Being smart doesn’t matter when we’re all dumb
why knowing isn't the same as critical thinking
Untitled by Barbara Kruger 2x, 2 different sizes on the iconic Windows XP Background, Bliss a photo by Charles O'Rear
We can all agree that the internet has flattened the senses. Flattened the senses, a phrase when used in this context I mean: has flattened our common sense. Dimmed the light on our already unreliable ability to critically think. Kills the humor in harmless memes. Inspires a man, the type who’s unable to take a good picture, to leave a hateful comment on an indisputably talented, brilliant and gorgeous woman’s content.
Flattened. The. Senses.
I’m not of the camp that believes that the internet is pure evil or even that it’s done more harm than good. Hell, I’m typing on it right now. As a lowkey, impoverished, self-proclaimed techlord — I truly love the stuff. Raised on the sauce. Live in the sauce. No desire to be off the sauce.
I do miss the deactivate-lifestyle and the feeling knowing that my livelihood1 was not attached to it.
I won’t bore you with my self-righteous social media boundaries, that I do know make me better than you but internally feel that they still don’t make me good enough. Because they can’t make me feel good enough until a nice, young man named Noah is running these accounts while I sit back in my million-dollar home. The home I purchased, coincidentally, by hitting the algorithmic jackpot.
Until then, the bittersweet truth remains that we’re tethered.
Living in an era where literacy is on the decline and isolation is on the upswing has created a paradoxical, short-sided, information fiend individual that thrives in the dark corners of our phones. And like mold, they are pervasive and unrelenting. Calling it main character energy is reductive. Main characters are layered, nuanced and pull us in with their magnetism. These people aren’t that. These people are assholes yelling about how wrong you are from beyond the void. Sometimes they only live 3 hours away.
What these people lack is complexity. Because here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter if you’re smart if we’re all dumb. Siloed behind our tiny screens, living in our bubbles, enjoying the smooth sounds of our echo chamber.
There is no tone over the internet. There is no facial expression that offers the hint that it’s merely a JK. There is no knowing a creator’s full lore to determine if their 500 characters about the state of the world has accounted for the vastness of the dire situation.
Please note: I’m not talking about a dumbass celebrity comparing stealing apples from Walmart to child trafficking, she should get ran off the internet for that. Also, WHY!! Regrettably, I loved your music. RIP2
Back to the point. The weight we put on the internet and confusing information for knowing the vibe of the room is keeping us separated while the oppressors stand with both feet on our necks. Distracting us and feeding us an endless loop of “information” while we dance and sing for pennies imagining that we are the exception and destined to be as rich as them.
…But of course, we’ll do better by the collective when we’re in their shoes.
The fact is information is meant to gently guide your practices, your choices, and your values. And when putting those things in action with the existing information you have, you then make adjustments or don’t based on what’s learned from that experimentation.
We can’t persist, survive or enact a revolution by cooking strangers on the internet for the idiots they are.
Get your ass up.
Laugh into the ocean.
Gaze into a set of eyes.
Evaluate what you gain or don’t gain by interacting with that ephemeral piece of content.
Questions to ask yourself:
Does it align with your ethos?
Does it have to align with your ethos to exist online?
Questions I’m happy to answer on your behalf:
Am I smart? Yes.
Are they dumb? Yes.
Are we both dumb? Somewhat and sometimes.
Does telling them how ill-informed and wrong their hot take is because you have the relevant information combined with the necessary niche experience to prove they’re wrong, make them less of a dumbfuck? No, never.
And now your sleep is shit.
