As phones and social media become an extension of the modern person (of their memory, their knowledge, let's say), will these problems dissolve and turn into new ones? In one breath I'm so grateful for what social media has done for me, the opportunities it has given me as an artist. And in the same breath, I am devastated by its clear adverse effects. It holds a power over us, undoubtedly.
I'm appreciating your notes about this tech aided, blurring of the ages, but I'd argue that since the beginning of time there has been a war between young and old. An envy too. The youth wants to be respected and they want more power, the old maintains tradition while at once envying (and let's face it, sleeping with) the young. The old wants to live and relive.
Social media has put a fire under all of it, of course, but with time, can we adapt?
Yeah, most of my close friends now, I met through social media or some connection with it. If we count dating apps as social media, then I owe a lot of my romantic life to it as well. And my writing over the years would've gotten nowhere if it were not for social media. And now, we're writing and talking on Substack lol. Forget capitalist realism; we're in social media realism.
Agree about the timelessness of generational battles. But I think more so than at any other point in modern American history (except wartime), the various age groups are directly competing with each other for the same things. And not just for things like employment, but with less tangible things too, like markers of status and lifestyle aspirations.
Thank you for writing about these issues. I feel so divorced from overarching cultural mores so it's cool to read a birds eye view. I love your writings about dating too! Did your all boys school have a fight club?! >:3
Social media is the modern Circe that turns everyone into swine. And not even fun or interesting swine, just the same mass-produced factory-farm swine you can get anywhere.
Is ironic how once you decide to publicly perform your individuality you immediately lose it and become just another lost soul crying out for attention and affirmation.
Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell's 2009 book The Narcissism Epidemic remains an essential read in the context of what you're describing. In it the authors point out that narcissism has long been weaponized by corporate interests to sell products, but that social media was like pouring gasoline on an already smoldering fire. The cultivation of individuality was a necessary corrective to the historical trend to lump everyone into faceless drone status. e.g. Until about the 18th century, no one but royalty was considered important enough to track their family lineage. But in its extreme manifestation, as we're now seeing, narcissistic individualism is the undoing of an entire civilization.
Nice post, Chris. It reminds me of a post I reference quite a bit entitled "Millennials: The Dying Children" from a now-defunct blog (preserved via archive) which I think you would appreciate: https://archive.ph/7VPGE
This has spoken to me as a spring chicken of 22 because I feel the internet has also given my generation way too much to chew on and no objectivity or hope to counterbalance it
For example im obsessive compulsive and every two years or so go on a depressive spiral about death. First in 2018 then another in 2022 and am currently going thru one now. Reason why for me is that I genuinely love life but i think theres two ideas that make it worse for me: the completely depressing learned helplessness modern online discussion breeds but also how much dopamine you get from being alive in the modern day
It is human to hold out hope for others, I used to think as a kid even as an atheist “well consciousness cant end can it? Because it never ‘began’ in the first place? If it’s purely physical surely my consciousness can be recreated in the future?” Now I dont want to say science-based materialism should endorse my woo but the point of science I thought was that there is no one true God and we can debate our origin freely. Now Atheism is mostly abandoned but those who still practice it basically make themselves robots who think not wanting to be discarded is tantamount to selfishness or denial and that it’s good that the universe is deterministic to make little kids die at age five never again getting another chance. I find that essentially God’s Will, but without the positive aspects of a mystical father figure. I dont think we as humans should be living with the absolute certainty we go permanently offline and i think the internet has caused my generation to become very hedonistic and cynical. Even if it’s true, the way of life should be live life to the fullest and when you die whatever happens happens you dont need to know for sure what happens to live a good life but you should hold out hope for your fellow man
And thats the other thing I think my problem is, and i could be projecting to my generation as a whole but my theory is we fear for our lives ending because now we have really damn good ones. But now as a consequence we fear even more. I dont think we should bring back difficult lives in coal mines or anything but I think the depressive nature of pure materialism and the fact we have constant hits of dopamine at our fingertips mean we’re living an afterlife in the now but with all the drawbacks of a mortal life like the existential dread. We’re like rats hitting the pleasure button until we die
I think we need to acknowledge that life does have some sort of meaning and we cant just be like Nietzsche and find it for ourselves. Our institutions give us meaning because we look to authority for truth. Abandoning truth would be way worse and lead to absolute psychosis so idk i feel we need something: a reason to be alive, a reason to enjoy life and a reason to enjoy death. Modern culture from science to entertainment to government is just marching us to death with no philosophy or love in its heart anymore. The lack of meaning is fetishized and is treated as this objective good when it’s clearly poisoning people
Idk i feel like a good philosophy and some breakthrus in science could help our generation a lot, but we need to also do heavy lifting ourselves ofc. I think gen Z has the most potential of any generation to do great things and im in despair that we’re going thru this existential crisis
I sympathise with these feelings - although it feels like a lifetime since I was 22. Existential crises are nothing new, but it must be especially difficult growing up in a digital landscape full of promises of false divinity. Contact with reality is often frustrating, sometimes painful and ultimately humbling. But as T.S. Eliot wrote: The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.
Agreed! We live lives that are too short for us to be going around being full of ourselves. Thanks for reminding me of this comment I was actually thinking of this article recently
“A midlife crisis that results in the writing of a divorce memoir”! This line made me laugh. You thinking of any recent books :)
Perhaps lol
Midlife crisis in 1980: Buy a Porsche and run off with the secretary
Midlife crisis in 2020: Start HRT, sign up for surgeries
As phones and social media become an extension of the modern person (of their memory, their knowledge, let's say), will these problems dissolve and turn into new ones? In one breath I'm so grateful for what social media has done for me, the opportunities it has given me as an artist. And in the same breath, I am devastated by its clear adverse effects. It holds a power over us, undoubtedly.
I'm appreciating your notes about this tech aided, blurring of the ages, but I'd argue that since the beginning of time there has been a war between young and old. An envy too. The youth wants to be respected and they want more power, the old maintains tradition while at once envying (and let's face it, sleeping with) the young. The old wants to live and relive.
Social media has put a fire under all of it, of course, but with time, can we adapt?
Yeah, most of my close friends now, I met through social media or some connection with it. If we count dating apps as social media, then I owe a lot of my romantic life to it as well. And my writing over the years would've gotten nowhere if it were not for social media. And now, we're writing and talking on Substack lol. Forget capitalist realism; we're in social media realism.
Agree about the timelessness of generational battles. But I think more so than at any other point in modern American history (except wartime), the various age groups are directly competing with each other for the same things. And not just for things like employment, but with less tangible things too, like markers of status and lifestyle aspirations.
Thank you for writing about these issues. I feel so divorced from overarching cultural mores so it's cool to read a birds eye view. I love your writings about dating too! Did your all boys school have a fight club?! >:3
Haha no. But we did play this game where the objective was to throw a tennis ball as hard as you could at someone's ass.
lol me too, we called it butts up.
We called it Redass
The "my political issue can be solved as soon as someone assuages my ego" writing!
Symptomatic of the common perversion of "liberal arts mindset," which I plan to write about later
Social media is the modern Circe that turns everyone into swine. And not even fun or interesting swine, just the same mass-produced factory-farm swine you can get anywhere.
Is ironic how once you decide to publicly perform your individuality you immediately lose it and become just another lost soul crying out for attention and affirmation.
There is a good fairy tale in here somewhere.
Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell's 2009 book The Narcissism Epidemic remains an essential read in the context of what you're describing. In it the authors point out that narcissism has long been weaponized by corporate interests to sell products, but that social media was like pouring gasoline on an already smoldering fire. The cultivation of individuality was a necessary corrective to the historical trend to lump everyone into faceless drone status. e.g. Until about the 18th century, no one but royalty was considered important enough to track their family lineage. But in its extreme manifestation, as we're now seeing, narcissistic individualism is the undoing of an entire civilization.
Another great piece!
I just heard Jonathan Haidt on Modern Wisdom, Chris Williamson's podcast. Saving this for reading later!
Nice post, Chris. It reminds me of a post I reference quite a bit entitled "Millennials: The Dying Children" from a now-defunct blog (preserved via archive) which I think you would appreciate: https://archive.ph/7VPGE
Good luck getting that genie back into the bottle.
This has spoken to me as a spring chicken of 22 because I feel the internet has also given my generation way too much to chew on and no objectivity or hope to counterbalance it
For example im obsessive compulsive and every two years or so go on a depressive spiral about death. First in 2018 then another in 2022 and am currently going thru one now. Reason why for me is that I genuinely love life but i think theres two ideas that make it worse for me: the completely depressing learned helplessness modern online discussion breeds but also how much dopamine you get from being alive in the modern day
It is human to hold out hope for others, I used to think as a kid even as an atheist “well consciousness cant end can it? Because it never ‘began’ in the first place? If it’s purely physical surely my consciousness can be recreated in the future?” Now I dont want to say science-based materialism should endorse my woo but the point of science I thought was that there is no one true God and we can debate our origin freely. Now Atheism is mostly abandoned but those who still practice it basically make themselves robots who think not wanting to be discarded is tantamount to selfishness or denial and that it’s good that the universe is deterministic to make little kids die at age five never again getting another chance. I find that essentially God’s Will, but without the positive aspects of a mystical father figure. I dont think we as humans should be living with the absolute certainty we go permanently offline and i think the internet has caused my generation to become very hedonistic and cynical. Even if it’s true, the way of life should be live life to the fullest and when you die whatever happens happens you dont need to know for sure what happens to live a good life but you should hold out hope for your fellow man
And thats the other thing I think my problem is, and i could be projecting to my generation as a whole but my theory is we fear for our lives ending because now we have really damn good ones. But now as a consequence we fear even more. I dont think we should bring back difficult lives in coal mines or anything but I think the depressive nature of pure materialism and the fact we have constant hits of dopamine at our fingertips mean we’re living an afterlife in the now but with all the drawbacks of a mortal life like the existential dread. We’re like rats hitting the pleasure button until we die
I think we need to acknowledge that life does have some sort of meaning and we cant just be like Nietzsche and find it for ourselves. Our institutions give us meaning because we look to authority for truth. Abandoning truth would be way worse and lead to absolute psychosis so idk i feel we need something: a reason to be alive, a reason to enjoy life and a reason to enjoy death. Modern culture from science to entertainment to government is just marching us to death with no philosophy or love in its heart anymore. The lack of meaning is fetishized and is treated as this objective good when it’s clearly poisoning people
Idk i feel like a good philosophy and some breakthrus in science could help our generation a lot, but we need to also do heavy lifting ourselves ofc. I think gen Z has the most potential of any generation to do great things and im in despair that we’re going thru this existential crisis
I sympathise with these feelings - although it feels like a lifetime since I was 22. Existential crises are nothing new, but it must be especially difficult growing up in a digital landscape full of promises of false divinity. Contact with reality is often frustrating, sometimes painful and ultimately humbling. But as T.S. Eliot wrote: The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.
Agreed! We live lives that are too short for us to be going around being full of ourselves. Thanks for reminding me of this comment I was actually thinking of this article recently