The Online has become the Offline
Around 2005-2007 I was swimming in the online world. I had my own blog, and I was following other blogs too. Seemed genuine. You were following brains, and some were interesting. Others followed your brain. It was nice.
Even when it came to videos I was using at least 3 platforms, one of which was Youtube. Posting on Youtube could get you random views and lots of engagement, out of nowhere. It was more real. At least that’s how it felt.
In 2011 I was able to release an Internet documentary. It went a bit viral. Others released similar documentaries/videos back then and they got a sort of reach. We were screaming about how fucked up our society is, and some of us also about what we could do to change that.
It kinda worked.
I remember those “activists” who would go out on the streets trying to make the rest aware of similar things. Like these guys:
EVERYTHING IS OK 1 (Corporate Property)
And I was thinking….man they have no chance to make anyone stop and listen. Because they were in the middle of a movement. Like a physical movement. People moving from their places to other places. Jobs. They were out to trade. Trade their skills, time, energy in order to be able to have a roof over their heads, access to food, healthcare and so forth. Mostly via the currency called “money”.
These zombified people had no time to listen and think. Imagine a subway full of these workers….they NEED to go to their job. Are obliged to. They cannot stop.
So I thought it is pointless to intervene in that environment. That’s why I chose the Internet. The Internet felt more like a park. A place where people went in their free time from their jobs, to explore new things. it was new. And not so busy.
That’s why it worked to create new things and have others pay some attention to them.
Not anymore!
The society we live in is based on trades as I keep on saying and as it is so obvious. You trade, I trade, your mom trades, your dad trades. Everyone is forced, compelled, and incentivized to do that all of their lives. This has created a rat race, inequality, and overall shitty behaviors, zombifying all humans.
And now the park has become the subway.
The trade world took several years to fully migrate from the offline to the online. Now we do not have blogs anymore since Facebook provided humans with an easy way to share their thoughts, photos and videos, at the expense of trading for that. They lied that their service is free. Humans had to trade their data, attention (via ads), and currency to reach more people. But Facebook took off and no one would bother having their own blog.
Youtube was not a video sharing platform anymore, but a video trading platform. You could convert your views into currency, and youtube inserted ads into your face to make you a better consumer. You traded again your attention and data to youtube.
Facebook became a place where you trade with them, but also where people did not simply post their thoughts there, they used their reach to trade for currency or products. What posts? There you see ads with ads. Youtube ironically called their users as “creators”, while these zombies all they cared was how to make more views (again) to trade for a new car, a new house, paying the rent.
Google, Facebook, and a few more companies started to orchestrate the Internet. What you search, what you see, what you do not see, what incentivizes you to post a video or to write a post….all directed by a few companies that all they wanted was the same old thing: to trade.
What was once a park, it is now a subway full of zombies that go somewhere, to trade. Attracted like a powerful magnet, the idiots go to TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and the like, all because they are sucked in by a combination of tremendous power and influence from the part of these companies, coupled with the non-interesting life that most workers have, and lastly the fact that on these platforms many can become traders themselves.
The Internet is not a park, is a subway. Even worse, it is a bazaar. A place mostly full of useless shit where the sellers harass you to buy their shit.
That’s the Internet now. All of those Youtube “creators”, Instagram “influencers”, Facebook Pages, and so on, are most, if not all, merchants. Most of the online content is shit, for the sake of trading it. Most of the platforms are bazaars. There is no more park anymore. Most care about the views, the engagement, the likes…platforms care to optimize for these, for ads, for money making. It is an ugly place.
That’s how I feel.
Watch this video about Youtube and tell me….is this a “video platform”!?
How the YouTube Creator Economy Works
So now if I want to say something important to humans, and I want to do it online, I feel like those people in a subway practicing their “activism”. Seems pointless. Everyone in the online world is going somewhere: check the Twitter, check Youtube, watch Neetflix, see what friends posted on Facebook…there is no more casual walk in the Internet world to discover new things, to stop and listen for a bit.
But yeah….despite this I am continuing my work. I will release a new documentary this year, even if I know very well that it won’t have any big impact. I continue with the 30+ projects that we have. I see no alternative. I could choose the Online over the Offline in 2007. But now what can I choose?
It is ok, this species will disappear eventually and our trace in the Universe won’t exist. At least that makes me more relaxed to think about. 😀
