it was impossible to listen to the audio. if the goal is to help people take in your words, please either lower the level of the guitar or dont add music.
The first step is fucking putting effort in our connections. Stop liking post, stop responding to stories, stop catching up. Call, talk, hang up, CREATE. Step outside, make small talk with your neighbors, be inconvenienced by other people and be inconvenient to them. Shareholders care about convenience and efficiency, you care about being a person
agreed and i also think it’s equally as important to care about other people being people too if that makes any sense. like, communicate with the other human being in mind
i will never comprehend how every advocate for mass-automatization only has the absolute worst perspective of how to go abt it. longing for essential human experience feels like a forcible heartbreak. I don’t care much abt vacuuming or going to the grocery store but jesus can a robot pls pls pls sit at a desk for 8hrs and do some spreadsheets
this is such a good take. they see humanity as beneath them, trivial and easy to replace with machines. like why not just automate and redistribute the profits if there’s no one actually doing the work anymore? why not use the money automation creates to create social programs and to make our lives happier, more human??
I could sense your resonance coming through Francis Bacon, from the Novum Organum. Like a vibration.
You: "Beneath the quiet mask of our times is not sorrow but a confused humiliation, a brute survival within a vacuum of meaning, and survival remains the enemy of a fully lived life."
In 1620, Bacon was deeply dissatisfied with the state of the world, our ignorance, the inability to live well, the incapacity to see the world as it was.
He was shaking cages: "Current logic is good for establishing and fixing errors (which are themselves based on common notions) rather than for inquiring into truth; hence it is not useful, it is positively harmful."
Which is to say what? I cannot accept the position that we are in a "hellscape," and I think you don't either. We are searchers. Wanderers. Destroyers. Makers. That's it.
We are constantly trying to make sense of our latest incarnation of humanity. We are also obsessed with ourselves. With each other.
More Bacon: "The human understanding is like an uneven mirror receiving rays from things and merging its own nature with the nature of things, which thus distorts and corrupts it."
The world is still out there. It's not going anywhere.
I do have to say though, relationships through some barrier like today's social media apps or messaging has always existed, I just think we've become so much less involved in each other's lives. You could argue that people used to write letters or leave voicemails, waiting for a response, its only now that its without the wait. It would also explain why you become more invested in a relationship when they respond later, or take days to get back to you. I think we need more mystery that unravels the person's true identity, not just an idea of them. Maybe the distance or the layers of relationships isn't the issue, maybe we've all become so available all the time we have no chance to wonder or miss someone's circumstances. I also somehow think of how we purposefully avoid someone we know when running into them in public and hide, but text them just twenty minutes later pretending to have completely missed them. Going out or staying in, on the phone or through actual conversation; all of it doesn't matter if you don't genuinely want that connection. The frequency doesn't matter if what you're saying to each other is pointless. Its so easy to avoid people now. If I break my phone, you don't really exist anymore, which is pretty alienating. Thank you for writing this.
So bleak. I feel alive. I feel awakened by my connections friends and daily activities. My brain works every day to expand who and what I know. It is not all over yet, it just takes a new perspective.
Thank you for this- felt like someone took all thoughts of my dissatisfactions with the world and put them together in a comprehensible, intelligent manner for me to have the very cathartic moment of complete resonance with your words. Just- Thank you.
this is one of those essays I need to sit on. roll around my mouth and against my teeth--inhaling the scent as i think about the notes. i pick up on.
i've noticed a curious disconnect we all seem to be suffering from, more intense these past few years, but i didn't have the words to put vague idea/impression/feeling/instinct into something more concrete. we see it everywhere from our obsession with celebrity and treating one-sided likes and comments on their feeds as ownership and a tacit permission to dictate their lives.
what happens when our once-deep relationships become likes on a screen and quickly jotted comments?
just coming back from a trip as a GUEST of a parasocial friend couple..
So trippy ~ not in a good way. In a frightening surreal bad way. One of them became possessed w anger & animosity towards “me” ~ & referred repeatedly to how much “compassion he has always shown me through the years”
I felt like we were reading from different scripts.. having only known one another very briefly as neighbors many years ago .. & then more recently “re-connected” thru me “liking his posts”
But w no actual friendship or relationship to speak of..
I felt terrified.
Fortunately.. I have close, REAL friends, who I speak to very regularly & see frequently..
They helped w humor & kindness & reassured me.. helped me to find some boundaries & get out of the situation more or less unscathed.
This morning I had coffee w real friends, whom I’ve known forever, & traveled w & stayed with, in their actual living room, sharing real feelings & watching tennis 🎾
Oh my god I can imagine. That sounds like a nightmare scenario. "how much compassion he has always shown you throughout the years," sounds like it's out of a literal horror film. Thank god you have some real friends who helped you out of that.
GB.. I kept thinking.. 🤔 “people feel many ways about me.. I’m not sure that 🔝 of Mind is compassion 😹😹so that ALone was puzzling & I nearly blurted out “why?”
it was impossible to listen to the audio. if the goal is to help people take in your words, please either lower the level of the guitar or dont add music.
The first step is fucking putting effort in our connections. Stop liking post, stop responding to stories, stop catching up. Call, talk, hang up, CREATE. Step outside, make small talk with your neighbors, be inconvenienced by other people and be inconvenient to them. Shareholders care about convenience and efficiency, you care about being a person
agreed and i also think it’s equally as important to care about other people being people too if that makes any sense. like, communicate with the other human being in mind
i will never comprehend how every advocate for mass-automatization only has the absolute worst perspective of how to go abt it. longing for essential human experience feels like a forcible heartbreak. I don’t care much abt vacuuming or going to the grocery store but jesus can a robot pls pls pls sit at a desk for 8hrs and do some spreadsheets
this is such a good take. they see humanity as beneath them, trivial and easy to replace with machines. like why not just automate and redistribute the profits if there’s no one actually doing the work anymore? why not use the money automation creates to create social programs and to make our lives happier, more human??
I could sense your resonance coming through Francis Bacon, from the Novum Organum. Like a vibration.
You: "Beneath the quiet mask of our times is not sorrow but a confused humiliation, a brute survival within a vacuum of meaning, and survival remains the enemy of a fully lived life."
In 1620, Bacon was deeply dissatisfied with the state of the world, our ignorance, the inability to live well, the incapacity to see the world as it was.
He was shaking cages: "Current logic is good for establishing and fixing errors (which are themselves based on common notions) rather than for inquiring into truth; hence it is not useful, it is positively harmful."
Which is to say what? I cannot accept the position that we are in a "hellscape," and I think you don't either. We are searchers. Wanderers. Destroyers. Makers. That's it.
We are constantly trying to make sense of our latest incarnation of humanity. We are also obsessed with ourselves. With each other.
More Bacon: "The human understanding is like an uneven mirror receiving rays from things and merging its own nature with the nature of things, which thus distorts and corrupts it."
The world is still out there. It's not going anywhere.
this is so brilliant. will have to read more bacon!
How do I like a substack essay more than once, this was amazing
hahaha thanks sm
what a crazy good essay
hey thanks elle!!
all my friendships are just me liking their posts and them tolerating mine. Great read
i feel that
Beautiful voiceover, interesting essay, depressing aftertaste :)
This hits . Seems like no one wants to have a hard conversation anymore…or even a good one
“put that phone down and go touch some grass and talk to the people you love” could not have been better explained! I felt this in my bones!
Loved this essay.
I do have to say though, relationships through some barrier like today's social media apps or messaging has always existed, I just think we've become so much less involved in each other's lives. You could argue that people used to write letters or leave voicemails, waiting for a response, its only now that its without the wait. It would also explain why you become more invested in a relationship when they respond later, or take days to get back to you. I think we need more mystery that unravels the person's true identity, not just an idea of them. Maybe the distance or the layers of relationships isn't the issue, maybe we've all become so available all the time we have no chance to wonder or miss someone's circumstances. I also somehow think of how we purposefully avoid someone we know when running into them in public and hide, but text them just twenty minutes later pretending to have completely missed them. Going out or staying in, on the phone or through actual conversation; all of it doesn't matter if you don't genuinely want that connection. The frequency doesn't matter if what you're saying to each other is pointless. Its so easy to avoid people now. If I break my phone, you don't really exist anymore, which is pretty alienating. Thank you for writing this.
THIS. yes you've pinpointed the crux of why instant interaction feels hollow most times?
So bleak. I feel alive. I feel awakened by my connections friends and daily activities. My brain works every day to expand who and what I know. It is not all over yet, it just takes a new perspective.
Thank you for this- felt like someone took all thoughts of my dissatisfactions with the world and put them together in a comprehensible, intelligent manner for me to have the very cathartic moment of complete resonance with your words. Just- Thank you.
this is one of those essays I need to sit on. roll around my mouth and against my teeth--inhaling the scent as i think about the notes. i pick up on.
i've noticed a curious disconnect we all seem to be suffering from, more intense these past few years, but i didn't have the words to put vague idea/impression/feeling/instinct into something more concrete. we see it everywhere from our obsession with celebrity and treating one-sided likes and comments on their feeds as ownership and a tacit permission to dictate their lives.
what happens when our once-deep relationships become likes on a screen and quickly jotted comments?
simply divine
I’m new to your writing & am just blown away..
just coming back from a trip as a GUEST of a parasocial friend couple..
So trippy ~ not in a good way. In a frightening surreal bad way. One of them became possessed w anger & animosity towards “me” ~ & referred repeatedly to how much “compassion he has always shown me through the years”
I felt like we were reading from different scripts.. having only known one another very briefly as neighbors many years ago .. & then more recently “re-connected” thru me “liking his posts”
But w no actual friendship or relationship to speak of..
I felt terrified.
Fortunately.. I have close, REAL friends, who I speak to very regularly & see frequently..
They helped w humor & kindness & reassured me.. helped me to find some boundaries & get out of the situation more or less unscathed.
This morning I had coffee w real friends, whom I’ve known forever, & traveled w & stayed with, in their actual living room, sharing real feelings & watching tennis 🎾
It felt transformative.
So does your essay.
Thanks a billion
XO
Oh my god I can imagine. That sounds like a nightmare scenario. "how much compassion he has always shown you throughout the years," sounds like it's out of a literal horror film. Thank god you have some real friends who helped you out of that.
And thanks for reading!
GB.. I kept thinking.. 🤔 “people feel many ways about me.. I’m not sure that 🔝 of Mind is compassion 😹😹so that ALone was puzzling & I nearly blurted out “why?”
It was an actual horror movie 🎥