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>It makes your feeling seem universal It universalizes the feeling of the writer, not the reader. Much like religion or the Effective Altruism movement, the ri
by Jimmy 11y ago
>It makes your feeling seem universal
It universalizes the feeling of the writer, not the reader. Much like religion or the Effective Altruism movement, the rise of homogenized communication (image macros, rage comics, the "that moment when..." style of writing), is yet another way of obtaining the pleasant feeling of subjugating your individuality to the Great Universal. This style of communication emphasizes what is common and easily digestible about an experience, rather than what is unique, particular, peculiar. The fact that the token experience varies from communication to communication - Tinder swipes one moment, getting your class canceled the next - is irrelevant. The only emotion communicated is one that has been felt a million times before by a million people.
The Culture Industry [1] no longer needs to be imposed upon us from above. Our private communications have become the Culture Industry, and we are the army of laborers that keep it running.
[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_industry http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_industry
- raziel2p 11y agoThis is a point sorely missed in the article - these types of texts do give room for interpretation and reflection, but often make for polarised reactions. Suddenly you're not just disagreeing with someone's thoughts on something, you feel annoyed at them imposing their way of thinking onto you (and the rest of the reading audience).
- javadocmd 11y agoI think you've inadvertently highlighted a defining feature of this generation: in rebellion against the previous generations' "everyone is a special snowflake" message and influenced by the internet's equalizing/anonymizing effect, this generation is marked by a realization that we're not really special. Things that are happening to us have happened a million times before and will happen again. We can't all be whatever we want to be. And so on. It's simultaneously humble and cynical about our place in the world as individuals and our place in history as a people and the universe as a species.