» HADOUKEN « digital waste is dragging you down
We all have it, that app we can't bring ourselves to delete. Tucked away, deep within the furthest recess of our iPhones; each time we stumble across it, we smile, then smirk, then smile again. Sometimes, we even press down on the haptic screen until the icon jiggles -- almost mockingly, daring us to part ways. What was once an integral part of our lives is now a couple dozen measly megabytes of digital waste. Do you even remember your password? You probably made it at a time when simple alpha-numeric codes of at least six characters sufficed.
For me, it's that sans serif lowercase "t". It's my alpha, and it may very well end up being my omega. It's where I had my Jerry Maguire "bad pizza" moment (appropriately, this moment is also the title of my first Hadouken). It's where my moniker "Nice Try, Bro" was born. It's the bridge that connects my past with my present. It's responsible for my eventual departure from my first career, law. It's how I first got my start in fashion. It's where I met many of my closest friends.
Of course, it's Tumblr.
If the Internet's Manifest Destiny was to bring humans of all color and creed together in one digital landscape, Tumblr was its Homestead Act. While not quite as Wild West-y as its predecessors (Friendster, Myspace, Xanga, IRC, Ebaums/College Humor forums, AOL MBs etc.), Tumblr is a throw back to when being wEeEiiiRd was not yet aestheticized (ironically, the platform greatly contributed to such aestheticizing). It's the birthplace of the modern meme (ok, maybe that's Reddit, but stay with me here) and representative of a time when "going viral" organically was still possible.
Today, people confuse the amorphous concept of being wEeEiiiRd with having a unique personality, memes are a dime a dozen (and getting worse by the day) and "going viral" is almost impossible for all but those who employ creative agencies and/or whatever digital publicists are calling themselves these days. We are living in a time of unprecedented digital waste, a large portion of which has been meticulously crafted by elite creators with the sole purpose of gaining our attention. Like a virus, such waste assumes control over its host, replicates itself and spreads. The most malicious form of these viruses are the smallest and most innocent-seeming versions: Tweeted one-liners ("perfectly timed" canned colloquialisms/catchphrases), meme templates, silly mobile games (I mean, how many versions of Candy Crush do we need?), Tik Tok challenges etc. I say that because they seem benign. Individually, they might be. Together, they range from intricate ploys to suck patterns of data consumption out of you which is packaged and sold to the highest bidder (best case) or distractions devised to prevent you from seeing that which really matters in the world (worst case).
Every few years I look at my bookshelf, catch a glimpse of Marcus Aurelias' Mediations, and think to myself "maybe we really did have it all figured out almost two-thousand years ago?" I'm not a textbook stoic per se, but the satisfaction I gain from completing a long-term project or physically accomplishing something (or avoiding something!) can be intoxicating at times. The other day, I changed the hinges and knob handles on four doors in my apartment, drilled three floating shelves perfectly level into my walls and painted over a few blemishes left in the aftermath. It sounds pathetic, but the rush I felt from spending a few hours actually doing something certainly trumps the quick dopamine rush of stumbling upon a few cute cat videos on Reddit.
There I go rambling. That's usually a sign that I should wrap things up. And I will. I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe my inability to delete Tumblr off my phone is representative of my desire for honest entertainment, to escape this fabricated digital world of nonsense. Every day I wake up with a sea of digital garbage waiting for me, and the pressure I feel to wade through it all--the Tweets, the Grams, Medium posts, 24 hour cable news, Feedly articles etc. etc.--is enormous. Truth is, most of it is utter trash, content creation has become professionalized and there is no going back. A good rule of thumb is the shorter the form the more likely it's garbaggio. I'll start there. Who knows, maybe it'll result in more time for me to create. But whatever I produce statistically stands zero chance of going viral, so why bother? Am I adding to the waste? Who watches the watchmen? What am I even talking about? Why are you even reading? Thanks for the support.