You know what I've been doing recently? A lot more than I normally do, at least? Reading. It started a couple of weeks ago while I was taking care of my parents in their little house in nowhere Idaho. I brought my laptop to work on my next book, and found that I had writers block. The surefire way to kill writers block is to read, so I cracked open what I've been reading recently: Blood of Elves.
I've been liking the Witcher books lately so I'll admit I was getting pretty into it, but I found when I got home that it fully hit me that the internet is just not fun anymore. Reading at their house, with their yard, enjoying the silence of a real small town was serene. I felt more human than I had in quite a long time.
Every website I go to is trying to sell me things, trying to drain my coffers if you will. It's like the fools who couldn't cash into the internet in time are now just waving around their dicks, trying to get a pittance.
Now I admit, my social media is basically an ad for my books, so this may be a little hypocritical, but at least my books are something with some substance. Most of the items I see on the internet, or the services I find that are offered all come with expensive subscriptions that add very little to your experience. I noticed it particularly when every time I install any app I get informed that it offers in app purchases. Well, fuck you, if the to do list app wants to charge me - even if it is better than the base Apple one - then I'll just buy a damn agenda.
When I came home, I went to play some video games, but found that there was nothing that looked fun. So decided to go to YouTube, didn't really find anything that was interesting. Most of my main channels are retiring or making uninspired content. With the exception of my recently discovered NoMad - please check out that guy's channel. This was before I'd found him though.
I was frustrated trying to entertain myself with some white-boy slop, there was nothing, so I decided to just keep reading Blood of Elves. I finished it the same day, and found that I got a lot more out of it than if I'd just sat there watching a video essay whose ideas I've seen rehashed eight ways from Sunday.
The internet is bland, and driven by non-humans. It's a weird experiment, going out of control driven by algorithms that just want to prey on your addiction to it. Well, instead of browsing TikTok, YouTube, or any other shit-hole social media, maybe just pick up a book, watch a TV show, or - and this is the most controversial - go outside.
Brainrot really does rule the internet, it isn't just some wife's tale that if you sit too close to the tv it'll rot your brain. The internet will rot your brain. It's designed to get you riled, angry, to use it more, spend money where you let yourself slip. It can consume you if you don't tread lightly.
-Pullin
No comments:
Post a Comment