Compensatory acts that counter fear of insignificance
I'm trying to take an objective perspective on my own generation and I just don't think it's possible to truly do that... I'm too confined to my own narrowed perspective of what I think the world might really look like. (And am too aware of just how narrow that perspective might be, for that matter.)
It all always seems to go back to the allegory of the cave, sometimes...
But in any case! It's no secret... we have habituated to the act of publicizing our lives in cyber space.
We broadcast our lives in mosaics of shattered successions of statuses, blogs, vlogs, screen names, and tweets.
And there is something ceremonious in those kinds of acts, I think. Something sort of representative of an inner fear...a fear that makes us feel like if we don't write these things down, then we will miss out on leaving a lasting impression on the world or society.
Are we systematically trying to find meaning in the seemingly meaningless things we do by tweeting about them? I don't think we shouldn't tweet or facebook, or, hello, ... BLOG... about these things. I'm just saying... I think the reason for the successes in social networking sites has its underpinnings in that same fear.
Sometimes I think updates on social networking sites are really just masked confession... the overly-drammatic, final swan-cry of I AM AFRAID THAT MY EPITAPH WILL NOT PROPERLY ENCOMPASS WHAT I'VE DONE IN LIFE. I WILL DOCUMENT MY LIFE NOW SO PEOPLE WILL KNOW WHO THE TRUE ME REALLY WAS. (or a variant thereof...)
Or perhaps so that -I- will know the true me, whomever that might be or become.
I think it's sort of amazing that we (or maybe I should say 'they') have created all these new platforms in the societal infrastructure to create more opportunities for meaning to be found. Sure, people use these platforms for the wrong reasons (just like people misuse virtually everything in the world at least one time or another) but I don't think that fact is prominent enough to be able to confidently say that trying to find meaning through the internet is wrong. If inner peace is achieved, I don't know how to say that that is anything other than right, regardless of where it might have been found. Like a diamond in the rough.
It's so easy to think that meaning will not be cashed in until the final moments of one's life. But no, that's not how I measure a year. I savor the exceptionally rare morsels of pure emotional consonances for what they are, when they are, totally unconditionally, no questions asked.
...I'm afraid I've started to recede into a place that's too cheesy, cliche, or existential to even make this entry something even worth posting.
So, fuck it... gonna post it anyways.
It all always seems to go back to the allegory of the cave, sometimes...
But in any case! It's no secret... we have habituated to the act of publicizing our lives in cyber space.
We broadcast our lives in mosaics of shattered successions of statuses, blogs, vlogs, screen names, and tweets.
And there is something ceremonious in those kinds of acts, I think. Something sort of representative of an inner fear...a fear that makes us feel like if we don't write these things down, then we will miss out on leaving a lasting impression on the world or society.
Are we systematically trying to find meaning in the seemingly meaningless things we do by tweeting about them? I don't think we shouldn't tweet or facebook, or, hello, ... BLOG... about these things. I'm just saying... I think the reason for the successes in social networking sites has its underpinnings in that same fear.
Sometimes I think updates on social networking sites are really just masked confession... the overly-drammatic, final swan-cry of I AM AFRAID THAT MY EPITAPH WILL NOT PROPERLY ENCOMPASS WHAT I'VE DONE IN LIFE. I WILL DOCUMENT MY LIFE NOW SO PEOPLE WILL KNOW WHO THE TRUE ME REALLY WAS. (or a variant thereof...)
Or perhaps so that -I- will know the true me, whomever that might be or become.
I think it's sort of amazing that we (or maybe I should say 'they') have created all these new platforms in the societal infrastructure to create more opportunities for meaning to be found. Sure, people use these platforms for the wrong reasons (just like people misuse virtually everything in the world at least one time or another) but I don't think that fact is prominent enough to be able to confidently say that trying to find meaning through the internet is wrong. If inner peace is achieved, I don't know how to say that that is anything other than right, regardless of where it might have been found. Like a diamond in the rough.
It's so easy to think that meaning will not be cashed in until the final moments of one's life. But no, that's not how I measure a year. I savor the exceptionally rare morsels of pure emotional consonances for what they are, when they are, totally unconditionally, no questions asked.
...I'm afraid I've started to recede into a place that's too cheesy, cliche, or existential to even make this entry something even worth posting.
So, fuck it... gonna post it anyways.