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Dec 28, 2023
My (likely) last post of the year, and I'm going to spend it raging. Oops, sorry.
I just can't help myself. I received a DM on Instagram from a friend, which was just one Instagram reel, which prompted the following stream-of-consciousness rant to a private Discord server:
idk where else i direct my old man shouts at world energy
but i really really hate when people just send you memes/content/ig posts with no message whatsoever
it's like the lowest form of communication, it's barely interpersonal interaction. one of my friends just sends a totally unannotated string of garbage posts from instagram and it peeves me every single time. i could see the content if i wanted to see it. literally add any single sentence so i feel like i'm talking to my friend rather than getting a feed of posts
everyone is talking about dystopian web 3.0 nightmares but i think this one might be the personal thorn in my side. i've seen entire groupchats that's just ig post after ig post, with reacts if you're lucky, and no one has typed a single word in years
it's probably completely antisocial but i'm so tempted just to tell this guy outright to stop sending me random posts with nothing else attached
the ABSOLUTE NAIL IN THE COFFIN is whenever i reply to this guy with text, like i actually write something about the post he sent, he never responds
I guess I've decided Neocities is where I should ultimately direct my old man yells at world energy. Older generations have always judged the technologies of newer generations out of fear. I used to think I was the opposite — bring on the silly photos, filters, and memes. But maybe I have finally hit that point. After all, the ruling digital class is no longer the millenial.
As I already described, I feel irrationally angry when I receive these kinds of messages — where some piece of internet content is (usually) thoughtlessly forwarded with no accompanying message. It feels cold, unpersonal, and careless. Why are you sending me this content? What are we meant to connect over? Reintroduce your humanity! Reach out with your brain to mine! I don't want to feel like I'm just interfacing with what could have easily just been an app's feed of content!
What's more viscerally horrifying is how I perceive this way of communication is taking over. Though I am not in the group chats that are just an endless stream of exclusively content and reacts, I have seen many of them glancing over the shoulders of my friends. I shouldn't pooh-pooh the fun of others — if they're not bothered, why should I be? But I feel a sinking in my stomach every time. How much meaningful interaction, conversation, and deepening interpersonal understanding has been replaced by sharing junk food content, easily and without a real thought?
Again, I know I shouldn't disparage what other people are doing, if they like it and it doesn't hurt anyone else. After all, how do I know the meme-sharing is overwriting deep emotional bonding? Maybe these groups wouldn't even communicate, if it weren't for easily forwarded Instagram reels and pre-defined emoji reacts. I can only really make statements about myself.
So here's my statement: I don't want to be part of this conversation. Leave me out.
Unsubscribe me from the content forwarding.