I stumbled across an article this week that hit the nail on the head for me in the first tag line.
Why are we letting algorithms rewrite the rules of art, work, and life?
The article from The Walrus (read it here, it’s worth it!) really hit a chord for me that we’ve made a massive shift for what we now percieve as success as a species. It was once defined by personal satisfaction and internal benchmarks—but now, thanks to the digital devices we carry everywhere and the over-reach of work, connectivity and stimulation from notifications, that it’s all increasingly being replaced by external validation tied to numbers, rankings, and public reception/critique.
I remember a time when Facebook first launched and it wasn’t “official” unless it was on Facebook. Same for Instagram “for that meal”, and the same for Strava “for that run”. I mean, did it really happen?
I suppose the issue there is that, with the modern AI movements, can we even say that anything on the internet is real – with image manipulation in full swing and even video and audio now, being able to be cloned. Who does control the worth of the message, the content, the accomplishment?
So we’re at a point, where even points of joy and leisure are calculated, ranked and monitised. Even just the process of sharing work with the world can alienate creators or just do-ers, leaving them reliant on external validation to keep going.
Phew this is deep.
So what is the solution. Do we all just need to disconnect for a while? …and this is from soneone who has built a career around digital attention and driving traffic to parts of the internet.
Let’s just take a breather. A detox, even?
So, to sum the thoughts of the article up… while technology has supported us mere mortals to “amplify our reach” – enabling us to comminicate with the entire world at any second of every day, it’s left us empty.
It’s led to the undermining our internal value structure, leaving us to navigate a modern world where even the term “value” is externally imposed onto us, rather than being derived from within us.
As Rage Against the Machine once said, it’s time to “Take the Power Back“.
So, are you up for a detox?