DEAD INTERNET
There is a single word that is responsible for the death of much of the creativity that has been lost on the internet, that word is cringe. It is almost meaningless at this point, what one person deems to be cringe, another finds really cool. The word cringe itself has become the most cringeworthy thing across the entire internet. People blame bots and Russian hackers for the internet feeling less alive than it did a decade ago but it was less of a death and more of a suicide that has resulted in the internet feeling so soulless, in fact, this feeling of muted uniformity extends beyond the internet and reaches every facet of humanity, stripping it of any soul or innovation.
People want more than anything else to be accepted, no one wants to be excluded by their peers, it can be the most gut wrenching feeling in ones life. To feel that everyone is in on something except for you, that you are the only one who doesn’t know what the inside joke is. This is what life has become. People don’t want to risk being counted out, and they can hardly be blamed for it, it is a terrible thing to be the odd man out. But the counter is almost worse because it leaves us with nothing to fit into, no identity at all. Everyone becomes this toy soldier, part of a set that is indistinguishable from the others. As a result we feel like the internet has been overcome with bots, which isn’t entirely untrue but also isn’t the entire truth either.
Venturing into a comment section, it isn’t difficult to predict what kind of comments one will find. In my own feed, where I find fashion models, artists, and other sources of artistic expression, I will often see the same kind of comments, a lot of the time they are the exact same. These are not bots that are posting these comments, they are accounts with portfolios of work and mutual followers, yet they post the same meaningless comments every time I see their usernames; multiple emojis, whether its a fireball or hearts it makes no difference. On the rare occasion I see an actual comment with words it is unlikely that it is something meaningful, usually it’s some buzzword or a catchphrase meant to express approval. We don’t take the time to dictate how we actually feel because putting ourselves out there to be judged is scary.
I’d even extrapolate this phenomenon out to the real world where more and more of our architecture is becoming bland and minimalistic. This has affected new buildings such as condos, as well as old infrastructure like existing restaurants that have renovated to look less exciting, this includes McDonalds’ that have removed any colour to now be grey monotone structures. Most cars are black, white or grey these days and people dress fairly conservatively with trends like crocs being the few exceptions that allow people to feel comfortable stepping outside of their usual black hoodie, black sweats combo with black sneakers. People generally try more bombastic fashion choices only when they are trending and can be posted about online. These aesthetics that come and go like the tides are the only times that most people feel secure in themselves to try a new styling choice.
The boring nature of the modern world can be seen in the art world as well, where complaints of effortless, talentless and alleged money laundering schemes rise to the top and drown out artists taking risks with their art. Everyone has seen the monotone canvases that populate contemporary art galleries, drawing the ire of nearly all guests who come and scoff at the art on display. Could it not be that even artists are not willing to offend portions of the population for fear that they will be subjected to the same scrutiny that those who have been cancelled in the past decade were made to face? It was comedians who were on the front line of the firing squad that is or was this culture of hyper-sensitivity, they stood up to the hysteria, one by one, maybe over-correcting as is often the case. The art world however, remains locked down by boring pieces of monotony. One can only claim that people are too uninformed to get it for so long. People had no trouble interpreting Edvard Munch’s Scream, art degree or not, and while that one isn’t inherently offensive to anyone, there are many examples of pieces that were not acceptable in their time or even today. That does not make them any less important, in fact they may be more important as contributions to the world of art. See; Olympia by Manet (1863), Balthus’ Guitar Lesson (1934), Piss Christ by Andres Serrano (1987).
