Caroline O'Donoghue: Stop measuring our worth against our follower count

What social media has done is offered a visa to the village; it has democratised networking

Lots of things must have happened at the Emmy’s this week, but the part that is blowing up my side of the internet is Michaela Coel’s acceptance speech. Coel, who won the Best Writing award for her show I May Destroy You, moved many young creatives when she said: “Write the tale that scares you, that makes you feel uncertain, that isn’t comfortable. I dare you.” she said. “Visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success. Do not be afraid to disappear— from it, from us — for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence.”

It was a rare and beautiful acceptance speech, because it was among a rare few that addressed the people outside the room. It addressed the hopeful artists who long for the kind of singular auteurship that Coel has, against the odds, managed to achieve. But rather than just toss out a “this one’s for all you dreamers out there — keep believing!”, Coel had a clear directive. She wants us all to get offline. To stop measuring our worth against our follower count; to look up from the trough of increasingly similar-looking art that is being poured out from increasingly indistinguishable studios such as Netflix, Amazon and AppleTV.