10 More Thoughts to Explain the Internet
Digital Panopticons, Exhibitionism, Judgement, Information, Identity.
If the internet is going to be a central part of human life for the forseeable future, we might as well attempt to understand it from a variety of different angles.
The below series are thoughts are meant as separate ideas, but all are related in different ways. Some stem from a prior article, which if you like these, you should read as well.
All of these are meant as thought-starters, not firmed-in-place ideology or ‘facts’ as of yet. These are creative ideas to promote an enriched understanding of the digital experience as we know it today, yesterday, and perhaps tomorrow.
The Digital Panopticon Effect — When an influencer builds a following, they also build a digital panopticon around them, and posting of any content creates and becomes subject to this public force of judgement and scrutiny. This causes the poster of the content to tailor it to the tastes of the panopticon, which leads to the phenomenon known as audience capture, where an influencer is beholden to producing only what their audience wants to see.
Alternatively, they may design content to be against the tastes of the wider panopticon of social media in general, depending on their specific goal. Often, this expands their following as the subjective nature of opinions means that for every person who disagrees, somebody else may agree.
This method of truth-seeking tends to produce limited and narrow perspectives because they are incentivised to position themselves and their content as either for or against mass opinion. They actively seek its judgement, (likes, follows, comments) because this tells them how interesting they are. The more attention they receive, the more interesting they judge their content efforts to be. Interestingness and truth have some overlap, but sometimes truth is boring, and social media encourages everyone to produce and focus on only the most interesting ‘truths’.
The Democratisation of Voices — everybody is operating online in the same arena and under the same rules as others. A person of great intellect and fame uses the same mediums as a mediocre mind, reducing the ability to distinguish between the two. The levelling of the playing field results in intense competition as everyone attempts to ‘win’ the election of being interesting to others, yet the best ideas are sometimes not the most interesting. Sometimes they are boring and mundane, like ‘eat healthy food to get more muscle and live longer’. This is a boring truth nobody wishes to be told. They would rather see messages like ‘try this one HACK to supercharge your muscle growth’, so that is what fitness and health influencers produce. A person must twist their messaging like a politician to compete in the internet’s ‘intrigue market’.
Exposure to Mass Opinions — for most of human history, it was extremely disadvantageous to hold many unorthodox views, which had to be either changed or kept to oneself. Since the development of towns, cities and countries, and the civilization of human impulses, this has slowly increased our exposure to views we dislike. Now with the internet, we can find those out infinitely and consistently whenever we please. This technological change accelerates social change, and with it promotes intense reactionaryism.
Absorption of the Rabbit Hole — In all facets of life we are seeking a kind of harmonious absorption, a state of mind characterized by effortlessness, where the endless striving of the human will appears to be numbed. The brain goes dark, and the mind is temporarily ‘lost’ in a sea of pure contemplation. Algorithms are designed to produce this very flow state, where content is continuously consumed in a conflict-free highway where time ceases to exist. The ‘YouTube Rabbit Hole’ is a prime example of this.
Amplification of Trolling — Consider the cliché of a troll sitting in his Mum’s basement, posting aggressively about any topic that comes to mind. Is this not just true of trolls, but many other kinds of people online now? The essence of the troll, whose motivations range from playful to sadistic, has been imbued in so many people now, who could not compete in the real world but take precedence in the online one as they find themselves well suited to its rules. Such types are merely scarecrows, appearing mighty and terrifying, yet when the clothes are removed all you are left with is a misshapen wooden stick.
The Appearance of Self-Obsession — A great mistake is made when it is assumed that the internet has made people obsessed with their selves when it in fact does the opposite. It makes them concerned with ‘society’ and ‘culture’ aka other people thousands of kilometres away! They are free to drain their whole lives away in a flurry of assessing and judging others, taking on the viewpoints of people who could not care less about them. When the reality of death arrives, it will no longer be important who did this cardinal sin, or who said this terrible thing. We must relearn suspended judgement.
Paradox of the User — When a person enters the internet, they think themselves invisible to others, unable to be seen in the public arena. They think themselves free to lurk. But it is the nature of public arenas that everyone can be seen. Even somebody who never posts anything can be watched and observed, their naked desires revealed in their search history. The sacred privacy we crave in real life is voluntarily relinquished.
Confusion and Absolutism — Our age is the dawn of a new level of confusion due to information overload, which induces paralysis in decision-making. To cut through the endless fields of information, absolutism becomes tempting and is rewarded. A person making a bold absolute statement will always become more interesting to others in this scenario than one who, paralysed by options, only offers up uncertainty. Yet this absolutism may be necessary to communicate a more subtle ‘truth’.
Exhibitionism and Judgement — By performing, an exhibitionist extends an aspect of his private self e.g. sexual activity, into the public. Online, a poster takes a private experience and makes it accessible and seen under the guise of ‘sharing’ in which you are always sharing a little more than you realise. It’s not just a picture or words they see, but also something about your mind and self. Exhibitionism is most commonly identified when it is more extreme, like when a woman posts herself half-naked, but it is the very nature of posting itself that is exhibitionistic, for all posting wants the same thing: judgement, which is displayed most prominently through reaction. The poster and viewer want the same thing: the pleasure of judgement, and often the poster incentivizes the viewer to become more easily prone to this gratification.
Externalised Identity — What fools they are, to have learned who they are from what they see! They learn who they are from what strangers tell them in comment sections or who they are not and by definition they define themselves as who they are as against the criticism of them. Insanity! The repeated reliance on a mass of strangers to define your sense of self, while consistently expecting this ludicrous defensive technique to provide a bulwark against the psychological assault of the digital world. When the self draws from a poisoned well, it is no wonder it quickly becomes ‘sick’.