The internet has given us so much, but it’s also taken so much. It’s the reason we have the world at our fingertips, but at the same time it’s isolating us into our own bubble of reassurance while it sustains itself by feeding us content it knows aligns with what we already believe in.
Being passionate about something is fine, but it doesn’t mean you should only surround yourself with the like-minded regurgitated information you already have just so you can drown out the voices of those who believe something different. The internet has allowed the creation of a world that values who is saying something rather than the validity of what is being said.
Intelligence is not simply knowledge, it’s understanding, and in order to understand something, you need to hear alternative viewpoints from both sides and not just the one you’re already on. But… hearing an alternative viewpoint comes with the chance you may actually be wrong, the chance that your understanding of something may not be as complete as you thought.
And that’s okay. You’re allowed to change your mind based on a new understanding, but we live in an age where the internet won’t automatically show you information from both sides to give you the option to do so.
Back in the day, printed newspapers didn’t have an algorithm that catered content to your interests based on your browsing history. Magazines didn’t monitor the articles you read to show you advertisements about the things you like. The media company made money when you purchased the newspaper or magazine. Due to this, there was no financial risk by presenting both sides of a story, but it was still presented in its entirety without being filtered and changed so it aligned with what side you’re already on.
The internet is now a media giant, studying you to learn what you like, so now a company’s financial success relies on algorithms to filter content to show you things you want to see in order to keep you engaged and on their website. This only reinforces the idea that what you think is right has always been right and everyone else is wrong, keeping you inside your bubble of ignorance.
We love to consume the things we love and the internet knows this.
Why do you think there are so many people arguing about who is right and who is wrong when each side has a different half of the same book? The internet should be a catalyst for understanding, but instead it only gives both sides the same information they already know from their half of the book. There can be no understanding and peace until both halves come together to give us the full story, but the internet knows there is no money in peace.
What has unified us as a world has divided us as a people, and it’s time to reassemble the book and read it… together.
Two centuries ago, if you wanted to see the Mona Lisa (assuming you were educated enough to even know of its existence), the only way to do it was to get on a boat or a carriage to France (if you didn’t live there yet) and go to the Musée du Louvre in Paris. If you didn’t have enough money to do all that, tough titties.
Now, almost everyone knows what the Mona Lisa looks like, and even if they don’t, all they have to do is go on Google and search for it. No need to pawn off grandmama’s good silverware. In a time when “the computer screen has become the primary way in which mediated culture is experienced,” information has been democratized like never before. You don’t have to be exceedingly wealthy to have access to digital media. You don’t even need to own a computer—all you need is access to one (say, from an internet cafe or an obliging sibling who’s away at work a lot).
There are several aspects of digital media that contribute to its democratization. One is its digitality. Because all information is in binary code, digital media can be manipulated, transferred, copied, and shared easily. Second is its decentralized network structure. Because there are many producers of digital media, there is a greater choice of what media can be consumed. Third is its interactivity. Digital media consumers are more active because they can influence and give feedback on the presentation of media. Last is its hypertextuality. Pages on the internet are interconnected, making navigation from page to page easy.
Because of all these aspects, digital media has the capacity to reach almost everyone, perpetuating a culture where everyone can participate and everyone can express their views on almost anything. This democratization of information through digital media is a result of the destruction of what German literary critic Walter Benjamin refers to as the “aura” in his seminal 1936 work titled “The Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”
The aura of an object can be loosely defined as its authenticity, its unique existence in time and space. Everything from its creator to its exhibition history to its past owners contributes to the object’s aura. When an object is reproduced, the aura decays. “By making many reproductions,” says Benjamin, “it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.” At that time, Benjamin was referring to the mechanical reproduction of films and photography. For him, the decay of the aura was a good thing because it allowed normal people to participate in a sphere that was previously exclusive to the elites. He would have been amazed if he found out just how much art and information have been democratized because of the reproducibility of digital media.
I’d have to agree with Benjamin on this one; I’m all for the democratization of mediated culture through the internet. I can’t stress how many times my ass has been saved by Youtube videos that explain physics and chemistry concepts like this one (perhaps moreso than my actual textbooks). I don’t fret when I miss a movie in the cinemas because I can easily get it online. I get almost all of my news online—I find it more efficient than watching news on TV because the updates are instantaneous. I can bond with my dad over new music because Soundcloud noticed that we both liked Joni Mitchell and recommended similar artists. If I’m doing a research paper on the Ancien Régime and I need the Duc de Saint-Simone’s Memoirs of Louis XIV as a primary source, I don’t need to fly all the way to France and do somersaults over bureaucratic red tape to get the original because I can access it easily on Project Gutenberg, and I don’t even need to know French because it’s all been translated. And I don’t have to go to an art gallery if I want to find amazing art because some of the art world’s best, newest, and most challenging art works are available only on the internet. All of these wouldn’t be possible if digital media wasn’t democratized.
still trying to piece it together but i think there’s a relationship between social media, streaming entertainment media, isolation in the home, reliance on the internet (order it on amazon! it arrives in two days! you never have to see anyone!), the widespread proliferation of “narcissism” (and other pop-psych terms) as casual language, the widespread encouragement to “cut off” people who are “toxic” or have “bad vibes”, the left’s push to try and analyze every single social interaction for bad intentions (typically via a “privilege”/“oppressor” lens), and a bunch of other stuff… like we are actively being pushed to break connections with other people and with our communities. we are actively being pushed to retire from the public sphere to live our whole lives isolated and in private. something hinky is going on and i say this as a person who is already involved in multiple community projects. there’s something sinister happening. something is rotten in the state of Denmark. i don’t know what’s going on but it’s Bad. and i think of places where women are forbidden from leaving the home. the andrea dworkin quote about domestic violence, house as coffin. something is wrong
connection with another person is the one thing they can’t truly sell, they can sell imitations of it to the lonely but you can’t buy real honest genuine connection. so they try to devalue it and sell the imitations in it’s place. also if you go out and talk to real women without seeing how well they’re following the latest doctrine, you’ll realize you have more in common than you thought. and that’s dangerous. so you’re asked to listen for the right words and in their absence you can write her off and you won’t connect with her. patriarchy has always tried to keep us from actually connecting with each other, usually by devaluing relationships (friendly,familial, romantic, or otherwise) between women. it’s a sickening intersection between patriarchy and capitalism. what they can’t sell doesn’t matter and what they can is the only thing that matters. if women relate to each other and understand our experiences are scarily universal than how can they sell to us? also lonely people are easy customers. there’s a couple different lines of thought here that intertwine.
the notes and tags on this post are brilliant kisses for all of you please never stop talking about this
VERY excited about tumblr blaze but even more excited about
[id: screenshot from the tumblr blaze faq, reading: Q: Can I choose who is going to see my post? A: No. We don’t offer a way to target your audience with Tumblr Blaze]
of just!!!!! yes!!!!!!! correct!!!!!!!!!! tumblr should be a wild west hellscape of a site!!!!!!!!! no targeted sponsored posts!!!!!!!! if you want to throw $10 at them to advertise a post, let it go to a completely random audience, chaos!!! rules!!! here!!!!!!!!!
#Oh heck are we going to get people just putting their memes in ads a la that wild time in homestuck
We better, because that is the only valid use of sponsored posts ever.
Do you think tumblr will ever learn the difference between “I’m defending this person because I agree with them wholeheartedly and I am also like this person” and “I’m defending this person because your behavior is dangerous and you need to stop”
IMO, blurring the lines between “I’m defending them because they’re right” and “I’m defending them because you’re taking this too far” is step numero uno to cutting down the very existence of fair trial and democracy–even in places where saying that might seem a little dramatic.
Mob mentality is extremely strong in humans and it’s also extremely dangerous. Mobs don’t think things through. Mobs kill and they destroy and they can’t be reasoned with. Someone trying to calm a mob down isn’t someone defending the ~problematic party~ It’s time we re-learn that.
person A: *says something shitty*
the mob: *death threats, doxxing, ect*
person B: i think person A was shitty for saying that, but this is going too far
mob: you’re just saying that bc you agree with person A and are just as shitty- no, you are shittier.
I hate how the internet as a whole teaches young people that this is okay.
I was really into Reddit in high school (yes, yikes, I know) and I genuinely thought that ganging up on people or even going IRL and calling someone’s work was a good and just thing to do. I’m incredibly ashamed of it all now. I remember telling my folks about this subreddit I was in bullying someone to delete their Twitter account. It wasn’t even something major–I don’t even remember what they allegedly did*. And I was laughing because I thought it was funny, and my parents were horrified. I thought they were just old people who didn’t “get it”, not humans with fully developed brains who understood how unhealthy this was.
It still took a few years before it sunk in how horrible the mob mentality was. When you’re a teenager, I think you follow what everyone else does, even if that group is “alternative” is whatever.
It’s why I call it out now when I see it. Granted, I’m generally a stranger on the ‘net, so people don’t have to listen to be, but I hope that someone takes a step back and really thinks if doxxing is okay.
*I think it might have been the Justine Sacco case, but I thought I was younger when the incident with my parents occurred, so that would’ve been in 2011-mid-2012.
I’m in Europe at the moment so I can’t really make a playlist properly. Someday I will probably. But these women are making this time in Spain superflendiferous. Look these tracks up one by one and BASK IN THE SPLENDOR OF FEMALE TALENT.
Dirty Hercules (feat. Nai Palm) - Ngaiire For the Damaged Coda - Blonde Redhead Building a Ladder - Hiatus Kaiyote Orb In Limbo - Coco Columbia Lungs Apart - Signals. Green & Gold - Lianne La Havas Two Doves - Dirty Projectors Girl (feat. Kaytranada) - The Internet Shake It Off - Sampa the Great Grow - Deradoorian (and her entire new fucking fantastic album entitled The Expanding Flower Planet it’s daaaamn good)
Honestly this whole “Sweden terrible they don’t feed guests” thing that started on reddit and then multiplied on twitter yet again shows how people believe basically anything without doing any fact checking.
I remember two years ago everyone suddenly hated France with a passion and I still don’t understand why.
the difference between tumblr and twitter is that pretty much everyone on tumblr needs some kind of compassionate intervention in their lives, but at a low background level. Twitter has 99% normies succumbing to internet brainrot and 1% just the most outlandish personalities you’ve ever seen.
your average tumblr personality is a shaking dog in a Sarah McLachlan appeal, with enough time and care they can be rehabilitated and placed in a loving home. your average big-time twitter account should be sent to a prison colony on the moon
how quickly we forget our past on this site…
Friend I was here for the bone stealing witch. Even as the sun and moon hid their eyes and averted their gaze I saw the witch walk without fear of the laws of God nor man and steal those bones and sell them on etsy. The amputated toe. The breast milk jewelry. A man who against any law of heaven desires to own another human as a pet reblogged my star wars discourse posts. You want to talk about racefaking cannibal mermaids?? Bah! How many kickstarter scams for cartoons that sounded unbearably twee have come and gone? How many stars risen and fallen? I remember when this site had a sizable userbase of meth enthusiast who just posted aesthic shots of their stash and rigs. Where are those crank aficionados now? Gone like so many others. And yet I remain!
And when I tell you that twitter is worse than any of that you should heed my words!!
