the profoundly lonely
Something about people that have accounts on literally every service you can think of and listing them all rubs me the wrong way, or rather, comes with bad associations and assumptions.
Some things that this makes me assume about them instantly (against my will) are:
- Being chronically online - how else could you manage to be active on all these accounts, as in posting, scrolling, and interacting with others?
- By extension of being chronically online: likely no or very limited time spent on hobbies, and often only consumption of media. You can’t talk to them about them, their ideas, what they did, what they created etc. because all they can talk about is the current game or TV show they like.
- Because of (almost) exclusively interacting with short form content, petty online drama, slop, kink, memes and shitposts, they might seem emotionally stunted, immature and naive.
- Bad reading comprehension, inability to tolerate longer messages or exchanges.
- Being extremely lonely and make themselves overly accessible as a response; lowkey conveys to me: there’s something wrong in their real life, they might have poor boundaries, they seek validation in an unhealthy way.
- Easily under- or overstimulated.
- They’re attention-seeking in a negative way, spreading themselves far and wide online in an attempt to get more engagement on posts and possibly go viral. Might be addicted to getting the numbers up.
- Having a big focus/placing a lot of worth on very vapid, contrived consumerist bullshit and trends. Always chasing the new thing. Not questioning their own motives and desires.
In short, at best I think of someone slightly misguided and in a phase of being totally entrenched in cyberculture but who will get out of it soon-ish, and at worst I think I am looking at someone superficial, unintelligent, unstable, depressed and addicted to social media who doesn’t care about anything but distraction and getting any attention, even if it’s a bad, because even getting hate is better than having to sit in silence. They can create nothing for themselves and out if their own intrinsic motivation because reactions from others is the main goal.
I know my instinctive assumptions aren’t generous, and some are mean, unfortunately. I recognize it doesn’t have to be true, but I also acknowledge we likely have completely opposite values, wishes and interests and engaging with each other would be like pulling teeth. I would not be able to empathize with wanting to be on these platforms or getting attention, and would always lowkey look down on them for that, which isn’t good. No one forces us to interact, so I won’t. It’s, I guess, an ick for me, if not a red flag.
It’s funny, because this post was inspired by a personal website of someone where they did exactly that. Then after writing this, I chose to dig deeper and read their blog to be proven wrong. But the post I read completely confirmed my suspicions - profoundly lonely and begging for people to interact with their creations. I feel a little guilty.