I recently read a Slate piece where a mommy influencer admitted that there was extreme incentive to write negatively about parenting because that's the only thing that really got any attention. There was also a Daily Mail article about how supposedly, women were breaking up with their boyfriends because those guys didn't like Barbie. This was all based on a single Reddit r/AITA post and a TikTok that only got 2k views, which even I know is miniscule by TikTok standards. A couple of years ago, I saw a popular Indian American female comedian tweet out that she tweets disproportionately about her sexual encounters and relationships with white men because that's the only way she remains relevant (likely by getting a lot of angry responses).
Social media is extremely good at exploiting interpersonal issues (which is why things like parenting and dating are sources of eternal wars) and making everyone feel personally targeted and talked at/down to, even though most of the time, the OP was probably thinking of one specific individual but then over-generalizing to seem more relatable.
This was a refreshing read. I’ve found myself thinking similarly over the years. I remember in college we used to joke about how now having social media is just a different style of having social media at this point.
The spooky thing is that many people have no awareness of the person/avatar. It’s sad when you’re not doing it on purpose. This whole thing makes me think about that part in Infinite Jest about the digital masks.
I have no idea what Substack is but I’m glad I found your page.
Glad you found your way here fam, pull up a seat and get comfy. I really do wonder what DFW would be thinking today. He passed away right on the cusp of the distraction/loss of self hyper-accelerating.
Nice thoughts, David. Too often I find myself in the doomscroll on social media, wondering what the fuck I am doing with my time. As I've aged I found the less I post on social media, the less I care about grandstanding for others, which lets me spend more time with the people in my immediate circle.
It has always been strange to me to read stories where a character just goes to another country for eight to twelve years, and then sends a letter home saying he's going for a visit. The circles with social media are so much larger and much more complicated than the old days. But I think the less time you spend showing the broad audience a shadow puppet show, the more time you can give to the smaller circle building deep, meaningful relationships.
I recently read a Slate piece where a mommy influencer admitted that there was extreme incentive to write negatively about parenting because that's the only thing that really got any attention. There was also a Daily Mail article about how supposedly, women were breaking up with their boyfriends because those guys didn't like Barbie. This was all based on a single Reddit r/AITA post and a TikTok that only got 2k views, which even I know is miniscule by TikTok standards. A couple of years ago, I saw a popular Indian American female comedian tweet out that she tweets disproportionately about her sexual encounters and relationships with white men because that's the only way she remains relevant (likely by getting a lot of angry responses).
Social media is extremely good at exploiting interpersonal issues (which is why things like parenting and dating are sources of eternal wars) and making everyone feel personally targeted and talked at/down to, even though most of the time, the OP was probably thinking of one specific individual but then over-generalizing to seem more relatable.
I wrote a bit about it here: https://salieriredemption.substack.com/p/de-online-detox-dying-on-the-jonah
This was a refreshing read. I’ve found myself thinking similarly over the years. I remember in college we used to joke about how now having social media is just a different style of having social media at this point.
The spooky thing is that many people have no awareness of the person/avatar. It’s sad when you’re not doing it on purpose. This whole thing makes me think about that part in Infinite Jest about the digital masks.
I have no idea what Substack is but I’m glad I found your page.
Glad you found your way here fam, pull up a seat and get comfy. I really do wonder what DFW would be thinking today. He passed away right on the cusp of the distraction/loss of self hyper-accelerating.
Nice thoughts, David. Too often I find myself in the doomscroll on social media, wondering what the fuck I am doing with my time. As I've aged I found the less I post on social media, the less I care about grandstanding for others, which lets me spend more time with the people in my immediate circle.
It has always been strange to me to read stories where a character just goes to another country for eight to twelve years, and then sends a letter home saying he's going for a visit. The circles with social media are so much larger and much more complicated than the old days. But I think the less time you spend showing the broad audience a shadow puppet show, the more time you can give to the smaller circle building deep, meaningful relationships.
I like the puppet show analogy, might steal that for any follow up :-)