I'm noticing a pattern. Most of the things I don't like involve cutesy things on the internet, and most of the things I like are disgusting and analog, very analog. Anyway, I was going to write a rant on how much I hate buzzfeed, but I decided they aren't the problem, it's all the people sharing their worst articles. People are always posting and linking me towards mind-eating crap and it has to stop. Stupidity is contagious and when people send some your way, it eats your brain.
Even the lowest of the low, buzzfeed, even vice occasionally, very occasionally, produces something interesting. Mostly, their content is inane to the point of self-parody. The worst stuff involves the writer over-sharing.
I think that writers, and the half-wits that share their garbage, are confused about is the difference between honest writing and bukake. It isn't honest to share your diary or your diarrhea. It isn't honest to write a list of your 26 favorite snack-foods. Honest writing is writing for an audience, not for your friends. Bukake is pretending that everyone on the internet is your buddy, and interesting in your breakfast.
There was a period I think when a bunch of people decided that writing like they are hanging out with their buddies, three joints deep and with a mouth full of doritios, was honest. I think the least honest, kind of comedy, writing or anything is that in which the audience is expected to forget they are being performed to.
I think a good exercise to help curb over-sharing is to limit yourself to three facebook posts a week. Make them count, no cat pictures, or descriptions of your lunch. Writers of web-content should think this way too, but since they are paid by the article they won't. It's up to us to ignore their garbage pieces they churn out to make quotas, or else, we hasten the rush towards a world without anything interesting to read on the internet.
I am doing my part too. I've never been guilty of over-sharing, but to help tip the balance, I have been making a deliberate effort to "under-share." I don't tell people when I have to go to the bathroom. I just wander off. I explain why I'm late. I just catch-up. On the net, I don't share many articles, but the ones I do are really special.
Please join me in under-sharing and stop the spread of stupidity before it's too late.
Even the lowest of the low, buzzfeed, even vice occasionally, very occasionally, produces something interesting. Mostly, their content is inane to the point of self-parody. The worst stuff involves the writer over-sharing.
I think that writers, and the half-wits that share their garbage, are confused about is the difference between honest writing and bukake. It isn't honest to share your diary or your diarrhea. It isn't honest to write a list of your 26 favorite snack-foods. Honest writing is writing for an audience, not for your friends. Bukake is pretending that everyone on the internet is your buddy, and interesting in your breakfast.
There was a period I think when a bunch of people decided that writing like they are hanging out with their buddies, three joints deep and with a mouth full of doritios, was honest. I think the least honest, kind of comedy, writing or anything is that in which the audience is expected to forget they are being performed to.
I think a good exercise to help curb over-sharing is to limit yourself to three facebook posts a week. Make them count, no cat pictures, or descriptions of your lunch. Writers of web-content should think this way too, but since they are paid by the article they won't. It's up to us to ignore their garbage pieces they churn out to make quotas, or else, we hasten the rush towards a world without anything interesting to read on the internet.
I am doing my part too. I've never been guilty of over-sharing, but to help tip the balance, I have been making a deliberate effort to "under-share." I don't tell people when I have to go to the bathroom. I just wander off. I explain why I'm late. I just catch-up. On the net, I don't share many articles, but the ones I do are really special.
Please join me in under-sharing and stop the spread of stupidity before it's too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment