I’m not going to invent a hypothetical conversation for every newsletter. Hopefully you believe me when I say that people have asked about and commented on the title of my book, Framed: A Villain’s Perspective on Social Media. Even if few people care about what I meant by “framed,” I’d like to dedicate some space to explaining how the title came to be.

Like most books written by authors who have no idea what they’re doing, my late 2021 and early 2022 drafts of the book fixated on the introduction and the conclusion. It was really just a mental masturbatory writing exercise. I tried to build a character who was a cross between Michael Lewis, Ryan Holiday, and maybe Ross Ulbricht. On my journey toward one day convincing potential readers that my stories were worth reading, I had to convince myself that they were worth writing down.

I first imagined that the book would appeal to a “true crime” fanbase more than it would a “social media thought leadership” crowd. If I effectively pivoted toward that, then social media companies would have been more interested in suing me! Controversy would mean more sales, though. For the first year of my drafting, I wrote under a pen name. I figured that it would have given me some creative license to exaggerate in penning a grander story (and maybe secure a book deal).

By late 2022, I had written tens of thousands of words. Very few of those words made it into the book that was published in 2025. I grew dissatisfied with my progress and I realized that if I was going to follow through on my idea, I needed to publish it under my own name. I also needed to ensure that it was not some weird mix of fact and fiction.

Around the same time that I first replaced my pen name with “BY TIM O’HEARN,” I had written most of the introductory chapter, “Clout Chaser.” It was originally called, “My Route to Clout.” In it then, and what’s still present today, is a mocking tone regarding the contemporary tech best sellers:

Zucked, Hooked, Hoaxed, Disrupted, Hatched, Pwned, Rigged, Ghosted, Blocked—

All of which have “irritably similar titles.” Choosing a past-tense action verb was my attempt at assimilation and veiled mockery of Big Tech punditry. It was my way of saying, “I belong here,” and also my way of saying, “This is the work of a renegade who didn’t need a traditional publisher or outside funding.”

“Framed” was borne out of my frequent rewriting of the conclusion. I knew I wanted to close the book by harnessing some motif from the Instagram user experience. I arrived on the concept of the “frame.” Then I though, “Oh, interesting, there’s depth to this, some form of this should be the title of the book.”

Though rarely called by that name, a digital “frame” was the thin border (or, padding) around pictures seen in the gallery on the early version of Instagram—as well as, frankly, most early social media sites. What I’m describing as a “frame” was more common than not in the websites I encountered in the aughts, such as Tumblr.

I picked “Framed” for these reasons:

• There was an abstract association with pictures shown in social media feeds

• The story was my retelling or contextualization of events that were important to the evolution of social media, meaning it was my “framing” of the Internet Age

• It added a salacious element, as being “framed” is commonly associated with true crime

• It served as a mockery of the Big Tech book titles while still being attractive to the reader

• It played well with my early book cover design, which I’ll assess in a future post

• Despite being a popular trope, it had been used in surprisingly few published book titles

To preempt allegation of a bait and switch: no, I was not “framed” for a crime by a business associate, jilted lover, or vanquished competitor. I didn’t approach symbolism like a high school English teacher, but, sure, we could make the case that my desire for clout led to me “framing” myself in that it “got me into trouble.” I didn’t think of it much past that.

Importantly, I don’t consider myself to be a criminal (nor do I condone criminal behavior*). Amazon doesn’t think so, either and my use of “True Crime” as a secondary genre was eventually moderated by Kindle’s support team for not being accurate.

This is how Framed came to be!

The Subtitle

The subtitle isn’t deep. The shifts in the original drafts resulted in a different book than what I originally intended, but the subtitle, A Villain’s Perspective on Social Media, doesn’t need an explanation. It’s not getting any organic search traffic, but I think it accurately describes the book without being overly reliant on common tropes.

Obviously, my villainous activities centered on Instagram. I ultimately decided to exclude any trademarks from my title. Framed: A Villain’s Perspective on Instagram probably would have sold more books.

World Indoors in Nanjing

I dabble in sportswriting. I’m a diehard fan of track and field, and in 2024 I had a few opportunities to cover meets large and small, domestic and international.

I competed as an open athlete in two World Athletics sanctioned meets that I wrote articles about, which was a dream come true. I also managed to not finish in last place, despite being a bit past my prime at thirty years old…I ran 1:58.66 in the 800m and 1:24.0 in the 600m, which would be considered “new recruit” quality times at DI school like the one I attended.

This weekend, I wrote about the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, working with the talented staff at FanSided. I also led FanSided’s coverage of Track and Field for the Paris Olympics—there’s a lot I still want to do in the sport!

My journey through 2024 as a gonzo sportswriter helped pave the way for being a published author in 2025. I experienced being ignored, disappointed, and mocked online. I got to work with a few good editors, and messaged many others who never acknowledged me. Sportswriting, even at my Junior Varsity level, helped improve the manuscript that became Framed and helped prepare me for one of the most brutal industries: digital content.

This said, I want to assure readers that Tim O’Hearn Here won’t become a sports-centric newsletter. I’ll include some links to recently-published work, but my writing will concern outgrowths of my book: software, society, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship.

You can help steer the ship here. Send me an email and let me know what you want me to write about!