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Hey i noticed some of the videos you cited are based on writren essays that are quoted in the descriptions of said video. Perhaps you could also add those sources to your video so youre not quoting someone quoting someone else?
this women has alot to say about an economic neutral method of trading commercial values from a to b. i genuienly loled when she was accusing a simple free markjet model for trading to slavery xD bro capisalism didnt affect ur life at all. you proove it with ur 20 conotations to capitalism. just a simple andf ast learend way to trade ...seems responsible for i dont know xS bro this is soooooooo FUNNY 99 percent of people didnt even work in the financial sektor. sorry but an analogy to this would be that bananas are responsible for slave and lonleness and consumerism....the fun fact is that bananas are at least a little bit xxxxD *lol* responsible for consumerism actually xd ....CUZ PEPS CONSUME THEM XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXd
algorithms have killed us. the internet is an incredible thing. the way we’re almost forced to be addicted to it and expected to be constantly “online” and “accessible” is not.
crazy enough i lost an online friend because whenever i was doing irl things (on vacations or at work) i SHOULD have been constantly checking in and joining vc's and not doing so as constantly as i was when i was unemployed was neglect 😭
100% I've been on the internet since 1994. Aside from having to use dialup, I think it was better back then because there were no algorithms yet. Does anyone else remember Google when it was ad free? And youtube when it was ad free? Those were the days.
We had the power go out during Christmas break for 48 hours and the moment my battery died my brain just shut off out of boredom it's insane how dependent we've become (especially when bored and depressed lol)
As a 90s kid, I absolutely hated that era... it was full of bullying and boredom. The internet literally saved my life by putting me in contact with like-minded nerds and information that I could use to build a career I was actually interested in (and would rescue me from the rural American hellscape).
Same I grew up in the 90s as a teen black skater boy , and played sports, loved paleontology, astrology and marine biology and comics plus i was into snakes , spiders and earth worms which was not so common so once i got on the Internet I met so many people who were into what I was
honestly, my “I can’t leave my f phone not even for a second” ended the moment I discovered new passions and hobbies, that really made my life matter, and I’m glad they did. I feel so good rn 💜
ugh this is what i want. 😭 i used to love writing so much, like it was my entire life up until 7th grade (maybe too much so but like) and then i got a phone and became a screenager- i know if i just started writing again i’d rediscover my passion but in those 4 years i’ve been too scared to for some reason #avoidant
@cd.4595 hey if it helps at all breaking writers block is easy when u let yourself write things that u think are bad. even if it’s just the same word over and over again or something, it’s like warming up to draw something by just drawing scribbles and shapes to get your wrist warmed up!
Last time our internet dropped out, my siblings and I resorted to reading romeo and juliet aloud but if juliet spoke like kim kardashian and romeo was a tik tok boy. Lack of internet does silly things to people.
Another issue as well, is that a lot of places where people WOULD interact in casual life beforehand are now Outlawed. You get slapped with loitering fines for hanging out at the mall, a large amount of events and places cost money to ENTER, and if you're in a marginalised group without a safety-net in case something goes wrong, it can be VERY hard to go and meet a group of established people who claim -truthfully or not- that they will accept you. The world at large has left those spaces behind, roads become thicker and harder to cross with larger gaps between recreation beyond the sea of stores ... it's less Just an issue of The Internet Making Us Lonely, and more that in combination with the continued commodification of every aspect of our lives.
Who still has malls though? The one by me finally died out around 2020 after decades of slow decay, the two closest are hour plus drive and half empty as the big anchor stores like Sears, JC Penny, and Macy's closed, and even places like Best Buy are made so bare bones that you're still won't find what you're looking for in store and have to order online (and I bought my TV, fridge, washer, dryer, vacuum, dehumidifier as well as smaller electronics * in store * from 2009 to like 2018, so it wasn't a one off or just small stuff)
@bellablue5285 biggest city in south dakota- sioux falls- has malls all over the place. We have a pretty good sized one and the rest are smaller with a handful of stores.
@@bellablue5285 I remember before the pandemic my mom and I would cross the border and go to san diego to go shopping and the malls were full, when we finally went to the US again around 2022 we were shocked at how desserted it all was. Malls in mexico do fantastic, its always full and filled with stuff to do, in San Diego the stores were closed at 7 even tho they were supposed to close at 9 cus it was so empty. Only target was still open. The Outlet by the border still fills up tho, mostly mexicans and tourists tbf. We did notice that stores like Hot Topic and Disney dont have the diverse amount of stock they used to have. Its like everything got stuck expecting 2021. We dont cross anymore cus I moved to Germany, but my mom says that malls in Mexico are now better to go to anyways so why bother.
I think the whole "problem" is not about access to information but about interaction. You can argue with a wax tablet, write over book in anger, and yell at TV as laud as you wish, but those are dead objects. The Internet brought human interaction and cultural, economical and social clashes to the next level, and this makes people crazy. It's just overwhelming.
Yup! Remember it’s WWW the World Wide Web. The Internet made interacting with people over long distances easy. But having access to millions of people at the same time is more than human brain can handle. I feel like in a way the Internet just showed us how lonely we are in our everyday lives. Many of the interpersonal problems we have today (miscommunication, generational trauma/differences, etc) existed before the internet. The level of connection the internet brought (which is also often TOO much connection with parasocial relationships, body issues, EDs being encouraged) made it easier to compare notes. And thus we feel alone irl and addicted to how the internet fills those gaps too much. We now have direct access to the opinions, feelings, and toxic thoughts of others. It can be overwhelming, especially when you’ve grown up around that level of negativity being pumped into your brain 24/7.
the "you're just speaking out now to avoid getting blocked!" thing frustrates me so much. if the point isn't to pressure celebrities to speak out, then what is it? to feel superior?
Yall struggling a lot at context. Noting the reason someone is speaking out is important. Caring about issues not for their awfulness but cause u don’t wanna get in trouble is still awful behavior no matter what. Especially when they don’t do anything after their “speaking out”
@@geekyboy6875 I tend to take a more consequentialist perspective on activist matters like this. Yes, I think it's shitty when someone clearly aligns themself with something just to save their own skin. It's a sign of cowardice. That said, I'd rather have someone speak about these issues than not. Regardless of who a person is in their heart or their personal reasons for making statements (which nobody else will ever truly know unless they say), I'd rather they make the statement than let the silence fester.
@@geekyboy6875 I feel like this goes along with the whole thing of doing activism for the sake of personally trying to be a good person and worrying about individual morality rather than actually advancing a cause
These companies are using neuroscience, and most of the users probably don't know much about neuroscience, also when we get upset or feel bored (and have negative feelings about ourselves) we emotionally numb ourselves with technology because we don't like dealing with negative emotions on our own so we don't even process emotions we numb them with technology. And a lot of other stuff such as, device dependency, video game addiction, imposter syndrome, and social media comparison. Also we have a split identity of who we are, One that's online feeling safe in the darkness of ambiguity and One that's offline, and feels unsafe that they may lose their job. All my information is echoed from Dr. K and many other professionals who are noticing the impact of screens. The more processed something is the more unhealthy it is. I.E. Processed Foods, more processed furniture (that's why plants, woods, stone and natural sunlight calms us down because it's something calming and ingrained of something we know that keeps us grounded)
Exactly. And it's totally possible to design it in a way that isn't as addictive. Like, would youtube still as engaging if, for example, all interface elements were in shades of grey, with lines of descriptive text instead of video thumbnails? Would it still be as engaging if there was, let's say, 30 videos limit on how much you can see in your feed? I think it's (theoretically) absolutely possible to make internet in a way that's still useful, interesting and fun but less like a drug. But in reality no one's gonna do it because greed is greed.
I was a teenager in the 90s. People were more connected with human interaction, but it was isolating for those who didn't really have a community like lgbtq. The internet gives people a community and a sense of belonging beyond their immediate environment
My personal issue with the internet is the fact it was so quickly commodified. The minute we start hiding the magic from it's users- formatting algorithms, tying everything to accounts, putting trust in third parties to hold our information instead of teaching tech literacy- it becomes a consumerist warzone. Every mainstream social media is a fight to grab and keep your attention for as long as possible, even TH-cam. It's another way to push products and take advantage of the users. You don't even *own* the tech you own- there's no right to repair, you own a license to it. There are some good things to learn from movements like Web Revival and YesterWeb that focus on user-first internet: personal websites, web-rings and a more laid-back, modern-yet-not approach to internet spaces. Is the internet destroying us? Yes, in the way we use it currently.
Totally agreed. With increasing reliance on tech and the Internet, it's surprising how few people understand these under the hood -- or even on a basic level, for that matter. I don't wish to blame the individual, but as a whole we have put way too much faith into businesses to provide us services which should probably be based on at least open-source collaboration. I have made a major shift over the past 2-3 months to Linux on my computers, and it's made me fall in love with learning more. I'm not a computer science major or anything, just a human being fed up with the current landscape. I remember when it wasn't this bad, but it's been building up over time.
As someone on the autism spectrum, I've always found online socialization easier than its offline equivalent. It's certainly easier to find people who share your interests if there are special forums or hashtags to lead you to them. I will admit, though, the the sheer geographic distance between you and the people you're conversing with online makes it a lot easier to be douches to them. People will say stuff to you they wouldn't tell you to your face.
Autism is funny like that. I also have autism, and I find interacting online much harder. On one hand, I have the time to write out my thoughts, but interactions of substance are so much harder. It's shallow mechanical exchange, without the context and cues of face-to-face interaction.
@@celisewillis same! this is a big one for me and I find it easier to read people's intentions in writing than I do f2f. If someone uses a convicing and seemingly sincere tone of voice when speaking, it's almost impossible for me to tell that they don't actually have good intentions
@@NeighborhoodOfBlueI can definitely relate to this. It’s much harder to maintain online friendships than irl friendships for me. Without seeing someone face to face, I tend to just forget about them. Even if we have very similar interests.
@@NeighborhoodOfBlue yeah I may suck at both, but texting has always been much harder for me (and voice or video chatting is. oh so scary). Always feels less real than a face to face conversation (like obviously I know you're a human being, but at the same time, you're kinda just lines on a screen to me) and that makes it hard for me to keep up with it consistently. But as you said, completely opposing experiences like that are the beauty of autism lmfao
I recently got out of recovery from drug addiction & essentially am starting my life over right now. I lost my old job, my old relationships, my old home. It's so lonely & as a teenager I had a lot of internet friends, but now I find it so hard to make connections online. I'm not really sure what's different now but everyone seems so scared of each other & unwilling to make connections. I know the corporations are behind this somehow. It didn't used to be like this.
Algorithms push controversial comments to the top and reward "dunking" on each other. It's tough to engage sincerely with strangers on social media. Especially since it has expanded beyond our family and friends.
@@ruliak right, I used to be very irony poisoned & I wanted to kill that part of me to help enjoy life again, but being sincere has given me some of the most anxiety I've felt before. It feels like I'm breaking a rule & my body is expecting to be bullied & "punished" for it. It's such a rough irony that when I had friendships & connections I didn't value them, and now that I do understand the importance of community & earnesty, it feels impossible to achieve. I've cried more about dumb bullshit on social media more as an adult than I ever did as a teenager
20 years ago half the internet was chatrooms and messageboards with very few features, but there's a really strange addictive quantity to social media now where you get constantly notified and given juicy analytical data on any successful posts, which also makes you very aware when you've failed. You post and this feels like a social interaction, but it has no weight, so it is an exhausting social interaction and you're never in the mood to read comments on it. You read your own thoughts as a failure because you haven't had 100 interactions on it. If you have today's bad opinion everyone gets a turn at kicking you. In the older days nearly everything you posted would scroll offscreen and be gone (except in AOL's logs, somewhere.) You'll be haunted for spouting a twisted version of your parents' opinions at 12, or repeating a dumb joke an older sibling told you, forever. think of all the times you've seen cringe from 2014, it never dies. all the "omg ty for so many likes" edits, heartbreaking in their wholesomeness, in their shock that they had what they've learned is a taste of success and friendship. the times when you've read something you've agreed with, only to see the comments from some radical anarchist tearing them apart, and you learn to keep your opinions submerged where even you can't be troubled by them. People are probably right to be scared of connecting in this landscape. Use it very specifically as a springboard to make offline (or at least, off-social-media connections), if that's at all possible. But I do suspect people carry their prejudices and fears with them and expect special treatment as they exclude other people. Even with no options we're still trying to climb socially, it's all that matters.
@@as4180I love that we have stuff like air conditioning and a better understanding of mental health but the more I see how bad the worlds gotten the more I think I mightve been way happier if I was born 200 years ago
@@as4180autistic person w two autistic partners here-- they're two of the most socially / romantically successful people I know (we're all somewhat allistic passing and just seem like frighteningly sincere allistic ppl). At first people won't know if yr making fun of them or what, but when people realize yr being serious they LOVE it. Everyone secretly wants this for themself and to be around it.
90% of the 'addiction' argument barely applies to me, cause I have AuDHD (adhd and autism). Before I had the internet (I was barred until 2015 or so) I was still just as restless and needed CDs/Art doodling/Music playing/TV on as I did other things. Now, it just costs me less money on art materials to do my work, and I also know what trans people are, and that I am one.
Without the internet, I would've never discovered I am AuDHD and agender. I don't want to imagine how my mental health would have fared in those conditions. I learned how to mask and communicate through early 2010s online chatrooms - a decade before I knew I was autistic, but very much anguished by the fact that I didn't know what made me so different that people treated me differently. Then tiktok in the 2020s showed me thousands of people like me and it's like the world opened up and I wasn't alone in my struggles anymore. I have a lot of gripes with how dead the internet is nowadays, the AI takeover, evil algorithms (meta, google), and making it harder to form genuine friendships, but I can't imagine what my life would look like without it.
While no doubt true and few question the benefits of something like the internet, I often find this is often thrown up as a defense of something that wasn’t attacked. No one is saying you are who you are because of internet addiction…it’s about the capitalistic manipulation in marketing and social media, the real scientific data we have on its isolating tendencies that makes it a SOCIAL and CULTURAL problem.
I'm depressed, disabled and live in a very small town. I can't go out and meet people because of pain and social anxiety, but the internet lets me talk to likeminded people from all over the world. It is my lifeline, my distraction from the bad thoughts and an endless source of entertainment. Is it also full of the absolute worst of humanity? Yes. But it's worth keeping anyway.
I do feel like a lot of people who request that others "just touch grass" don't get this point. And I'm not physically disabled but have ADHD and anxiety, and even I struggle. For many people, the Internet and friends across the globe are how they keep living day to day. Especially when it feels like I'm gonna have to pay money just to walk outside my home. It's the companies that have taken advantage of loneliness by fostering dependence while selling our data that upset me.
Like said in Fallout: "The future is a product. You're a product, I am a product. The End of the World is a product." I'd dare to say that loneliness(TM) is a product too. At least the one we feel in the internet and such...
Its not only a product, loneliness became a tool regarding the male loneliness epidemic (or whatever it is called in the MRA's community). A tool used against feminism and women's rights too, a tool that serves its purpose of showing "look what happened because of you feminists", another scarecrow like the "destruction of the family" "destruction of the "natural" order of society" and other buzzwords
It's difficult because being constantly online has prevented me from feeling fulfilled in my life, and caused me to feel endlessly lonely. However, at the same time, the majority of my family live in a diffferent country to me, and my partner is long distance. So i feel this reliance on it, its difficult to find that balance.
I was in high school in the late 90s. First, we had the internet (but not social media). Also, we weren't all that happy. We were human, like every other generation.
Yes teenagers are generally moody and unhappy and stressed, but all social media amplified that unhappiness. Atleast in the 90s and early 2000s, people had more human interaction that wasn’t on a phone screen
Exactly this. We went from knowing our neighbors to being told over and over that we are islands and that we need to be doing everything on our own and independently. Mostly because of the commodification of basic human necessities. “Got kids? Don’t trust your neighbor! Give them to a daycare where they’re “professionals”” “Want to do a DIY project? Don’t ask your neighbor to borrow their tools… spend $10,000+ to get your own complete set to do anything you can think of!” “Too busy to cook or bake? Don’t bring a dish to a neighborhood get together. Buy microwave dinners!” (Later: “order DoorDash!”) “Book swaps and reading clubs? Nah. Buy your own copy and read it in your bedroom!” “Mending clothes with your neighbors? Pfft… just throw them away and buy new ones!” And for that matter: “baby supply swaps between new moms? Hardly sanitary. Better get all new and throw away everything so no other moms have to deal with that tiny stain your baby put in the corner” Capitalism got us into this mess
when i stopped posting my art online several months ago, i did stop drawing for a while-but then i found my passion outside of that and have never had a better time drawing, or writing, or anything else. i'm making my art for myself, not for others.
running into this conflict myself. i keep feeling the urge to create things for the sake of praise, to put on a resume, or some sort of profit, and i'm trying to fight against it. i want to know myself as i am through art and creative projects, and that goes so far beyond what is popular or palatable. i miss obsessively drawing as a kid, i miss being "weird". i feel like i've lost parts of myself over the years that i'm trying to rediscover.
There is a psychological theory about this - it comes down to external and internal motivation. Internal is the one when you feel you do something just because you enjoy it, the external is the good grades, praises etc. Posting online probably made you receive external feedback, on top of the internal motivation you received the external one and when you didnt have the external one anymore, you just stopped enjoyed doing it at all. I have learnt that from a book for teachers about 12 rules of effective teaching, the chapter about rewarding students, for you it took a little to get back on the internal motivation track
The constant use of the internet has fried my brain, I feel like it got so bad during the pandemic. I mean I have a job now and I do have hobbies so I do use my phone less but but it’s still feel a need to fill the silent part of the days with a screen. Also this hairstyle looks so good on you.
I deleted all of my socials (including the youtube app on my phone) back in november. I am the most connected to myself and my immediate family, as well as the REAL friends who have stuck around since my social media separture, and am happier than ever. I am no longer lonely, despite being disconnected from the digital landscape. I may never look back, the lifestyle change benefited my life in so many ways! I read now, make bracelets, and write way more music. I've also found that now when I am online for too long I am more disinterested or fatigued from surfing the web too long. I guess I kind of retrained and rewired my brain.
Time was moving slow. I was enjoying it. There was no rush. The power was off and wi-fi went with it. That's what happened. I lit up a candle and read. Peaceful. It's like my childhood days. Truly serene.
Problem is, that while I mourn how my life could’ve been without internet and spending SO much time on here, I also realise that my social anxiety doesn’t just magically disappear with the internet gone, and I cannot imagine how lonely I would’ve been if I didn’t have youtube to comfort me, I still have very few friends, even when I’ve been spending less time online, and as someone autistic I think there’s a lot of times being online helped distract me from very stressful things. I had a really tough domestic abuse situation, and god knows that without an iphone by my side, I don’t know if I could’ve made it through some of those periods, I would’ve just been stuck listening to one of my parents have a meltdown screaming at the other parent all the worst stuff imaginable, luckily I could watch some comforting youtube videos. I hate the internet on the one hand, I study history and I can’t help but lament all that the internet is doing to our cultures. Its destroying cultural cornerstones that have existed for centuries, if not millennia, it is making us dependent on these devices and not self-sufficient. It is turning our lives into consuming content rather than the pursuit of something more. But I also don’t know what exactly my life would look like without it, because the loneliness and isolation I went through might’ve still been the exact same, but even worse
As someone born in the late 80's.... LOL to us being happy in the 90's. Grass is always greener I guess. Though it wasn't all bad, going from apple II's to SNES, to 3d and early Internet... It really gives some perspective probably in the same way my grandparents saw the world drastically change when TVs became common
I was a 90's kid and i was far from happy and carefree. Untreated mental illness in a culture with even less understanding of it was a nightmare. You got blamed for it even more back then. I'm schizophrenic. In middle school and high school I was spit on, sucker punched (literally, mind you. people would just walk up and punch me as hard as they could in the stomach). Not much has improved in some ways but I don't get spit on or hit anymore.
There is a sentiment of being trapped, I find myself reaching for my phone 30sec after turning it off because reality is exhausting, I don't have money, I'm exhausted from work, I have to maintain my body alive and keep my house clean enough so I can walk through it. It's lonely but my family live overseas and most of my friends can't go out because They are broke, exhausted and working too🥲 And as soon as I open some social I get so overwhelmed by the terribles news, followed so quickly by a dumb funny video and then everybody pointing my inactivity or my lack of productivity So it must be time to log of, but then it's back to the start 😂
As flawed as it is, I will always defend social media as a net positive. Any tool that allows communication between people who don't have the same lived experience is a necessary step in broad social changes, even if only indirectly over time.
i realized how happy it made me to see that youre using your platform to talk about palestine. i think only one other video essay ive watched has done this, and im so so happy that someone i watch and have well regard for, is using their platform for good.
24:06 “What I’m doing would no longer be art, but [rather] content.” This reminds me of what my studio art teacher always tells us; when you put creativity and your experience into your work, you create art. Lose one of those factors and it’s just an assignment.
i haven't watched the video yet, but something i have thought for a while now is how much i wish technology did not progress past, say, 2008. wifi was imperfect, the first iphone just came out and there was at least still a degree of separation between you and the internet. i feel, at least, that was the perfect balance between the internet and the real world- but this could also be my nostalgic idealism.
Im so grateful to have found you! The topics you cover are so important. It’s been hard to watch a lot lately due to creators not caring about Palestinians. To see you use your platform to continue expanding on the topics you’re touching is like no one else is doing. Thank you thank you thank you.
Thank you for your brilliant explanation on the difference between boycotting and abstinence! Personally I prefer to abstain from quite a lot of products and brands for a variety of reasons, but the success of boycott movements relies on strategic targets for maximum impact, and whilst I will judge others for crossing the BDS picket line, I won't judge others for not abstaining from all the brands that I choose to.
Guy Debord!!! More & more our digital feudalism falls so clearly into the concept of the spectacle.... the closest & most useful theory of our organized consumable happiness...
I feel like the internet both helps and hurts us. Some things wouldn’t be possible without it but at the same time I feel like I might be a bit happier if I wasn’t exposed to so much of the internet at such a young age.
I think the internet is, historically speaking, relatively new and still figuring out ways to support people in need effectively. Communication is essential for these organizations and movements, so maybe this year was a rough start to something bigger. The internet was already shown to be a powerful force, it’s just a matter of reflection and critique on how we can improve for a better good.
Agreed. The internet is one of the most revolutionary inventions of all time. We've only had it for a quarter of a century, 1-2 generation's span. As we witness the pervasion of online corporatism and harm, we're getting smarter and more apt at living with a form of communication which will continue to follow us until it's own end or we develop a new evolution of it. The internet is NOT the source of our problems; it's simply an informative tool. Loneliness, accessibility, and education are entirely seperate topics that deserve proper study instead of a lazy opt-out of blaming the binary code.
you make a good point with how we are expected to be available at all hours, although this sentiment DOES carry into pre-internet culture. neighbors and friends would regularly call, and the phone was a busy device in itself. before that, it was not uncommon for friends and neighbors to invite themselves over for a chat.
@@ivanigarcia1652 What I remember is that we also have memories inside of us! We don’t need a web interface for it. It did take forever and a half for me, but I did have the privilege of having all my friends live very close to me.
I am actually a very big fan of the internet at the end of the day because it helps members of minority communities connect and bond in ways that were not possible before, especially for people (such as myself), who grew up in rural places. Thank you for this video, Shan!
I know, from years of organizing meetups for various online groups, that people are often more than happy to show up, and even help, as long as someone else initiates the thing and acts as the main organizer. It only takes one person, who announces a place and a time. But it's scary because, what if no-one else shows up? And that may well happen, especially on the first time, when people don't know or trust you yet. But it also may not happen, especially if you keep doing it again and again. If the responsibility of organizing is too intimidating for you, you can also be the first person to show up for something someone else initiated. If you keep showing up, others will see that it's safe, and more people will start showing up. That's literally how communities and relationships grow: by consistently showing up for each other. :3
Something that is left unexplored in the video, which I think would have been very relevant, is if the internet is even supposed to be social. We don’t consider TV or reading socialising. Why are we expecting that from TikTok? Maybe calling it „social“ media is a misnomer?
Well, I think that saying TV and books social is inaccurate. They are used to engage with other people it’s just a static form of engagement on one side. But that’s pedantic of me. The issue is that that engagement does not satisfy most people’s need for conversation and physical interaction. The internet isn’t a one to one with books and TV because the internet has these things within it as a medium: you can read and watch things on the internet. The computer screen you use is no different than a tv screen, the circuitry behind it just allows for a different utilization.
Fr, imo “social” media can never be a replacement for real socialization. In a real conversation, you don’t wait minutes or ever hours for someone to respond, but online you do. It’s unnatural and weird, you also can’t see people’s faces online so you don’t know how they’re feeling. Online friendships and relationships that you start on ig or Roblox can never be real because it’s not the same as actually meeting someone by chance irl and forming a real human connection with them, exchanging text bubbles is never the same feeling as laughing and talking with someone in the same space together
I blame a lot of the internet's problems on the algorithms and corporate presences. I hate Ready Player One. But that's the one and only thing they got right.
I really appreciated this perspective. I feel like I've always said the internet is a tool, and the most popular sites at present are using that tool to support themselves in our current system which seems to be where most of these issues of manufactured loneliness really get exasperated.
Your pronunciation of Falasteen was great! I had to do a play back when I first heard it cause I was listening to your video while cleaning and thought I misheard it.
agreeing with the people who said that the 90s were great for normies, but weirdos were actually isolated with no way to get together with like-minded weirdos, especially in smaller communities. Like everything, it's complicated and both good and bad.
3:07 pausing here for a second to say that, as a member of the graduating class of 1996, there was still a sense of profound isolation for many of us back then, even those of us who had large friend circles. I was one of the alt kids back then, and unbeknownst to me at the time, I was/am also Autistic. All of my "fitting in" was a careful mask, a persona, a role that I cultivated; inside I felt unimaginably alone because none of these friends I had actually knew ME, only the person's I created for them to see. Looking back, my heart aches for young me, and I'm really happy to say that life has gotten immeasurably better for me (emotionally and in my sense of well being, financially we're all struggling under capitalism like whoa,) as life has gone on and I've learned so much more about myself and how to embrace my authentic inner self and live without the need for social approval. I'm still the "alt kid", though: that'll never change. Nothing except the age, really. Now I'm just an "alt middle-aged gal"
And this isn't to say that the loneliness epidemic isn't real, or that the loneliness I experienced was somehow more intense or something. If anything, I believe that the internet has not only exacerbated loneliness in this country, but it's also exposed how deep it goes, and my experience only illustrates that the roots of it are far deeper than many suspect. It used to be that awkward, unusual kids such as myself would have difficulty making friends if we didn't mask, and would feel lonely because many of our true personality traits and courts had to be hidden because of our masking so none of our friends that we did make with the mask on really knew us, nowadays it's even non-neurodivergent folk with absolute mainstream thoughts, hobbies, personality types, etc who are feeling this way, as well. Nobody really noticed when it was just us on the fringes, because we were the fringes. And when folks thought about it, it wasn't really all that important because it's just us on the fringes, right? How important could it be? I'm not saying that with any bitterness, honestly, I see it being the same kind of pattern as when crack was an epidemic in the black community and everybody in the mainstream media sort of shrugged like that's just how it is, but once drug addiction spread to Middle America during the height of the opioid epidemic, all of the attention gets drawn to the thing. It's a pattern that gets repeated over and over again, society ignoring the fringes until it's a problem for everybody.
This was so needed and well put together (per usual), seeing those lists with 10s of hundreds of companies on them was when I started to pull away from boycotting. BDS became part of the noise I guess.. But focused organizational efforts like OOB, BDS and more have been so essential in this fight. I don't want to become hopeless in this
I was one of those 90s school kids and as far as I am aware, we were not any happier or living some halcyon pre internet (not that 98 was pre internet) days. I can assure you, at the very least I was miserable. I hear more from friends with my phone, and value being able to get news and resources without having to rely on media. Thank you for pointing out the importance of the internet to activists- poignant and on point. ❤
Amazing work as always! But for some reason I started hearing parts of this as the monologue of a 90s JRPG villain on why he's turning everyone into a goo singularity
Beautifully said🩷had me in tears. We deserve better, we need to build community to keep fighting for better. Thank you for reminding me how important our collective actions are.
It is. I can’t help but feel that we’ve become more reliant on it than ever. It’s gotten to the point where phones are carried EVERYWHERE during school hours. There are 12 YOs out in school, carrying their phones with them since they rely on it so much to the point where teachers have debated on banning them. Not only that, people I know have given up on reading or doing other hobbies apart from making tiktoks.
When talking about internet activism it also extremely important to protesters, we NEED the people at home (especially at more “intense” protests) monitoring police presence, monitoring any potential counter protesters, and then relaying that information to people physically in the streets
What weird me out about the digital guillotine is the implication that there is some reasonable expectation that you should be following celebrities and influencers, and you need some valid reason not to. Imo by all means you should unfollow or block anyone you mildly dislike or find annoying. You don't owe anyone your attention just because you're a non famous commoner. Not following anyone in particular shouldn't be praxis, it should be the default, right?
YES I WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS THE OTHER DAY, I don't think it has super killed us, but it's killed social life and tangible entertainment and social spaces. It's harder to make friends when everyone outside is staring down at a phone, it sucks to grow up now. (Which doesn't even get into how what is on the internet has affected kids growing up.)
I remember when i got my first phone in 8th grade, so before that, most of my school life was pretty lonely because during free time, i just had my school device to stare at and pretend to be busy on while everyone was staring at their phones, clearly not wanting to be bothered or talked to
The Internet is a blessing and a curse. I had barely any friends for a while and on the Internet I found connection on a Sims forum. I lied about who I was (turned myself into the person I wanted to be), but it didn't matter because it wasn't like any deeper friendships formed there. I was 12 or 13 and it saved me. I don't know what I would've done without it. The Internet also made me understand my mental health problems, helped me learn about queer topics and that I myself am queer and provided so much entertainment during some of my darkest hours. But it also fed that darkness and isolated me even more from the people in my actual life. I would consider myself a bookworm, but I consider the Internet the reason I barely read anymore because there's so much entertainment on here that I can speed up if I have little time or enjoy while cooking or doing chores. And that sucks. I wouldn't want to miss it but I feel a bit too dependent on it too.
As a person growing up with the internet as a kid.... it didn't make me miserable. It probably saved my life. I am queer, and I also an introverted naturally (an may be on the spectrum), so I found it hard to make friends in real life until I got older. The internet, socially and for learning, helped me gain confidence and self love, and I found a few communities on here. People who dislike the internet are people that use it for toxic and nefarious reasons (like stalking old friends or showing off). IMO, the internet is a beautiful invention, but just like most new inventions, people find a way to use it to abuse others or explain why we shouldn't progress.
I don't think it's the internet ruining community, I think it's the toxic algorithms that pigeon-hole people that is wreaking havoc on community. If you don't buy anything from those companies to begin with, are you not already participating in the boycott? Like, you were just ahead of the curve. Great work. Keep it up. Also, the baby blue and pink theater set is gorgeous!!!
Thank you so much for this video, especially pointing out the problem of recency bias, in particular pointing out that Socrates thinking that reading would be the death of memory. ♥ I literally was like "yes, thank you!" when you mentioned that about Socrates, because it's a story that so succinctly highlights just how old unfounded scaremongering about mediums of art and communication are.
on the closing thoughts I think it's so true how with effort you can find community on the internet you may have had trouble accessing without it, my parents emigrated from Ireland when I was a child, and recently, after moving to Ireland and then back to Aus again I've been able to use the internet to build on connecting to culture and decolonial practise in a way that strengthens my own identity and helps me understand myself and my family better AND to use that jumping off point to be a better ally to Aboriginal people here on whose land I live and with who through exploring our shared and different experiences as colonised people and also as peoples racialised differently we build solidarity and community across oceans and cultures. In particular discovering the vast history of solidarity between Palestinian people and the Irish has been eye opening for how this kind of understanding and care and action can be built!
The funniest thing for me is that I have this one really close online friend and if they leave a platform I also lose interest. I do have friends irl but more often than not, the things I tend to be interested in are also the things they don't understand.
This whole thing was beautiful, thank you so much. It’s fun to laugh about internet/youtube culture but I love when it literally leaves me feeling less alone ❤❤🍉
God, I always love your work, Shanspeare. You touched on a lot of ideas I’ve been recognizing over recent years and wanting to start dialogues about, and you did it so fucking well. You’re always so well spoken and present your ideas in an interesting and comprehensive way. This is definitely a video worth sharing when this topic comes up.
This essay is so timely and detailed and well-organized and important, I wish I could like more than once. I love how the medium panics of the past were compared and dissected, leading into the wider historical issues that are impacting everyone today. Thank you for creating this piece, and this space
We’ve gone from leisure being online to our schooling and our work having integral elements that are only accessible. Once the internet is down, what does one do? Do some knitting or weaving? Maybe spinning thread with the extra fluff their dog sheds all over the place?
Read books, cook instead of micro waving junk food, go for walks in nature, play chess, talk to their parents, friends, neighbour's, classmates, dare make real friends, help the community, build true lasting, memories linked to sight, smell, looks, attitudes, get out of anxiety related to scrolling, checking if there's anything new, study for school, university, do some gardening, paint mend the fence, mend socks, clothes to consume less instead of splashing paint on monuments, driven by some strange internet concept of how to save planet. Etc etc etc
6:35 for some reason it is deeply upsetting to realize that my screen makes black by killing pixels, not by somehow turning on black ones. i don't know why i thought that either.
I opened this video a month ago when it came out, but am only just now getting around to watching it. Absolutely phenomenal. Your videos are always well rounded and nuanced which is very refreshing on an internet that, as you addressed, is not designed for that.
I've been hanging out with family during the holidays and i realised how much I was actually losing during my time alone or my daily life due to an internet addiction. Internet is amazjng and has given me many opportunities, but recently ive just been wasting my life and my personal time. I've been feeling pretty lonely lately and i realised why now. I really need to disconnect from social media and reconnect with myself! This was an incredible video!
If anyone is really interested in this conversation then i STRONGLY suggest Mina Le’s video on Stanley Cups, The Loss of Friendship, and The Third Spaces (i think thats the title or something like that)
Well internet brought me to people like you and other fantastic creators, and I can't be anything but grateful abt that! It's still my choice.- what to watch, which apps to download etc. It requires a bit of awareness, but the whole life does requires awareness anyway!
I love this vid, and aside from how much the content itself resonates with me your look in this video is so damn cute. I love the set and the outfit, makeup and hair from this one :) you really pull off the in-character, heavy emphasis on acting and scenes vids just as well as these face to face talking more or less as yourself style ones. Thanks for being my favorite channel :)
as always, amazing video. thanks for exploring the nuances of the internet. i know people loves nostalgia when once we're not as connected as now, but internet has benefitted a great deal for society as a whole too, so to me it's not fair to only highlight how it causes all of our problems today. if anyone thinks that life without internet is much better and truly believes so, then they don't realize that in one way or another they have the privilege to think so. even on interpersonal level, young kids benefitted so much from having a way to escape/solutions to their otherwise toxic environments. i think what we need to do is find a way how to use the internet effectively to build a solid community.
Only recently started to come across your videos, and I think you do an amazing job. Your analysis is nuanced and informed and empathetic. Love seeing all these black leftist creatives on here lately. Also I appreciate your distinction of art and content as this is so clearly art.
I started blocking pretty majority of celebrities and unfollowing all influencers just because I was over all of the celebrity culture. And now my social media is just like... People I know, local events, notable things around me... It feels a lot less lonely. I've also been blocking a ton of advertisements and random promoted content that I just don't like and don't want on my feed. I want to know what events are on at the library and when the next trivia night is at my fav bars is and if there are any good mutual aid things going on locally and if any of my friends' cute kids had a birthday. The block list gave me back the feeling of my little community and I loved that part.
@Shanspeare even if the relationship between the artist and the viewers is based on objects, as your viewer I’m incredibly happy I found your channel those years ago ❤️
Big shout out and appreciation for how you use the descriptions of your video! Some people only give warnings and timestamps in the video itself (e.g. "if you don't want to see this, go to the timestamp on screen"). Some people have the cited sources as patreon exclusive documents (idk why, I don't really get that one) or have the list in the ending part of their video, but no searchable doc compiling them. And then also the linktree with resources with good general recommendations! This comment is just an appreciation for how this channel handles the video descriptions and what they put in/leave out!!
The only social media I use is TH-cam, but I somehow heard about the "block-out" early-ish. I think it was a Caelen Conrad video. Anyway, I don't follow any celebrities so my thought was "Cool. I hope this works out." Didn't know until now how quickly it fizzled out. Shame, because I thought it was good idea.
I've recently been trying to get off my phone more. And partially succeed and it's so weird. I was bored yesterday and not in "I'm bored of this app let's move to a next one" but in that way I was bored as a child. I didn't know that I missed being bored this much.
Oo I’m only just starting the video but I’m excited to watch this one. My relationship with the internet regarding community is complex as someone who is extremely chronically ill/disabled, without much energy or the ability to commute and living in a covid world where no one masks. As much as I hate the internet sometimes, my community there has saved me many times
Hiiiii. Thanks for watching! And thanks to Milanote for sponsoring this video! Sign up for free and start your next creative project: milanote.com/shanspeare0624
I heard "The Chase" in the opener at it got me
Hey i noticed some of the videos you cited are based on writren essays that are quoted in the descriptions of said video. Perhaps you could also add those sources to your video so youre not quoting someone quoting someone else?
Your research is immaculate I learn something new every time.😊
this women has alot to say about an economic neutral method of trading commercial values from a to b. i genuienly loled when she was accusing a simple free markjet model for trading to slavery xD bro capisalism didnt affect ur life at all. you proove it with ur 20 conotations to capitalism. just a simple andf ast learend way to trade ...seems responsible for i dont know xS bro this is soooooooo FUNNY 99 percent of people didnt even work in the financial sektor. sorry but an analogy to this would be that bananas are responsible for slave and lonleness and consumerism....the fun fact is that bananas are at least a little bit xxxxD *lol* responsible for consumerism actually xd ....CUZ PEPS CONSUME THEM XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXd
algorithms have killed us. the internet is an incredible thing. the way we’re almost forced to be addicted to it and expected to be constantly “online” and “accessible” is not.
thissss
crazy enough i lost an online friend because whenever i was doing irl things (on vacations or at work) i SHOULD have been constantly checking in and joining vc's and not doing so as constantly as i was when i was unemployed was neglect 😭
100% I've been on the internet since 1994. Aside from having to use dialup, I think it was better back then because there were no algorithms yet. Does anyone else remember Google when it was ad free? And youtube when it was ad free? Those were the days.
@ville__ Don't like your own comments.
@ville__ No, I don't bother doing that.
girl my internet was out most of the day yesterday and i basically just stared at a wall until it was back
😭😭😭😭 why is this so funny
How was that experience for you?
We had the power go out during Christmas break for 48 hours and the moment my battery died my brain just shut off out of boredom it's insane how dependent we've become (especially when bored and depressed lol)
@@Thil You could have rotated a cow in your mind. It's free, and the cops can't stop you.
@@iTzic21 awful! i live in the middle of nowhere so it was literally caused by a fucking tractor hitting a pole. yee-yee!!!
As a 90s kid, I absolutely hated that era... it was full of bullying and boredom. The internet literally saved my life by putting me in contact with like-minded nerds and information that I could use to build a career I was actually interested in (and would rescue me from the rural American hellscape).
while Im a 2000s kid I was in a similar boat. The internet allows 'weird' kids to see people like them thrive when they have next to no one irl
It’s truthfully still serving me as a “weird” adult lol
@@sarah30932 same!
Im a 2010 kiddo but same, i found my community online :3
Same I grew up in the 90s as a teen black skater boy , and played sports, loved paleontology, astrology and marine biology and comics plus i was into snakes , spiders and earth worms which was not so common so once i got on the Internet I met so many people who were into what I was
honestly, my “I can’t leave my f phone not even for a second” ended the moment I discovered new passions and hobbies, that really made my life matter, and I’m glad they did. I feel so good rn 💜
ugh this is what i want. 😭 i used to love writing so much, like it was my entire life up until 7th grade (maybe too much so but like) and then i got a phone and became a screenager- i know if i just started writing again i’d rediscover my passion but in those 4 years i’ve been too scared to for some reason #avoidant
@cd.4595 hey if it helps at all breaking writers block is easy when u let yourself write things that u think are bad. even if it’s just the same word over and over again or something, it’s like warming up to draw something by just drawing scribbles and shapes to get your wrist warmed up!
Love to hear this, and I want this for me. We can do this ❤
happy for you! /gen pos
doesn't help for me.
Last time our internet dropped out, my siblings and I resorted to reading romeo and juliet aloud but if juliet spoke like kim kardashian and romeo was a tik tok boy. Lack of internet does silly things to people.
If that was a play, movie, or video I'd watch that so fast. I think that's the only way to get me interested in really old writing like that 🤣
That sounds amazing though, I'd watch that. 😂
That's not a bad thing! I think being able to play and have fun without internet is a very very good and important thing!
by jove your family sounds fun
That’s a great thing
Another issue as well, is that a lot of places where people WOULD interact in casual life beforehand are now Outlawed. You get slapped with loitering fines for hanging out at the mall, a large amount of events and places cost money to ENTER, and if you're in a marginalised group without a safety-net in case something goes wrong, it can be VERY hard to go and meet a group of established people who claim -truthfully or not- that they will accept you.
The world at large has left those spaces behind, roads become thicker and harder to cross with larger gaps between recreation beyond the sea of stores ... it's less Just an issue of The Internet Making Us Lonely, and more that in combination with the continued commodification of every aspect of our lives.
Ah, you did mention this! Thank you. I apologise for thinking with Comments Brain instead of Finishing The Video Brain.
Who still has malls though? The one by me finally died out around 2020 after decades of slow decay, the two closest are hour plus drive and half empty as the big anchor stores like Sears, JC Penny, and Macy's closed, and even places like Best Buy are made so bare bones that you're still won't find what you're looking for in store and have to order online (and I bought my TV, fridge, washer, dryer, vacuum, dehumidifier as well as smaller electronics * in store * from 2009 to like 2018, so it wasn't a one off or just small stuff)
@bellablue5285 biggest city in south dakota- sioux falls- has malls all over the place. We have a pretty good sized one and the rest are smaller with a handful of stores.
not sure how well stocked they are 😬 I have issues with my feet so I don't walk around the mall like I used to
@@bellablue5285 I remember before the pandemic my mom and I would cross the border and go to san diego to go shopping and the malls were full, when we finally went to the US again around 2022 we were shocked at how desserted it all was. Malls in mexico do fantastic, its always full and filled with stuff to do, in San Diego the stores were closed at 7 even tho they were supposed to close at 9 cus it was so empty. Only target was still open. The Outlet by the border still fills up tho, mostly mexicans and tourists tbf.
We did notice that stores like Hot Topic and Disney dont have the diverse amount of stock they used to have. Its like everything got stuck expecting 2021. We dont cross anymore cus I moved to Germany, but my mom says that malls in Mexico are now better to go to anyways so why bother.
I think the whole "problem" is not about access to information but about interaction. You can argue with a wax tablet, write over book in anger, and yell at TV as laud as you wish, but those are dead objects. The Internet brought human interaction and cultural, economical and social clashes to the next level, and this makes people crazy. It's just overwhelming.
This!
Yup! Remember it’s WWW the World Wide Web. The Internet made interacting with people over long distances easy. But having access to millions of people at the same time is more than human brain can handle. I feel like in a way the Internet just showed us how lonely we are in our everyday lives. Many of the interpersonal problems we have today (miscommunication, generational trauma/differences, etc) existed before the internet. The level of connection the internet brought (which is also often TOO much connection with parasocial relationships, body issues, EDs being encouraged) made it easier to compare notes. And thus we feel alone irl and addicted to how the internet fills those gaps too much.
We now have direct access to the opinions, feelings, and toxic thoughts of others. It can be overwhelming, especially when you’ve grown up around that level of negativity being pumped into your brain 24/7.
The Internet has irreversible affects probably fucks up your brain too, scan a brain that hasn't been on the Internet and one that has
the "you're just speaking out now to avoid getting blocked!" thing frustrates me so much. if the point isn't to pressure celebrities to speak out, then what is it? to feel superior?
Um... Yes, actually. I hate to say this, but a lot of the time, that is precisely the point.
Yall struggling a lot at context. Noting the reason someone is speaking out is important. Caring about issues not for their awfulness but cause u don’t wanna get in trouble is still awful behavior no matter what. Especially when they don’t do anything after their “speaking out”
@@geekyboy6875 I tend to take a more consequentialist perspective on activist matters like this. Yes, I think it's shitty when someone clearly aligns themself with something just to save their own skin. It's a sign of cowardice. That said, I'd rather have someone speak about these issues than not. Regardless of who a person is in their heart or their personal reasons for making statements (which nobody else will ever truly know unless they say), I'd rather they make the statement than let the silence fester.
@@geekyboy6875 I feel like this goes along with the whole thing of doing activism for the sake of personally trying to be a good person and worrying about individual morality rather than actually advancing a cause
@@bimpadimp this one issue is that they don’t care about morality but rather public image. Their personal morality is career oriented not morals based
These companies make it addictive on purpose so you spend as much time as possible. They know what they’re doing
These companies are using neuroscience, and most of the users probably don't know much about neuroscience, also when we get upset or feel bored (and have negative feelings about ourselves) we emotionally numb ourselves with technology because we don't like dealing with negative emotions on our own so we don't even process emotions we numb them with technology. And a lot of other stuff such as, device dependency, video game addiction, imposter syndrome, and social media comparison. Also we have a split identity of who we are, One that's online feeling safe in the darkness of ambiguity and One that's offline, and feels unsafe that they may lose their job. All my information is echoed from Dr. K and many other professionals who are noticing the impact of screens. The more processed something is the more unhealthy it is. I.E. Processed Foods, more processed furniture (that's why plants, woods, stone and natural sunlight calms us down because it's something calming and ingrained of something we know that keeps us grounded)
Exactly. And it's totally possible to design it in a way that isn't as addictive. Like, would youtube still as engaging if, for example, all interface elements were in shades of grey, with lines of descriptive text instead of video thumbnails? Would it still be as engaging if there was, let's say, 30 videos limit on how much you can see in your feed? I think it's (theoretically) absolutely possible to make internet in a way that's still useful, interesting and fun but less like a drug. But in reality no one's gonna do it because greed is greed.
I was a teenager in the 90s. People were more connected with human interaction, but it was isolating for those who didn't really have a community like lgbtq. The internet gives people a community and a sense of belonging beyond their immediate environment
My personal issue with the internet is the fact it was so quickly commodified. The minute we start hiding the magic from it's users- formatting algorithms, tying everything to accounts, putting trust in third parties to hold our information instead of teaching tech literacy- it becomes a consumerist warzone. Every mainstream social media is a fight to grab and keep your attention for as long as possible, even TH-cam. It's another way to push products and take advantage of the users. You don't even *own* the tech you own- there's no right to repair, you own a license to it.
There are some good things to learn from movements like Web Revival and YesterWeb that focus on user-first internet: personal websites, web-rings and a more laid-back, modern-yet-not approach to internet spaces. Is the internet destroying us? Yes, in the way we use it currently.
Totally agreed. With increasing reliance on tech and the Internet, it's surprising how few people understand these under the hood -- or even on a basic level, for that matter. I don't wish to blame the individual, but as a whole we have put way too much faith into businesses to provide us services which should probably be based on at least open-source collaboration.
I have made a major shift over the past 2-3 months to Linux on my computers, and it's made me fall in love with learning more. I'm not a computer science major or anything, just a human being fed up with the current landscape. I remember when it wasn't this bad, but it's been building up over time.
As someone on the autism spectrum, I've always found online socialization easier than its offline equivalent. It's certainly easier to find people who share your interests if there are special forums or hashtags to lead you to them. I will admit, though, the the sheer geographic distance between you and the people you're conversing with online makes it a lot easier to be douches to them. People will say stuff to you they wouldn't tell you to your face.
Autism is funny like that. I also have autism, and I find interacting online much harder. On one hand, I have the time to write out my thoughts, but interactions of substance are so much harder. It's shallow mechanical exchange, without the context and cues of face-to-face interaction.
I love the ability to write out everything I want to say, look at it, and edit it as needed. I am so jumbled when I speak in person!
@@celisewillis same! this is a big one for me
and I find it easier to read people's intentions in writing than I do f2f. If someone uses a convicing and seemingly sincere tone of voice when speaking, it's almost impossible for me to tell that they don't actually have good intentions
@@NeighborhoodOfBlueI can definitely relate to this. It’s much harder to maintain online friendships than irl friendships for me. Without seeing someone face to face, I tend to just forget about them. Even if we have very similar interests.
@@NeighborhoodOfBlue yeah I may suck at both, but texting has always been much harder for me (and voice or video chatting is. oh so scary). Always feels less real than a face to face conversation (like obviously I know you're a human being, but at the same time, you're kinda just lines on a screen to me) and that makes it hard for me to keep up with it consistently. But as you said, completely opposing experiences like that are the beauty of autism lmfao
Can we all please appreciate the fact that an actual person was named JERRY MANDER!
Lol!!!
I was really hoping someone would say this, I CHOKED lol
It sounds like a drag name 😂
@@literallywhy6162 and also gerrymandering.
@@ashleyyyy8833 ….yes, I got that. Drag names are often puns on existing words. That was the joke.
I recently got out of recovery from drug addiction & essentially am starting my life over right now. I lost my old job, my old relationships, my old home. It's so lonely & as a teenager I had a lot of internet friends, but now I find it so hard to make connections online. I'm not really sure what's different now but everyone seems so scared of each other & unwilling to make connections. I know the corporations are behind this somehow. It didn't used to be like this.
Algorithms push controversial comments to the top and reward "dunking" on each other. It's tough to engage sincerely with strangers on social media. Especially since it has expanded beyond our family and friends.
@@ruliak right, I used to be very irony poisoned & I wanted to kill that part of me to help enjoy life again, but being sincere has given me some of the most anxiety I've felt before. It feels like I'm breaking a rule & my body is expecting to be bullied & "punished" for it. It's such a rough irony that when I had friendships & connections I didn't value them, and now that I do understand the importance of community & earnesty, it feels impossible to achieve. I've cried more about dumb bullshit on social media more as an adult than I ever did as a teenager
20 years ago half the internet was chatrooms and messageboards with very few features, but there's a really strange addictive quantity to social media now where you get constantly notified and given juicy analytical data on any successful posts, which also makes you very aware when you've failed. You post and this feels like a social interaction, but it has no weight, so it is an exhausting social interaction and you're never in the mood to read comments on it. You read your own thoughts as a failure because you haven't had 100 interactions on it. If you have today's bad opinion everyone gets a turn at kicking you. In the older days nearly everything you posted would scroll offscreen and be gone (except in AOL's logs, somewhere.) You'll be haunted for spouting a twisted version of your parents' opinions at 12, or repeating a dumb joke an older sibling told you, forever.
think of all the times you've seen cringe from 2014, it never dies. all the "omg ty for so many likes" edits, heartbreaking in their wholesomeness, in their shock that they had what they've learned is a taste of success and friendship. the times when you've read something you've agreed with, only to see the comments from some radical anarchist tearing them apart, and you learn to keep your opinions submerged where even you can't be troubled by them.
People are probably right to be scared of connecting in this landscape. Use it very specifically as a springboard to make offline (or at least, off-social-media connections), if that's at all possible. But I do suspect people carry their prejudices and fears with them and expect special treatment as they exclude other people. Even with no options we're still trying to climb socially, it's all that matters.
@@as4180I love that we have stuff like air conditioning and a better understanding of mental health but the more I see how bad the worlds gotten the more I think I mightve been way happier if I was born 200 years ago
@@as4180autistic person w two autistic partners here-- they're two of the most socially / romantically successful people I know (we're all somewhat allistic passing and just seem like frighteningly sincere allistic ppl). At first people won't know if yr making fun of them or what, but when people realize yr being serious they LOVE it. Everyone secretly wants this for themself and to be around it.
yes. yes it is.
Came here to say exactly the same thing lol
90% of the 'addiction' argument barely applies to me, cause I have AuDHD (adhd and autism). Before I had the internet (I was barred until 2015 or so) I was still just as restless and needed CDs/Art doodling/Music playing/TV on as I did other things.
Now, it just costs me less money on art materials to do my work, and I also know what trans people are, and that I am one.
As a fellow AuDHDer (and also trans person, but that's besides the point lol) this actually helped put it into perspective for me, thank you!
Lucky, I was the one who got addicted to gaming TuT....
Without the internet, I would've never discovered I am AuDHD and agender. I don't want to imagine how my mental health would have fared in those conditions.
I learned how to mask and communicate through early 2010s online chatrooms - a decade before I knew I was autistic, but very much anguished by the fact that I didn't know what made me so different that people treated me differently. Then tiktok in the 2020s showed me thousands of people like me and it's like the world opened up and I wasn't alone in my struggles anymore.
I have a lot of gripes with how dead the internet is nowadays, the AI takeover, evil algorithms (meta, google), and making it harder to form genuine friendships, but I can't imagine what my life would look like without it.
While no doubt true and few question the benefits of something like the internet, I often find this is often thrown up as a defense of something that wasn’t attacked. No one is saying you are who you are because of internet addiction…it’s about the capitalistic manipulation in marketing and social media, the real scientific data we have on its isolating tendencies that makes it a SOCIAL and CULTURAL problem.
I'm depressed, disabled and live in a very small town. I can't go out and meet people because of pain and social anxiety, but the internet lets me talk to likeminded people from all over the world. It is my lifeline, my distraction from the bad thoughts and an endless source of entertainment. Is it also full of the absolute worst of humanity? Yes. But it's worth keeping anyway.
Me too.
I do feel like a lot of people who request that others "just touch grass" don't get this point. And I'm not physically disabled but have ADHD and anxiety, and even I struggle. For many people, the Internet and friends across the globe are how they keep living day to day. Especially when it feels like I'm gonna have to pay money just to walk outside my home. It's the companies that have taken advantage of loneliness by fostering dependence while selling our data that upset me.
Having absolutely no friends is depressing but knowing how evil spirited most people are is more depressing.
Like said in Fallout:
"The future is a product. You're a product, I am a product. The End of the World is a product."
I'd dare to say that loneliness(TM) is a product too. At least the one we feel in the internet and such...
Its not only a product, loneliness became a tool regarding the male loneliness epidemic (or whatever it is called in the MRA's community). A tool used against feminism and women's rights too, a tool that serves its purpose of showing "look what happened because of you feminists", another scarecrow like the "destruction of the family" "destruction of the "natural" order of society" and other buzzwords
It's difficult because being constantly online has prevented me from feeling fulfilled in my life, and caused me to feel endlessly lonely. However, at the same time, the majority of my family live in a diffferent country to me, and my partner is long distance. So i feel this reliance on it, its difficult to find that balance.
I was in high school in the late 90s. First, we had the internet (but not social media). Also, we weren't all that happy. We were human, like every other generation.
Yes teenagers are generally moody and unhappy and stressed, but all social media amplified that unhappiness. Atleast in the 90s and early 2000s, people had more human interaction that wasn’t on a phone screen
Not everyone had internet in their homes in 90s, i had my first home connection in 2010s lol
The loss of community began in the 1950-60s. It offers community that was already being taken away over previous decades.
Exactly this. We went from knowing our neighbors to being told over and over that we are islands and that we need to be doing everything on our own and independently.
Mostly because of the commodification of basic human necessities.
“Got kids? Don’t trust your neighbor! Give them to a daycare where they’re “professionals””
“Want to do a DIY project? Don’t ask your neighbor to borrow their tools… spend $10,000+ to get your own complete set to do anything you can think of!”
“Too busy to cook or bake? Don’t bring a dish to a neighborhood get together. Buy microwave dinners!” (Later: “order DoorDash!”)
“Book swaps and reading clubs? Nah. Buy your own copy and read it in your bedroom!”
“Mending clothes with your neighbors? Pfft… just throw them away and buy new ones!” And for that matter: “baby supply swaps between new moms? Hardly sanitary. Better get all new and throw away everything so no other moms have to deal with that tiny stain your baby put in the corner”
Capitalism got us into this mess
when i stopped posting my art online several months ago, i did stop drawing for a while-but then i found my passion outside of that and have never had a better time drawing, or writing, or anything else. i'm making my art for myself, not for others.
❤
running into this conflict myself. i keep feeling the urge to create things for the sake of praise, to put on a resume, or some sort of profit, and i'm trying to fight against it. i want to know myself as i am through art and creative projects, and that goes so far beyond what is popular or palatable. i miss obsessively drawing as a kid, i miss being "weird". i feel like i've lost parts of myself over the years that i'm trying to rediscover.
There is a psychological theory about this - it comes down to external and internal motivation. Internal is the one when you feel you do something just because you enjoy it, the external is the good grades, praises etc. Posting online probably made you receive external feedback, on top of the internal motivation you received the external one and when you didnt have the external one anymore, you just stopped enjoyed doing it at all. I have learnt that from a book for teachers about 12 rules of effective teaching, the chapter about rewarding students, for you it took a little to get back on the internal motivation track
The constant use of the internet has fried my brain, I feel like it got so bad during the pandemic. I mean I have a job now and I do have hobbies so I do use my phone less but but it’s still feel a need to fill the silent part of the days with a screen. Also this hairstyle looks so good on you.
I deleted all of my socials (including the youtube app on my phone) back in november. I am the most connected to myself and my immediate family, as well as the REAL friends who have stuck around since my social media separture, and am happier than ever. I am no longer lonely, despite being disconnected from the digital landscape. I may never look back, the lifestyle change benefited my life in so many ways! I read now, make bracelets, and write way more music. I've also found that now when I am online for too long I am more disinterested or fatigued from surfing the web too long. I guess I kind of retrained and rewired my brain.
Sometimes, when we have no internet in the house, i feel like i can finally relax
Me too
Time was moving slow. I was enjoying it. There was no rush. The power was off and wi-fi went with it. That's what happened. I lit up a candle and read.
Peaceful. It's like my childhood days. Truly serene.
Problem is, that while I mourn how my life could’ve been without internet and spending SO much time on here, I also realise that my social anxiety doesn’t just magically disappear with the internet gone, and I cannot imagine how lonely I would’ve been if I didn’t have youtube to comfort me, I still have very few friends, even when I’ve been spending less time online, and as someone autistic I think there’s a lot of times being online helped distract me from very stressful things. I had a really tough domestic abuse situation, and god knows that without an iphone by my side, I don’t know if I could’ve made it through some of those periods, I would’ve just been stuck listening to one of my parents have a meltdown screaming at the other parent all the worst stuff imaginable, luckily I could watch some comforting youtube videos.
I hate the internet on the one hand, I study history and I can’t help but lament all that the internet is doing to our cultures. Its destroying cultural cornerstones that have existed for centuries, if not millennia, it is making us dependent on these devices and not self-sufficient. It is turning our lives into consuming content rather than the pursuit of something more. But I also don’t know what exactly my life would look like without it, because the loneliness and isolation I went through might’ve still been the exact same, but even worse
As someone born in the late 80's.... LOL to us being happy in the 90's. Grass is always greener I guess.
Though it wasn't all bad, going from apple II's to SNES, to 3d and early Internet... It really gives some perspective probably in the same way my grandparents saw the world drastically change when TVs became common
Same lol.
I was a 90's kid and i was far from happy and carefree. Untreated mental illness in a culture with even less understanding of it was a nightmare. You got blamed for it even more back then. I'm schizophrenic. In middle school and high school I was spit on, sucker punched (literally, mind you. people would just walk up and punch me as hard as they could in the stomach). Not much has improved in some ways but I don't get spit on or hit anymore.
girl i don’t even need to watch to know the answer 😅 but trust im still watching
There is a sentiment of being trapped, I find myself reaching for my phone 30sec after turning it off because reality is exhausting, I don't have money, I'm exhausted from work, I have to maintain my body alive and keep my house clean enough so I can walk through it. It's lonely but my family live overseas and most of my friends can't go out because They are broke, exhausted and working too🥲
And as soon as I open some social I get so overwhelmed by the terribles news, followed so quickly by a dumb funny video and then everybody pointing my inactivity or my lack of productivity So it must be time to log of, but then it's back to the start 😂
As flawed as it is, I will always defend social media as a net positive. Any tool that allows communication between people who don't have the same lived experience is a necessary step in broad social changes, even if only indirectly over time.
i realized how happy it made me to see that youre using your platform to talk about palestine. i think only one other video essay ive watched has done this, and im so so happy that someone i watch and have well regard for, is using their platform for good.
24:06 “What I’m doing would no longer be art, but [rather] content.” This reminds me of what my studio art teacher always tells us; when you put creativity and your experience into your work, you create art. Lose one of those factors and it’s just an assignment.
i haven't watched the video yet, but something i have thought for a while now is how much i wish technology did not progress past, say, 2008. wifi was imperfect, the first iphone just came out and there was at least still a degree of separation between you and the internet. i feel, at least, that was the perfect balance between the internet and the real world- but this could also be my nostalgic idealism.
very true
No I absolutely relate. Between say 2007 and 2013 I remember feeling better after having spent some time online or on the computer, not worse.
Im so grateful to have found you! The topics you cover are so important. It’s been hard to watch a lot lately due to creators not caring about Palestinians. To see you use your platform to continue expanding on the topics you’re touching is like no one else is doing. Thank you thank you thank you.
Ditto! New Shanspeare videos are such a treat 😊
Thank you for your brilliant explanation on the difference between boycotting and abstinence! Personally I prefer to abstain from quite a lot of products and brands for a variety of reasons, but the success of boycott movements relies on strategic targets for maximum impact, and whilst I will judge others for crossing the BDS picket line, I won't judge others for not abstaining from all the brands that I choose to.
Guy Debord!!! More & more our digital feudalism falls so clearly into the concept of the spectacle.... the closest & most useful theory of our organized consumable happiness...
I feel like the internet both helps and hurts us. Some things wouldn’t be possible without it but at the same time I feel like I might be a bit happier if I wasn’t exposed to so much of the internet at such a young age.
I think the internet is, historically speaking, relatively new and still figuring out ways to support people in need effectively. Communication is essential for these organizations and movements, so maybe this year was a rough start to something bigger. The internet was already shown to be a powerful force, it’s just a matter of reflection and critique on how we can improve for a better good.
Agreed. The internet is one of the most revolutionary inventions of all time. We've only had it for a quarter of a century, 1-2 generation's span. As we witness the pervasion of online corporatism and harm, we're getting smarter and more apt at living with a form of communication which will continue to follow us until it's own end or we develop a new evolution of it.
The internet is NOT the source of our problems; it's simply an informative tool. Loneliness, accessibility, and education are entirely seperate topics that deserve proper study instead of a lazy opt-out of blaming the binary code.
“Internet? Bah!”
Iconic.
AHAHAHHAAHAHAH I siad that ish out loud and it’s so funny for no reason
you make a good point with how we are expected to be available at all hours, although this sentiment DOES carry into pre-internet culture. neighbors and friends would regularly call, and the phone was a busy device in itself. before that, it was not uncommon for friends and neighbors to invite themselves over for a chat.
Left all social media two years ago and my life had never been better!?
I think TH-cam probably counts as social media 😅 but decreasing usage can still give us back a lot of time!
How did you manage to do so? I would like to delete it all but there are memories there, also some people from my circle
@@celisewillis That is so valid lol I do still use this omg
@@ivanigarcia1652 What I remember is that we also have memories inside of us! We don’t need a web interface for it. It did take forever and a half for me, but I did have the privilege of having all my friends live very close to me.
I am in the process. I have to add Instagram. Then I'd be good.
I am actually a very big fan of the internet at the end of the day because it helps members of minority communities connect and bond in ways that were not possible before, especially for people (such as myself), who grew up in rural places. Thank you for this video, Shan!
I know, from years of organizing meetups for various online groups, that people are often more than happy to show up, and even help, as long as someone else initiates the thing and acts as the main organizer. It only takes one person, who announces a place and a time. But it's scary because, what if no-one else shows up? And that may well happen, especially on the first time, when people don't know or trust you yet. But it also may not happen, especially if you keep doing it again and again.
If the responsibility of organizing is too intimidating for you, you can also be the first person to show up for something someone else initiated. If you keep showing up, others will see that it's safe, and more people will start showing up. That's literally how communities and relationships grow: by consistently showing up for each other. :3
Also that’s Hank, Hank does most of scishow and John does crash course
I mean Hank has also done Crash Course.
Something that is left unexplored in the video, which I think would have been very relevant, is if the internet is even supposed to be social. We don’t consider TV or reading socialising. Why are we expecting that from TikTok? Maybe calling it „social“ media is a misnomer?
Because you interact with others on TikTok
Well, I think that saying TV and books social is inaccurate. They are used to engage with other people it’s just a static form of engagement on one side. But that’s pedantic of me. The issue is that that engagement does not satisfy most people’s need for conversation and physical interaction. The internet isn’t a one to one with books and TV because the internet has these things within it as a medium: you can read and watch things on the internet. The computer screen you use is no different than a tv screen, the circuitry behind it just allows for a different utilization.
Fr, imo “social” media can never be a replacement for real socialization. In a real conversation, you don’t wait minutes or ever hours for someone to respond, but online you do. It’s unnatural and weird, you also can’t see people’s faces online so you don’t know how they’re feeling. Online friendships and relationships that you start on ig or Roblox can never be real because it’s not the same as actually meeting someone by chance irl and forming a real human connection with them, exchanging text bubbles is never the same feeling as laughing and talking with someone in the same space together
I blame a lot of the internet's problems on the algorithms and corporate presences. I hate Ready Player One. But that's the one and only thing they got right.
I really appreciated this perspective. I feel like I've always said the internet is a tool, and the most popular sites at present are using that tool to support themselves in our current system which seems to be where most of these issues of manufactured loneliness really get exasperated.
Nostalgia is a fascinating thing because, as one of those 90s kids, I was very lonely and am exponentially less lonely now because of the internet
Your pronunciation of Falasteen was great! I had to do a play back when I first heard it cause I was listening to your video while cleaning and thought I misheard it.
agreeing with the people who said that the 90s were great for normies, but weirdos were actually isolated with no way to get together with like-minded weirdos, especially in smaller communities. Like everything, it's complicated and both good and bad.
3:07 pausing here for a second to say that, as a member of the graduating class of 1996, there was still a sense of profound isolation for many of us back then, even those of us who had large friend circles. I was one of the alt kids back then, and unbeknownst to me at the time, I was/am also Autistic. All of my "fitting in" was a careful mask, a persona, a role that I cultivated; inside I felt unimaginably alone because none of these friends I had actually knew ME, only the person's I created for them to see. Looking back, my heart aches for young me, and I'm really happy to say that life has gotten immeasurably better for me (emotionally and in my sense of well being, financially we're all struggling under capitalism like whoa,) as life has gone on and I've learned so much more about myself and how to embrace my authentic inner self and live without the need for social approval. I'm still the "alt kid", though: that'll never change. Nothing except the age, really. Now I'm just an "alt middle-aged gal"
And this isn't to say that the loneliness epidemic isn't real, or that the loneliness I experienced was somehow more intense or something. If anything, I believe that the internet has not only exacerbated loneliness in this country, but it's also exposed how deep it goes, and my experience only illustrates that the roots of it are far deeper than many suspect. It used to be that awkward, unusual kids such as myself would have difficulty making friends if we didn't mask, and would feel lonely because many of our true personality traits and courts had to be hidden because of our masking so none of our friends that we did make with the mask on really knew us, nowadays it's even non-neurodivergent folk with absolute mainstream thoughts, hobbies, personality types, etc who are feeling this way, as well. Nobody really noticed when it was just us on the fringes, because we were the fringes. And when folks thought about it, it wasn't really all that important because it's just us on the fringes, right? How important could it be? I'm not saying that with any bitterness, honestly, I see it being the same kind of pattern as when crack was an epidemic in the black community and everybody in the mainstream media sort of shrugged like that's just how it is, but once drug addiction spread to Middle America during the height of the opioid epidemic, all of the attention gets drawn to the thing. It's a pattern that gets repeated over and over again, society ignoring the fringes until it's a problem for everybody.
This was so needed and well put together (per usual), seeing those lists with 10s of hundreds of companies on them was when I started to pull away from boycotting. BDS became part of the noise I guess..
But focused organizational efforts like OOB, BDS and more have been so essential in this fight. I don't want to become hopeless in this
“i’m not a genius, i’m just a them” is too real to me as a thembo
a shanspeare video about internet and community the day before my birthday? i can't wait to cuddle up and watch this
31:47 “I won’t be able to participate because I dont buy these products anyway” Bro does NOT know what a boycott is 💀
I was one of those 90s school kids and as far as I am aware, we were not any happier or living some halcyon pre internet (not that 98 was pre internet) days. I can assure you, at the very least I was miserable.
I hear more from friends with my phone, and value being able to get news and resources without having to rely on media. Thank you for pointing out the importance of the internet to activists- poignant and on point. ❤
Internet is NOT destroying me
im built different !!!!!
Amazing work as always! But for some reason I started hearing parts of this as the monologue of a 90s JRPG villain on why he's turning everyone into a goo singularity
Beautifully said🩷had me in tears. We deserve better, we need to build community to keep fighting for better. Thank you for reminding me how important our collective actions are.
It is. I can’t help but feel that we’ve become more reliant on it than ever. It’s gotten to the point where phones are carried EVERYWHERE during school hours. There are 12 YOs out in school, carrying their phones with them since they rely on it so much to the point where teachers have debated on banning them. Not only that, people I know have given up on reading or doing other hobbies apart from making tiktoks.
When talking about internet activism it also extremely important to protesters, we NEED the people at home (especially at more “intense” protests) monitoring police presence, monitoring any potential counter protesters, and then relaying that information to people physically in the streets
What weird me out about the digital guillotine is the implication that there is some reasonable expectation that you should be following celebrities and influencers, and you need some valid reason not to. Imo by all means you should unfollow or block anyone you mildly dislike or find annoying. You don't owe anyone your attention just because you're a non famous commoner. Not following anyone in particular shouldn't be praxis, it should be the default, right?
YES I WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS THE OTHER DAY, I don't think it has super killed us, but it's killed social life and tangible entertainment and social spaces. It's harder to make friends when everyone outside is staring down at a phone, it sucks to grow up now. (Which doesn't even get into how what is on the internet has affected kids growing up.)
I remember when i got my first phone in 8th grade, so before that, most of my school life was pretty lonely because during free time, i just had my school device to stare at and pretend to be busy on while everyone was staring at their phones, clearly not wanting to be bothered or talked to
No no! you were so close with the car analogy!
the internet would be the seat that you sit in
When it first came up it was the dashboard - now it's the highway, the rear view mirror, the tires as well as the seats and the windshield
The Internet is a blessing and a curse. I had barely any friends for a while and on the Internet I found connection on a Sims forum. I lied about who I was (turned myself into the person I wanted to be), but it didn't matter because it wasn't like any deeper friendships formed there. I was 12 or 13 and it saved me. I don't know what I would've done without it. The Internet also made me understand my mental health problems, helped me learn about queer topics and that I myself am queer and provided so much entertainment during some of my darkest hours. But it also fed that darkness and isolated me even more from the people in my actual life. I would consider myself a bookworm, but I consider the Internet the reason I barely read anymore because there's so much entertainment on here that I can speed up if I have little time or enjoy while cooking or doing chores. And that sucks. I wouldn't want to miss it but I feel a bit too dependent on it too.
As a person growing up with the internet as a kid.... it didn't make me miserable. It probably saved my life. I am queer, and I also an introverted naturally (an may be on the spectrum), so I found it hard to make friends in real life until I got older. The internet, socially and for learning, helped me gain confidence and self love, and I found a few communities on here. People who dislike the internet are people that use it for toxic and nefarious reasons (like stalking old friends or showing off). IMO, the internet is a beautiful invention, but just like most new inventions, people find a way to use it to abuse others or explain why we shouldn't progress.
I’ve been trying really hard to not use my phone but being evacuated from my home has made it so much harder
I don't think it's the internet ruining community, I think it's the toxic algorithms that pigeon-hole people that is wreaking havoc on community.
If you don't buy anything from those companies to begin with, are you not already participating in the boycott? Like, you were just ahead of the curve. Great work. Keep it up.
Also, the baby blue and pink theater set is gorgeous!!!
Shan, this is another banger. I hope so many people watch this one, so I'm sharing about it online.
Thank you so much for this video, especially pointing out the problem of recency bias, in particular pointing out that Socrates thinking that reading would be the death of memory. ♥
I literally was like "yes, thank you!" when you mentioned that about Socrates, because it's a story that so succinctly highlights just how old unfounded scaremongering about mediums of art and communication are.
on the closing thoughts I think it's so true how with effort you can find community on the internet you may have had trouble accessing without it, my parents emigrated from Ireland when I was a child, and recently, after moving to Ireland and then back to Aus again I've been able to use the internet to build on connecting to culture and decolonial practise in a way that strengthens my own identity and helps me understand myself and my family better AND to use that jumping off point to be a better ally to Aboriginal people here on whose land I live and with who through exploring our shared and different experiences as colonised people and also as peoples racialised differently we build solidarity and community across oceans and cultures. In particular discovering the vast history of solidarity between Palestinian people and the Irish has been eye opening for how this kind of understanding and care and action can be built!
The funniest thing for me is that I have this one really close online friend and if they leave a platform I also lose interest. I do have friends irl but more often than not, the things I tend to be interested in are also the things they don't understand.
This whole thing was beautiful, thank you so much. It’s fun to laugh about internet/youtube culture but I love when it literally leaves me feeling less alone ❤❤🍉
God, I always love your work, Shanspeare. You touched on a lot of ideas I’ve been recognizing over recent years and wanting to start dialogues about, and you did it so fucking well. You’re always so well spoken and present your ideas in an interesting and comprehensive way.
This is definitely a video worth sharing when this topic comes up.
This topic really speaks to me now, and I don't even have an ig account. Poor people those who are deep into social media fake living
This essay is so timely and detailed and well-organized and important, I wish I could like more than once. I love how the medium panics of the past were compared and dissected, leading into the wider historical issues that are impacting everyone today. Thank you for creating this piece, and this space
We’ve gone from leisure being online to our schooling and our work having integral elements that are only accessible. Once the internet is down, what does one do? Do some knitting or weaving? Maybe spinning thread with the extra fluff their dog sheds all over the place?
Read books, cook instead of micro waving junk food, go for walks in nature, play chess, talk to their parents, friends, neighbour's, classmates, dare make real friends, help the community, build true lasting, memories linked to sight, smell, looks, attitudes, get out of anxiety related to scrolling, checking if there's anything new, study for school, university, do some gardening, paint mend the fence, mend socks, clothes to consume less instead of splashing paint on monuments, driven by some strange internet concept of how to save planet. Etc etc etc
6:35 for some reason it is deeply upsetting to realize that my screen makes black by killing pixels, not by somehow turning on black ones. i don't know why i thought that either.
I opened this video a month ago when it came out, but am only just now getting around to watching it. Absolutely phenomenal. Your videos are always well rounded and nuanced which is very refreshing on an internet that, as you addressed, is not designed for that.
I've been hanging out with family during the holidays and i realised how much I was actually losing during my time alone or my daily life due to an internet addiction. Internet is amazjng and has given me many opportunities, but recently ive just been wasting my life and my personal time. I've been feeling pretty lonely lately and i realised why now. I really need to disconnect from social media and reconnect with myself! This was an incredible video!
If anyone is really interested in this conversation then i STRONGLY suggest Mina Le’s video on Stanley Cups, The Loss of Friendship, and The Third Spaces (i think thats the title or something like that)
Well internet brought me to people like you and other fantastic creators, and I can't be anything but grateful abt that! It's still my choice.- what to watch, which apps to download etc. It requires a bit of awareness, but the whole life does requires awareness anyway!
I'm sorry to make a comment about your looks...
I just could stop myself all of your hairstyles were amaziing the short locs looks great on you!
I can already tell this is gonna be one of those videos I rewatch and rewatch, like your true crime one
God damn, your videos are so god damn amazing. absolutely incredible.
I love this vid, and aside from how much the content itself resonates with me your look in this video is so damn cute. I love the set and the outfit, makeup and hair from this one :) you really pull off the in-character, heavy emphasis on acting and scenes vids just as well as these face to face talking more or less as yourself style ones. Thanks for being my favorite channel :)
as always, amazing video. thanks for exploring the nuances of the internet. i know people loves nostalgia when once we're not as connected as now, but internet has benefitted a great deal for society as a whole too, so to me it's not fair to only highlight how it causes all of our problems today. if anyone thinks that life without internet is much better and truly believes so, then they don't realize that in one way or another they have the privilege to think so. even on interpersonal level, young kids benefitted so much from having a way to escape/solutions to their otherwise toxic environments. i think what we need to do is find a way how to use the internet effectively to build a solid community.
I think you were in my brain. I've been stuck in loneliness and trying to get a grasp on community for so long but especially this week.
Only recently started to come across your videos, and I think you do an amazing job. Your analysis is nuanced and informed and empathetic. Love seeing all these black leftist creatives on here lately. Also I appreciate your distinction of art and content as this is so clearly art.
I started blocking pretty majority of celebrities and unfollowing all influencers just because I was over all of the celebrity culture. And now my social media is just like... People I know, local events, notable things around me... It feels a lot less lonely. I've also been blocking a ton of advertisements and random promoted content that I just don't like and don't want on my feed. I want to know what events are on at the library and when the next trivia night is at my fav bars is and if there are any good mutual aid things going on locally and if any of my friends' cute kids had a birthday. The block list gave me back the feeling of my little community and I loved that part.
@Shanspeare even if the relationship between the artist and the viewers is based on objects, as your viewer I’m incredibly happy I found your channel those years ago ❤️
thank you for articulating so many things i've been thinking about recently!!!
Big shout out and appreciation for how you use the descriptions of your video!
Some people only give warnings and timestamps in the video itself (e.g. "if you don't want to see this, go to the timestamp on screen").
Some people have the cited sources as patreon exclusive documents (idk why, I don't really get that one) or have the list in the ending part of their video, but no searchable doc compiling them.
And then also the linktree with resources with good general recommendations!
This comment is just an appreciation for how this channel handles the video descriptions and what they put in/leave out!!
The only social media I use is TH-cam, but I somehow heard about the "block-out" early-ish. I think it was a Caelen Conrad video.
Anyway, I don't follow any celebrities so my thought was "Cool. I hope this works out." Didn't know until now how quickly it fizzled out.
Shame, because I thought it was good idea.
I've recently been trying to get off my phone more. And partially succeed and it's so weird. I was bored yesterday and not in "I'm bored of this app let's move to a next one" but in that way I was bored as a child. I didn't know that I missed being bored this much.
22:07
agreed, super old theory books are hard
thank God for video essays going over it
Oo I’m only just starting the video but I’m excited to watch this one. My relationship with the internet regarding community is complex as someone who is extremely chronically ill/disabled, without much energy or the ability to commute and living in a covid world where no one masks. As much as I hate the internet sometimes, my community there has saved me many times