In normal times you’re constantly triangulating novelty by reacting to it and watching others react to it. For that you have to be in novel settings that generate randomness. Pseudorandom zoom backgrounds and Twitter don’t cut it.
Conversation
Even meme culture feels scripted compared to a busy sidewalk or a mall. And all social media conversations have a bit of claustrophobia going due to the missing cosmic background radiation of reactions to unscripted novelty jumping out at people from behind bushes.
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Oddly enough I don’t miss in-person meetings with friends that much, since I’ve been very online for a decade now. It’s the backdrop of humanity going about its business in public. Little slices of life you barely notice every minute when hanging out at Starbucks.
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Here even apparently random interactions I might witness in Twitter are only pseudorandom since it’s people I followed and whoever they followed. A closed universe of pre-determined nonzero significance. They fit a script of sorts.
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I think what we’ve learned is that place and setting matter for life. Currently we’re living lives in nowhere. A bunch of home offices connected by video links at best. Walking a block outside your home probably pipes more novel bits into your brain than a whole day online.
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Reality deprivation chambers.
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Also learned that good scripted TV does a better job simulating unquarantined reality than social media 24x7 reality show. You guys are great but not as good as TV. Like the GME/WSB show was worse than Real Housewives.
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There’s of course a lot of stuff going on still but it’s all very transactional and scripted too. People picking up food orders or running or mailing stuff etc. Nobody is just out and about with no agenda except the homeless.
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Went for a walk on Venice beach the other day. Saddest thing ever. A couple of stores open. A few people sadly walking about hoping to catch some whiff of its normal explosively busy tackiness.
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