Parasocial Pandemonium

Heart. ❤️

The kitty video. 🐱

Heart. ❤️

The gym selfie of that girl you used to hang out with.

Heart. ❤️

And the one of the influencer you've never met.

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The interview with that actor you liked so much... Rest In Peace.

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The podcasters. They know what’s up. They're speaking your truth.

Heart. ❤️

The infographics. You knew it already, and there's the picture that proves it, clear as day.

Heart. ❤️

That band, they got back together again. They're coming to a city near you. Better get tickets soon.

Heart. ❤️

The advertisement. They're sorry. So so sorry. They made so many... too many. Better hop on that deal, it's going fast.

Heart. ❤️

That recipe you need to try soon (even though you’ll probably just order DoorDash instead).

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Awww, penguins. 🐧

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Celebrity red carpet. What was she thinking wearing that? And she’s really overdone the plastic surgery.

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A charity fundraiser for an unsettling topic you don't really want to think about too much longer… Better scroll faster, before the dopamine drops.

Heart. ❤️

That's a weird one. That's definitely A.I., right?

Heart. ❤️

Ugggh another political video. At least it’s a darkly funny one this time.

Heart. ❤️

The stand-up comedian with a clever joke. So relatable. So true.

Heart. ❤️

The dancer doing backflips.

Heart. ❤️

The advertisement. It's that thing you need so badly... click it! Click it! And do it quickly! It won't be buy-one-get-one free very much longer.

The screen goes… black. 💔

The screen goes black, like a star in space. A star that exploded and died, and as its core collapsed, became a black hole.

Where did the universe go?

What is this dead weight in your hand? What do your fingers even do now?! They once could dash and slide across the screen so fluidly; up and down, left and right, like an ice dancer during the Olympics.

Your muscle memory, that could oh so gracefully open and close applications without your brain even needing to tell your body to do so… Now rendered absolutely useless.

Where are the likes, dislikes, reactions, comments, emojis? Where is all the emotion and validation?

Where are you now? …

Where even are you, when you aren't in your phone??

What are you to do, without the addictive glowing light that us human being seem to covet so universally, sitting in the palm of your hand? What did people even do with their time before this? Read magazines? Send each other letters? Twiddle their thumbs? Well, they watched T.V, obviously. And before that? They all just sat around gambling and gossiping, probably. And before that? They were all just trying not to die.

Well, the good news is, the bots are all dead! The bots are all gone. There is no more juice powering the digital farms of engagement slavery. No more spammers and scammers up to their antics. No more fake humans and A.I. fantasy rage-bait. No more impoverished profiteers and belligerent billionaires, trying to make a quick buck off of toxic race and gender bias, and political identity politics from countries they don’t even live in. The illusion has been lifted. The cyber-psychosis hypnotizing so many has been cleared.

Yet, where are you now?

You know you're real, but how will everyone else know? Are they even real?

Who will you follow, and who will follow you??!

How will the world know what you’re up to… And who you are… And what you’re thinking, in this very moment, and at any given moment!? What will become of you, if you can’t give your opinions to the masses? What will you stand for, now that your digital soapbox has been suddenly swept from underneath your feet?

Where even are you, when you aren't in your phone?

Pics! Pics or it didn't happen.

📱📱📱📱📱📸📱📱📱📱📱

Somewhere, in a world without scrolling, a grateful human touches the grass, looks up at the sky, breathes in the fresh air, and doesn't feel the need to take a picture for anyone else to witness it. Being here and now is proof enough, feeling the dirt under their feet.

A couple kisses under a waterfall, and tells nobody. This moment is just for the two of them, their love, and the Earth's life blood rushing down above them. They are each others' whole world in this moment. Nothing else matters.

People are at the gym exercising, only because they want to, and just because it makes them feel good. They aren't shooting up mystery medications or weight loss drugs, or getting plastic surgery to impress their followers, or even the people they knew back in high school. They are just trying to feel more like themselves. They aren't obsessing over the comments of what endless, faceless, judgmental voices are telling them to change.

Plants and animals, dogs and cats, cows and pigs, penguins and capybaras, live their lives as nature intended. They aren't being posed or trained or exploited for views. They're just creatures now, not clickbait.

The children are outside playing and being children, finding worms and bugs and rocks, and asking adults endless questions about the meaning and the purpose of everything. They aren't posing for reels and advertisements for their parents' brand sponsors. They aren't helping to create lifestyle videos, or being stared at by strangers 7000 miles away. They only know the world through the lens of their imagination, and through the people that truly love them.

Somewhere, in a world without screens, parents still worry, but only when they really need to worry. They aren't being bombarded by the constant anxiety porn of everything they could be doing wrong, or everything that's going wrong. Grandparents read the newspaper and do the Sunday crossword, and aren't consumed by endless artificial slop that pulls them away from reason and reality. They obsess less about "the world going to hell in a hand basket", and the people they've never met that have different cultures and opinions. The "others" aren't quite so strange and foreign to them, and aren't inherently malicious or evil. The future of their family doesn't seem quite so intangible and impossible to see, and it doesn't seem quite so far away.

Lonely people write and draw, read books, and talk to the birds and the plants and animals. They don't need to date chatbots, or slip into echo-chambers of extremism. They seek out their community in real life, when they are ready, and despite their anxiety. They reach out because, they finally are feeling brave enough and vulnerable enough to do so.

Is it too idealistic? Humans have always found ways to entertain each other, control each other, and find ways to momentarily escape real life, with and without technology.

So where even are you, when you aren’t in your phone? 

Maybe, you’re going outside. Sitting in stillness under a tree. Making eye contact with another living soul.

Maybe, you’re learning to cultivate your expression, without so much need for approval or validation.

Maybe, you’re existing just in this moment.

Maybe, you’re living your life now for you, and not just for views.

Maybe now, you are free.

With or without, I hope you will be.

Heart. ❤️