# In Search of *Anti*content I recently made some brain changes. I've never been particularly fond of the thinly-velied "I'm leaving!" engagement-bait posts that you see across social media, and they're especially disingenuous when you haven't left, so I never made one. I'm somewhere in between, disconnected from the constant stream of Content, but all of my stuff is still there, collecting digital dust. I'm of the social media pioneer age bracket. I remember life before the Internet. I remember 10 year old me giving a presentation to our schoolboard to help prove the educational value of the Internet. They got a tight 10 on Gaboon vipers—at the time I couldn't stop running around drainage culverts and kidnapping amphibians and reptiles. My adolescence was defined by Xanga, AIM and ebaumsworld. My college experience was surely the first, and best documented, playing out on walls across TheFacebook.com. I remember finding a global community on Twitter and thinking, "This is it! This is the promise of global society!" I was squarely in the demographic when Instagram became the bastion of hipster-core millennials, sharing our perfectly curated identities one photo at a time. Knocking on 40, I've arrived at a different place. Piles of research now confirm that we're simply not built for this, cognitively, and eons of history have shown that where there is money to be made, morality is malleable. Social media, in it's ability to turn fleeting moments into profit, reflects a culture obsessed with monetizing attention. >[!quote] ![[The Hawk Tuah Memecoin Rug Pull Is the Apotheosis of Bag Culture - Clips#^aa9a3c]] I can forgive myself for briefly believing in the the founding myth of social media, "the great locus of connection," but recent experience has rendered that myth very obviously fiction. On a personal level I've grown increasingly grumpy and wary of parasocial relationships. In an era defined by what Patrick Redford very aptly describes as ["bag-chasing nihilism"](https://defector.com/the-hawk-tuah-memecoin-rug-pull-is-the-apotheosis-of-bag-culture), I'm increasingly disinterested in participating in the vapid and shallow exchange. It's a point that I've grappled with in some form or another for a long time, only to recently accept. Sociologically, the last 10 years have made it impossible to ignore the great irresponsibility with which a select group of technocrats wield this technology. Participation in the system is to enmesh ourselves into the Social Media [[hyperobjects|hyperobject]], and in so doing, gain a share of complicity. At this stage of my life, in this moment in history, I can squint at this technology and accept it for what it is—a massive fucking grift distribution network designed to enrage, divide, and isolate some of us for the enrichment of a few of us. ## Anticontent I love art, and music, and literature. Creative expression, for me is a collective triumphs of the human spirit. I tend to agree with E.M. Forster when he says that: >[!quote] ![[A Lighthouse for Dark Times - Clips#^81b242]] I love making things, but I hate Content with the power of a thousand suns. Content is the fine paste at the end of the Internet gristmill, taking all of the interesting and challenging things that make us human and turning them into memetic residue, ready to be slopped directly into our brains 20 seconds at a time. In the past I've tried to combat this sentiment by taking a different approach to social media (see [here](https://www.instagram.com/p/CXM--hGthwi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==),[here](https://www.instagram.com/p/CXfHKIXrC9y/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), and [here](https://www.instagram.com/p/CW4ULZ0ruXP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==), for example). It's a futile task—and it's clear that's by design. Kyle Chayka makes a compelling argument for how algorithms flatten culture in [Filterworld](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/e5d59805-1122-4fde-b33d-85fdd44f65f4). What seems like a good idea in principle—mathematically moderating content at scale for granularly personalized experiences—has proven time and time again to be one of the worst decisions of the modern age. I often think of Dr. Ian Malcom's admonishment here. "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." We're the architects of our own Jurassic Parks, where the dinosaurs are our own failings, belief systems, and opinions mirrored back at us and amplified ad nauseum. Worse, the vast majority of modern society doesn't realize we're being hunted by our own prejudices. I'm reminded of Jame's Bridle's work in [[New Dark Age (2018)]]: >[!quote] ![[New Dark Age (2018)#^454b42]] There is but one way to engage with Social Media because the most profitable currency of the attention economy is Content. There is no time for depth, nuance, or durability when the firehose beckons. We're only accelerating this reality through the wanton proliferation of AI tools that's sole purpose is to improve the speed and efficiency of slop-Content throughput. I find myself seeking a a slower, and simpler exchange with art, culture, and community. I'm trying to find a balance between the realities of modern society that prioritizing my connection to the great human diaspora in an increasingly technologized world. I don't think anyone can outrun technology, but I am actively looking for a different relationship. One idea I've been hypothesizing is *Anticontent.* Early Internet culture was built around websites and messages boards, blending a global zeitgeist with, crucially, time and space for processing. If the primary purpose of Content is *earning,* Anticontent is primarily concerned with *learning.* Anticontent is proactive by design, or at least very difficult to engage with passively.