why I’m moving from only short form content to youtube and blogging

11 Mar

For years, I’ve been creating content in a way that feels a bit like shouting into a very stylish void.

You post. You refresh. You get a handful of views. The algorithm eats your work and moves on. And then you’re supposed to do it all over again. Tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

If you don’t know me, I’m Jarin. I’m a designer, illustrator, and content creator. My life is a mix of art, design, gym, food, Photoshop, and my cats. For a long time, I’ve shared that mainly through short form content on Instagram and TikTok.

And I still like it. I still will do it. Short form is fun. It is creative. It is fast. It forces you to think in interesting ways.

But it is also exhausting.

Short form content is a machine that never sleeps. You are always behind. Always supposed to post more. Always supposed to optimise. Always supposed to fit your thoughts, your work, and your ideas into six to thirty seconds. And if you are a creative person who likes to think, reflect, or explain things properly, that starts to feel… limiting.

I burned out more times than I can count.

I would go all in for a few months, post consistently, push myself, and then hit a wall. I would disappear, feel guilty, come back, repeat. Over and over. That cycle is probably one of the main reasons my pages never grew the way I wanted them to. There was no real sustainability in how I was creating.

At the same time, I realised something else. My life is not just one thing.

I am not just an artist. I am not just a designer. I am not just someone who goes to the gym. I am all of those things at the same time. And trying to squeeze that into neat little short form boxes was starting to feel like I was flattening myself.

The gym, especially, changed how I think. It taught me about consistency, about showing up when motivation is gone, about trusting slow progress. And that started to spill into how I approach my creative work and my content.

So I started mixing things. Art and gym. Gym and art. Life and work. And for the first time in a long time, I stayed consistent. Not because I found the perfect niche, but because what I was sharing actually looked like my real life.

That is what pushed me to start YouTube and to start writing.

Long form content feels like breathing room.

It lets you think. It lets you explain. It lets you explore an idea without trying to squeeze it into a few seconds and a trending sound. It feels slower in the best way. More intentional. More honest.

This blog is part of that shift.

I am not quitting short form. I am just refusing to let it be the only way I create. I want a place where ideas can be messy, where thoughts can be half formed, where progress can be documented instead of compressed into highlights.

This is also me being very honest about where I am.

I am not starting this with a perfect setup, a perfect plan, or some cinematic rebrand. I am starting it the same way I started my YouTube channel. A bit improvised. A bit unpolished. But actually starting.

I am done waiting to feel ready. I am done postponing things for some imaginary future version of myself who has everything figured out.

This is me building something in public. Slowly. Imperfectly. But consistently.

Let’s see what happens.