Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Golden Calf: Goodbye MySpace.
Myspace is modern mans forfeiture of individualism. Human minds hiding behind personalized glowing simulacrums- avatars. The ultimate reduction of integrity, the ultimate display of conformity.
Myspace is the assimilation of a drug-induced technoculture and a crying desire to merge that daunting need to fit in. Seldom is there such a historical suppression of natural instinct to explore and experience the world around but always is there some fetish that the masses flock to.
As of now The Masses has become such a cliché and I am as offended by my culture as a man of my height should be. MySpace has not just taken over culture, but it has infused itself into television, movies, music and trend. Phone numbers are replaced with URL’s and communication comes with sponsorships.
Though it is as intrusive into the tangible world as you let it, there is still that sick appeal to a popularity contest- the same thing we all despised in high school (assuming that you have made it that far). It is possibly the only social community where twelve year olds have the same thing in common with single, sleazy, thirty-six year olds- a vehicle for spreading trends and setting trends.
There is a social sickness, some sort of Stevensonian namshub that clogs the capillaries of the brain which makes those modern humans conform to a series of advertisements. Though, on MySpace that’s all you are- just another advertisement.
At first, this online zeitgeist steals part of your life, and then suddenly you are imbued with “New Message” notifications, and “New Friend Request” anxiety. A paranoia subsumes your thoughts, and the only thing you can understand are annoying smiley faces made out of brackets and semicolons. Human emotion has been cheapened to “emoticons”- just another process in the commodification of human individualism in the progress of modern communication.
Everyone makes themselves available to a world that wants nothing to do with them except take the proceeds from each individuals labor. So, while humans “sell the active part of their existence to a corporation that makes a profit off of them”, MySpace consumes whatever is left, as nominal as that amount may be.
While you indulge hidden behind an avatar, with occasional dreams of breaking free of the imaginary network cords that MySpace binds you by- think of me- no longer held down by cheap advertising techniques, no longer a tourist in a sick, sad, online community, and just subtly less of a commodity than you are.
CoreyLTD
PLEASE REPRODUCE AT WILL WITH PROPER CITATION
Myspace is the assimilation of a drug-induced technoculture and a crying desire to merge that daunting need to fit in. Seldom is there such a historical suppression of natural instinct to explore and experience the world around but always is there some fetish that the masses flock to.
As of now The Masses has become such a cliché and I am as offended by my culture as a man of my height should be. MySpace has not just taken over culture, but it has infused itself into television, movies, music and trend. Phone numbers are replaced with URL’s and communication comes with sponsorships.
Though it is as intrusive into the tangible world as you let it, there is still that sick appeal to a popularity contest- the same thing we all despised in high school (assuming that you have made it that far). It is possibly the only social community where twelve year olds have the same thing in common with single, sleazy, thirty-six year olds- a vehicle for spreading trends and setting trends.
There is a social sickness, some sort of Stevensonian namshub that clogs the capillaries of the brain which makes those modern humans conform to a series of advertisements. Though, on MySpace that’s all you are- just another advertisement.
At first, this online zeitgeist steals part of your life, and then suddenly you are imbued with “New Message” notifications, and “New Friend Request” anxiety. A paranoia subsumes your thoughts, and the only thing you can understand are annoying smiley faces made out of brackets and semicolons. Human emotion has been cheapened to “emoticons”- just another process in the commodification of human individualism in the progress of modern communication.
Everyone makes themselves available to a world that wants nothing to do with them except take the proceeds from each individuals labor. So, while humans “sell the active part of their existence to a corporation that makes a profit off of them”, MySpace consumes whatever is left, as nominal as that amount may be.
While you indulge hidden behind an avatar, with occasional dreams of breaking free of the imaginary network cords that MySpace binds you by- think of me- no longer held down by cheap advertising techniques, no longer a tourist in a sick, sad, online community, and just subtly less of a commodity than you are.
CoreyLTD
PLEASE REPRODUCE AT WILL WITH PROPER CITATION
NEWS 6/26/2007
Well, the new blog is up and running (http://coreyfriedman.blog.com)- now I can get rid of that hideous MySpace (8 days as of writing this).
I have submitted my video to the Henry Rollins Rant contest, and from what I have seen I am the only person who has threatened to disagree with Mr. Rollins. What a horrid video.
I would like to thank all of you who renewed your subscription to this site. I have to also thank Chas for helping me promote this.
With that said, I hope you all enjoy the new writings.
Corey Friedman
