Ethel Cain says we are in an irony epidemic – is she right?
“Where we once justified our daily anxieties by doom scrolling through bad news, we now post memes that epitomise our sense of mass existentialism, taking part in a sort of performative negativity that, as a result, protects us against reality,” says Holly Friend, deputy foresight editor at futures consultancy, The Future Laboratory.
marie-claire chappet • ‘What’s the point?’ syndrome, and why we all feel so disconnected right now
but whether parasocial content is desirable or not, it points to a growing crisis on the internet: So much of what we encounter online just doesn’t matter , and even worse, offers no mechanism for us to start caring about it. The average human living today sees more things they don’t care about in one week than a medieval peasant did in their entir... See more
Drew Austin • The Internet's Meaning Crisis
#1: ON SURREALISM
Why does lunacy and irreverence feel so resonant right now? One of the principles of surrealism is an expression of the absurd in order to question power and I’ve similarly noticed Gen Z quietly raging against the madness of the world with content that is surreal, weird and oft-uncomfortable.
Why does lunacy and irreverence feel so resonant right now? One of the principles of surrealism is an expression of the absurd in order to question power and I’ve similarly noticed Gen Z quietly raging against the madness of the world with content that is surreal, weird and oft-uncomfortable.