I've been meaning to write this one for awhile. I've got a couple WIPs I'll post eventually too.
I keep thinking of this point, I keep seeing it come up.
So I will try my best to explain it. But don't expect perfection either.
I tend to write on the fly, so I guess that makes me an improv writer? Maybe?
Not that I don't think about the topic first. I often need quiet to focus enough to write. Sometimes I have trouble reading or writing with people around.
But more I tend to write these quickly, rather than spend months refining them.
What I'm trying to say I'm not a pro by any means. I do this to get stuff out of my head and maybe help you.
I'm not sure why I keep needing to say this as it's a blog. That should be obvious. Anyway...
So what is the 6th Sense of Social Media?
Usually humans have 5 senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
In the Movie "The Sixth Sense" it refers of the ability to hear and see ghosts that others can't see or hear.
In a general sense the term "sixth sense" usually means a sense of intuition giving a special awareness or an ability beyond the usual 5 senses.
There are many pieces about the state of the internet and impact of social media on people, but I think this is an overlooked point.
I believe that the internet gives us a sense of always being connected that couldn't be experienced over 100 years ago.
100 years ago (1925), you had the radio, some telephones, and maybe the occasional theater movie or play. There was also some photography.
There was some degree of separation, but it wasn't as frequent. It was mostly during entertainment, which is easier to separate from daily life.
Some people call it being "terminally online", some call it being "plugged in", some call it being "always on" or "always on call". Some call it the Matrix.
I personally like to call it the 6th sense of social media.
This is because you are responding to people that only exist online. You feel them as part of you. You feel them pawing at you to listen to them.
But they only exist online. When you unplug, they are gone. You cannot see them or hear them. You cannot meet them.
That's not to say they don't exist at all, but your connection to them only lasts while you are plugged in.
There's this eerie sensation that the deeper you are connected, the more real it feels. But the longer you are away, the less real it feels.
You see all these buzzing topics online, all these trends, but most of them only exist online. Not all of them, but a lot of them.
This leads to distortions in our perception, where we think everyone IRL must agree with us because our online bubble does.
This isn't the brain's fault, but a tricky puzzle. Before computers we had tribes, but now we have digital tribes.
It's a complicated distortion effect. This is because we only focus on those we can hear, and not the silent majority we don't hear from.
Through my times of internet addiction I've been addicted to most of the major sites at least once. Not all of them, but a decent amount.
And what's really interesting and scary about it to me is the more you use a site, the more you act like it's hivemind.
While the shape of the hivemind changes, different flavors perhaps, the effect doesn't.
Maybe it's a me problem, but I have a feeling I'm not alone in this feeling. Social media is so addicting, but does it really give you that much?
I'm not saying it's all bad, but if you look at it long term was it really worth what was put into it?
Was it worth giving thousands of hours and wasted chances?
The longer I was there, the less I felt like me. I felt like a raging Twitter addict, or an angsty anon. Not an individual.
I started looking at posts hoping others would confirm my thoughts for me, feel my feelings with me. Isn't that weird?
What is my voice? Not the social media voice?
And why does it never result in results anyways?
Why do you have to leave to grow, as they say?
We're in the biggest connection the world has ever seen, shouldn't that mean we can have mega collabs?
Shouldn't that mean we can make amazing art the world has never seen before?
Shouldn't the world be more connected than ever before?
In some ways, yes.
But in other ways, no.
This is because the currency of the current internet (2020s) isn't value, but engagement.
They want little doped up humans mindlessly scrolling their phone all day. That is "peak engagement".
Maybe this is cynical of me, but I hate that thought. That people say this is the only way things can be.
While there is a counter movement to this, the baby steps often use the same device causing the issue.
Even that point is worn into the ground. People always say "if it's so bad, why are you here complaining about it?".
Because communities are dying. Because face to face conversation is hard for internet addicts.
They've spent their whole life training on a place that is falling apart due to greed and enshitiffication.
And a whole lot of shame. That you have to admit to yourself "I've lost the plot. I thought this was going to help me, but it made me worse."
Even though I write about it semi-regularly, I feel a lot of shame about it. Often!
But I write about it here because this is where people are at. For now.
I still post on social media sometimes, but for these posts I try to keep it as feed-free as I can.
It's not For You, it's not For Them, it's For Me. Find your own "me".
I use Neocities because it's easier to search than Google. Maybe in 2005 organic traffic and word of mouth would be easier, but it's not now.
Something I'm afraid to write about sometimes is I have a lot of grief.
Some of it was because of life, but some of it was because of my own actions. Me trapping myself in my own cage. "It's safer" I'd tell myself.
But I look back on my empty life, and I see regret. All the chances I never took. All the tries I never tried. And where did it get me? Nowhere.
I say sometimes the only constant in life is people leaving.
And if people are always leaving, who cares what they think?
In 100 years we'll all be dead. I'll be dead. You'll be dead. Everyone online now will be dead.
Maybe you'll live to 110 and laugh at my grave.
What I'm trying to say is we act like we'll live forever.
Put off that dream.
Scroll today away.
Tell yourself nothing matters anyways.
Did it make you feel better?
That's my dose of poison for you today. Let the sting remind you of what you've lost, and do better than me.
I know I'm a loser, an online addicted loser, but I'm fighting the fight so someday maybe I won't be.
And even if I fail I can at least say I tried to quit something harmful for me. So many people are deathly afraid of trying. I get it.
I joke about it a lot, but I often feel insane writing these posts. Venting and raving to anyone who will listen to me.
I'm afraid sometimes I'll scare people away if I write like this.
Not because it's so bad, but it's not rosy. It's not chipper. It's not sunshine and rainbows.
I'm not saying I want to mindlessly doompost either.
But some days I want to say that I feel like shit and not lie and say I'm doing okay. Terrified that if I have a bad day you'll leave me.
I spend so much of my life pretending to be happy. I fake smiles. I downplay my suffering. A lot of us do.
But sometimes you have to admit to yourself you're not happy, so you can fix it. Or help it. Whichever.
I'm kinda picky. I don't know if I really count these as creating. It's more venting with a play by play.
But I want to create again. Create until my hands hurt, until my throat is rough, until my eyes beg me to go outside again.
Why? Some kinda rough and tumble kink? Maybe.
But I think it's because I can only get all of this bullshit out of me by creating.
I can talk, I can walk, but the only thing that helps me is creating. And even then it's temporary.
I don't know if that's the way it's supposed to be, but that's the way it is for me.
So even if I feel like I completely suck and don't know what I'm doing, I'm not alone.
You don't have to be amazing to create. I will tell anyone who needs to hear it.
Create for creation sake.
Fuck Facebook likes, fuck Twitter hearts, fuck pageviews.
Create like your life depends on it. Create for fun. Create and make a big mess. Do it.
Scroll or Create.
Scroll or Create.
Create.
I don't know what it is but I kinda like writing here. I like making a big mess.
Maybe that's too meta, but sometimes it feels freeing to be a bit unhinged sometimes. Just shoot the shit and fuck the rest.
Therapy is expensive but writing it is mostly free. Kinda.
Maybe the slop is calling me to do it. Fuck perfection, fuck the trends, fuck all of it.
Be messy. Be human. Do what YOU want to for once!
Noise. Yapping. Chattering. Call it what you want.
I like to yap. I like to write. But sometimes you need to stop yapping and start lapping.
As in DO something! Get out of the seat, go for a walk, get some chores done.
The internet isn't going anywhere. That reminds me actually.
Yesterday I wasn't online for most of the day. And guess what? Nothing happened!
Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nanimonai. None.
No new videos to watch, no big events, no message notifications.
The internet will always be there. It will wait for you.
The internet will outlive us all. Probably.
But you? You only get one life. So give some of that time and energy to you. Offline.
That's my thing for today! Thanks for reading!