Something I’ve noticed (have been noticing for a while now) is this “call to arms” (pun intended) about getting off the apps, and making real life communities, and how the algorithm hates anything offline. All of which I agree with. OF COURSE. But—and I can’t be the only person to notice this, please, don’t let me be the only person noticing this—is everyone evangelizing this stuff still online seemingly all the time?
Doesn’t it seem like a post about getting offline and hanging out with people in real time having 1k+ likes is that bug-a-boo us Americans so love: the oxymoron? (Dear goddess, what a word! Don’t get me started on all the million reasons why I love this word.)
To quote the inimitable Alanis Morrissette, “Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?”
In general, I try to stay out of cultural criticism on the internet, not because I don’t have strongly critical opinions about many, many things related to the culture I live in, but because nobody (on the internet) really cares what I have to say. I save my rants and reasoned discussions for my husband, my family, my friends, writing buddies, students, etc.
Why I feel the need to talk about this now, in a public place, remains a mystery.
When I was a full-time freelancer, my feed(s) were full of ads for freelancer writers, promising that I, too, could make a six-figure income, if only I signed up for X or Y course. Was I tempted? Heck yeah, I was tempted! Income disclosure, maybe TMI, in my best freelance year, I made ~20k. Which was almost exactly what it cost to have my kids in preschool full-time that same year. Did I want to earn six-figures for the amount of work I was doing? I DID! Pitching itself was a full-time job, not to mention having to read the book(s) to write the review or essay or interview the author, plus edits, which were always due today! But, every time I scratched the surface of one of those ads (i.e., did a little independent research about the person claiming to work magic for those willing to shell out a couple precious thou), what I would discover is: They hadn’t done any significant writing to which their name was attached, freelance or otherwise.
The people running those ads were making their own six-figure income off the money of those desperate to get to that level of (monetary) success. Because that level of success, as a freelance writer, is a UNICORN.
These days, when I read the posts and posts and posts about sticking it to the algorithm—all of which arrive in my inbox because I willingly subscribe (LOL, I get what I deserve, I guess) or show up in my Substack feed thingy, to the exclusion of the people I’m actually following—part of me gets excited. Yay! Down with internet, up with embodied, synchronous experience! And the other part of me, the never-going-away contrarian skeptic who is always scratching the surface, is like, Wait… what are these people actually doing offline? (Maybe they’re doing plenty—potlucks and marathons and nature hikes and shopping in local bookstores—but of course I can’t see it, because if it is happening, it’s offline, and out of my view. Please let this be the case! But I have a sneaking suspicion, based on what I can discern from the amount of time spent posting, recording Zoom calls, facilitating “monthly clubs,” et-fucking-cetera, that this is a market. A market that is playing on all of our seething, churning desire to just meet a friend for coffee without any kind of screen or documentation involved.) Which is to say, I’m wary. And I’m weary.
I hope I’m wrong about this. I hope these offline proselytizers have our very best interests at heart; maybe this is the liberation we need and this is the way we need it delivered right now.
But I can’t help thinking1: Isn’t this a lot of hoopla for something that is quite actually hardwired into our beings? Shouldn’t escaping the algorithm be the easiest thing of all? All it takes is logging off. That’s it! That’s the whole step. Soon as you do it, you remember the big old world out there. Sally forth! Have an unmediated experience! You’re gonna get bored and you’re going to disagree with people and you might even get yourself into trouble or make some mistakes2 but you’re also going to have random weird conversations with strangers about puzzles in bookstores and the chili you make for the friends you invite for dinner will be way too spicy and your 6- & 8-y.o.’s will demand to know how the menstrual cycle works with illustrations to back up the information (thank goodness for anatomy books). It is a glorious mess out there. A glorious, chaotic mess and it is AWESOME.
I’m not under the impression that being an embodied human in a chaotic world is an easy thing; it’s not. It takes a lot of discipline and focus and intention. But maybe we’re working too hard on something that isn’t (and shouldn’t be considered) work. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time we stop talking, stop preaching to the congregation or being preached to, and go forth and do.
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