPress, with all its widgets and features, can quickly devolve into chaos if you don’t know what you’re doing.
When I first started writing on WordPress, I noticed that there was an update to fix bugs and introduce new features. However, there were no up-to-date tutorials available to help me navigate these changes. I find Substack to be a better option. It is easy to learn on your own and has a wide range of accessible tutorials online.
The kind of audience and authors you can expect on Substack
The audience you’ll likely find on Substack tends to skew older than Gen Z, which is actually valuable. Engaging with a slightly older demographic can refine your writing while also opening the door to a kind of cross-pollination between different perspectives and experiences.
It also explains why so many traditionally published authors have found a home on Substack. Many are part of that demographic themselves, filling the space with experienced voices. If anything, it should be reassuring that there are plenty of established writers on the platform.
Marketing on Substack
From a marketing perspective, Substack is a smart move, especially if you’re working on a self-published book. As mentioned, the platform tends to have an older demographic, and from what I’ve seen, there aren’t a ton of self-published authors actively marketing their work there. That means less direct competition in the space.
That said, gaining traction can still be a challenge. it largely depends on your specific niche and how you set up your Substack. Fewer writers are focused on hard-hitting news or politics. Similarly, there isn’t a huge presence of writers promoting book culture in the way we see on TikTok. What’s known as “BookTok” feels specific to that platform and hasn’t fully carried over to Substack.
If you already have reach with a different audience, especially within Gen Z, it might be worth branching out to Substack’s older demographic. It will give you the opportunity to see how your writing resonates with a different group of readers. That shift can lead to real growth, helping you sharpen your voice and better understand how your work translates across audiences.
Some go-to writers on Substack
One of my favorite writers on Substack is Baron Wormser. He wrote The Exciting Nightmare: A Series of Essays on Modern Times, which, sadly, has recently reached its conclusion as Wormser, an old mentor of mine, passed away from brain cancer. However, he has left us these essays as a form of inspiration.
Another Substack recommendation is Things That Don’t Suck by Andrea Gibson, who also recently passed and was a nonbinary contemporary slam poet and author. Their spouse and fellow writer, Megan Falley, is continuing their Substack. As a side note, the two have a documentary on Apple TV that just came out about their last year together, entitled Come See Me in the Good Light.
Lastly, I’ve been enjoying a relatively new Substack called Underdog Energy by Sharbari Zora Ahmed, another teacher of mine. I am absolutely enthralled by her writing. You may be familiar with her work on the silver screen, as she is a screenwriter who contributed to the ABC thriller Quantico in 2015. This made her the first Bangladeshi writer to write for American network television. If you want to read about other screenwriters who are equally successful, check out this Trill Magazine article.
The conclusion? Substack is there waiting for you to expand your influence and craft the audience of your dreams. You can tune into the diverse array of authors on the platform and find old favorites as well as new authors and books to explore.
The next chapter of your story (pun intended) is just around the bend, so start your reading and writing journey on Substack today. Who knows, maybe you’ll encounter a few of your favorite Trill authors while you’re at it. We would love to have you!
Mariluz Maldonado
March 31, 2026 at 2:49 pm
Very well written. Don’t give up. You are a very talented young lady.