I wrote way back about a sister-like phenomenon online in which the normal everyday person has no engagement compared to the 2010s era where social media truly felt friend-oriented. now with tiktok’s updated algorithm this voyeuristic lens of consuming is shaking up our idea of influencers, now it’s not even enough to have the following and niche but every piece of content has to be what the algorithm decides as entertainment, pulling us further away from reality and into performance. love your essay :)
Very well written! Spiritual poverty is rampant, I think. I’ve noticed that there’s a difference between wanting to build a life based on doing meaningful work as opposed to looking like a fulfilled person. There’s this outro to a song that came to mind as I read this, the song is “The Ocean and the Sun” by the Sound of Animals Fighting:
Maybe it’s not possible to touch one thousand people as deeply, or as powerfully as one person, or ten people
Maybe it’s not really so revolutionary after all, to have one person out of a group of twenty, tell everybody else what’s right
Wouldn’t it be better if we tried a decentralized approach where everyone works closely with those around them, instead of a few people waiting in anonymous mass?
Do you have to save the world all by yourselves?
Why don’t you trust anyone else to do it with you?
Voyeurism becomes its own reality. Soma is our soda pop. Dating is transactional, like everything else. Propaganda paints a Norman Rockwell fantasy life , that hides an Orwellian reality. Our lives are those of worker ants and to object risks deportation and death.
This whole polarisation really shows the 2 extremes of what it means to truly forget about oneself until we all forget about ourselves entirely
Unmoderated and democratised content creation has made it to a point where people can replace depth with performance of depth.
And performance of depth being so profitable, it has become more and more accessible, that now it is impossible to simply perform anything intentionally for the sake of performance, you have to outperform your performance because it would look bland compared to the performed status quo
Which is why I think that real depth will stop coming from idealised archetypes but from raw and gritty reminders of the imperfections of what makes a performance believable.
We are already seeing the beginning of it with the Analog and the Slow Social Media movement along teens - Instagram has already created an option where you can post unedited and raw photos as posts simply from the app, using your phone camera - no filters, no nothing
So if people are trying to capitalise on this, maybe we can be faster and make it so not performing becomes a standard again
I kind of see it as a cyclical episode - performance-> over-performance-> rawness -> baseline -> performance again
"Instagram has already created an option where you can post unedited and raw photos as posts simply from the app, using your phone camera - no filters, no nothing"
What do you mean by this exactly? The ability to post from your camera roll without using filters has always existed.
Love this. Wish I’d read it before presenting my final. Did a sponsored project, rebranding a clearance furniture store with low-income families as the target demographic. Their greatest aspiration was described by the client this way: “having enough beds for their children.” It’s a pretty gut wrenching sentiment, but your analysis somehow makes the work feel more honest, concrete. Thanks for your views!
I love the content–reality gap conversation!! An interesting adjacent point is that, although Instagram has all but explicitly positioned itself as an entertainment platform, this framework is not mutually agreed upon by everyone using it.
Digging into the weeds a little, I think about friends who are creatives, myself included, and how our work might lean into exaggeration, hyperbole, or shock as part of the content itself. Because this work exists within the broader Instagram ecosystem, which still functions as a place to keep up with friends, maintain professional credibility, run a business, and present a portfolio all at once, it becomes difficult to parse what is performative versus sincere.
As a result, creatives can end up in hot water with friends or family who do not realize a post is meant to be entertaining rather than literal. That disconnect is compelling because it largely would not exist outside of social platforms. With YouTube, or older media like television, there is a shared understanding that what you are watching is entertainment, or at least partly so. Instagram collapses these contexts, and the dissonance emerges from that collapse.
From all accounts, it has made for conversations with friends and family that no one expected to have haha.
"These movements exist in tandem because virality is not reality. It’s fantasy, consumed through algorithms". - Amen 👌🏻
Seconding this! I loved this line (and the whole piece). Good work!
I wrote way back about a sister-like phenomenon online in which the normal everyday person has no engagement compared to the 2010s era where social media truly felt friend-oriented. now with tiktok’s updated algorithm this voyeuristic lens of consuming is shaking up our idea of influencers, now it’s not even enough to have the following and niche but every piece of content has to be what the algorithm decides as entertainment, pulling us further away from reality and into performance. love your essay :)
"we’re now seeking the voyeuristic thrill of watching others perform for us, while simultaneously performing for them." Yep 😔
I love the last lines especially. Very well written.
Agree! That conclusion is bang on.
Very well written! Spiritual poverty is rampant, I think. I’ve noticed that there’s a difference between wanting to build a life based on doing meaningful work as opposed to looking like a fulfilled person. There’s this outro to a song that came to mind as I read this, the song is “The Ocean and the Sun” by the Sound of Animals Fighting:
Maybe it’s not possible to touch one thousand people as deeply, or as powerfully as one person, or ten people
Maybe it’s not really so revolutionary after all, to have one person out of a group of twenty, tell everybody else what’s right
Wouldn’t it be better if we tried a decentralized approach where everyone works closely with those around them, instead of a few people waiting in anonymous mass?
Do you have to save the world all by yourselves?
Why don’t you trust anyone else to do it with you?
Voyeurism becomes its own reality. Soma is our soda pop. Dating is transactional, like everything else. Propaganda paints a Norman Rockwell fantasy life , that hides an Orwellian reality. Our lives are those of worker ants and to object risks deportation and death.
This whole polarisation really shows the 2 extremes of what it means to truly forget about oneself until we all forget about ourselves entirely
Unmoderated and democratised content creation has made it to a point where people can replace depth with performance of depth.
And performance of depth being so profitable, it has become more and more accessible, that now it is impossible to simply perform anything intentionally for the sake of performance, you have to outperform your performance because it would look bland compared to the performed status quo
Which is why I think that real depth will stop coming from idealised archetypes but from raw and gritty reminders of the imperfections of what makes a performance believable.
We are already seeing the beginning of it with the Analog and the Slow Social Media movement along teens - Instagram has already created an option where you can post unedited and raw photos as posts simply from the app, using your phone camera - no filters, no nothing
So if people are trying to capitalise on this, maybe we can be faster and make it so not performing becomes a standard again
I kind of see it as a cyclical episode - performance-> over-performance-> rawness -> baseline -> performance again
"Instagram has already created an option where you can post unedited and raw photos as posts simply from the app, using your phone camera - no filters, no nothing"
What do you mean by this exactly? The ability to post from your camera roll without using filters has always existed.
Yeahh, except it’s not even from the camera roll - think of a BeReal style, where the UI has no photo options or anything, just the clicker
It’s a click n forget approach which isn’t used at all from what I’ve seen but it does point towards a certain direction
Lately I've been feeling this especially, but you articulate this and explain "what's coming" very well. Thank you for this!
Love this. Wish I’d read it before presenting my final. Did a sponsored project, rebranding a clearance furniture store with low-income families as the target demographic. Their greatest aspiration was described by the client this way: “having enough beds for their children.” It’s a pretty gut wrenching sentiment, but your analysis somehow makes the work feel more honest, concrete. Thanks for your views!
I love the content–reality gap conversation!! An interesting adjacent point is that, although Instagram has all but explicitly positioned itself as an entertainment platform, this framework is not mutually agreed upon by everyone using it.
Digging into the weeds a little, I think about friends who are creatives, myself included, and how our work might lean into exaggeration, hyperbole, or shock as part of the content itself. Because this work exists within the broader Instagram ecosystem, which still functions as a place to keep up with friends, maintain professional credibility, run a business, and present a portfolio all at once, it becomes difficult to parse what is performative versus sincere.
As a result, creatives can end up in hot water with friends or family who do not realize a post is meant to be entertaining rather than literal. That disconnect is compelling because it largely would not exist outside of social platforms. With YouTube, or older media like television, there is a shared understanding that what you are watching is entertainment, or at least partly so. Instagram collapses these contexts, and the dissonance emerges from that collapse.
From all accounts, it has made for conversations with friends and family that no one expected to have haha.
Wow, this is ridiculously well thought and well written ! Great job 🙏🏼
Bravo! You're one of the most interesting thinkers I've been following.
You are one of the best current writers- love this. Extremely astute.
brilliant. really enjoyed reading this. so quotable as ever!