imagining a new earth
because we need it now more than LITERALLY EVER.
I’ve been chronically online since the dawn of my millennial time. And by that I mean since I was about… 7.
AOL.
*If you don’t know what AOL is, it was like what an app is today, but on the computer. It was “the internet” but in a container, like an app, and within it was browsers, chatrooms, instant messaging. It was like an all in one. It was freakin’ awesome. Describing it makes me feel so strange, haha. This was pre-AIM, which was even more fun and just the instant messenger part, which was easily the best part of AOL at all.
No, I should not have been on AOL at such a young age. I’m not sure why the computer was so exciting to me as a child but it was. Whether it was kiddie games or the internet~, I was ready to be on it.
My dad even helped me, making my screen name srcoolj. He thought he was so clever. For those who don’t get it, it’s llcoolj but with my initials… #dadjokes.
AOL made such a difference because it wasn’t just a boring browser where you were like, ok, now what? Because back then, the internet wasn’t telling you what to do, you were telling it what to do.
Now, you could sit a kid in front of a computer and they’d know exactly what to do. It’s like we’re born with computer brains now and we know exactly what they are. Like how are they so good with iPads with zero instruction? Wild shit.
Anyway, being chronically online now is pretty dangerous to our psyches, and yet we can’t stop ourselves. I mean, it’s likely always been dangerous (it definitely did damage to my child brain; I am not advocating for kids freely being on the computer), but nowadays… well, Lois Mac kinda said it right there.
Being chronically online means being chronically informed, especially if your algorithm knows you care.
I’ve been taking massive Threads breaks (I deactivated my account for months) more-so because I was so over the commentary. The incessant, non-stop commentary. Opinions. Advice. Criticisms. Unnecessary cruelty. Fake stories. Click bait. Rage bait. People talking about things that consume me that I wouldn’t even think about if it wasn’t for their posts. All of it. UGH. It’s just non-stop! I know it’s like Twitter, and trust me, I lived on Twitter, but I think I’m just growing out of needing to read people’s thoughts all day. It truly leads to some kind of mental illness/anxiety/brain clog spiral.
While I think these platforms are really great tools for seeing perspectives we wouldn’t see in our daily, offline lives and smaller social circles, and I’ve learned so much myself, I do think it reaches a point where it causes anxiety, insecurity, loneliness, comparison, among many other negative feelings about ourselves.
My Instagram algorithm, however (and surprisingly), is actual perfection. I see inspiration, recipes, animals and nature, home improvement, art, amazing women, hopeful (!!) news, fun memes, pop culture stuff, Interview with the Vampire, and of course the weekly Saint Hoax post (IYKYK). Which means I am also being informed, but it’s also so cozy and curated. I don’t know how I did it, but I did, and it’s awesome. It doesn’t mean everything’s perfect, but it’s pretty damn great!
…It doesn’t mean I don’t need breaks from there too.
When Covid first started, I wrote an article for the magazine I created and edited for 3~ years about “imagining a new earth.” When we all had to pause our usual days and the pollution dissipated, I had this vision of Los Angeles (where I was living at the time) covered in greenery. Still city, but with so much more green throughout it. I was imagining all cities like that. The whole earth more green and nature than concrete. Where we fit into our natural habitat instead of forcing it to conform to us as much as we have.
Recently I saw news about people coming up with plans for how to make moss grow on buildings, which would benefit cities so much and add to that greenery I imagined. I’ve also seen so many more people talk online in the last few years about the eco-sexism of cities where only male trees are planted. You may have seen that too. Completely enraging that we have constantly, as a species, further and further prioritized convenience over what would benefit not only the planet and our co-habitants but also us.
It’s fascinating that we do everything we can do make life “better” while we’re also making life so much worse for ourselves and our future and our home. People are so obsessed with their own literal house that we forget this planet is actually home.
I get it, no one wants to be out in the wilderness, vulnerable to predators, rubbing sticks together and manually ripping apart animals so we can feed ourselves and possibly eating the wrong berry or mushroom and dying. But my goodness, there is a middle ground. Convenience doesn’t know when stop. Humans don’t know when to stop. Hence, AI and physical robots. Not just stupid chatGPT, fucking robots.
Not enough people watched Ex Machina, Terminator, Westworld, The MATRIX?! and understood it, did they? Instead, they took it as a challenge. And those are just a few of many examples. Tech bros have such wild fucking egos they probably watched those movies and not only felt inspired, but thought they could do better.
It was not a CHALLENGE, BRADLEY. It was a warning.
My friend praised me (sorta, haha) for being able to be hopeful while she mostly feels doom and dread.
But to echo back to Lois’ post at the top of this article, we can’t lose our imaginations. That’s why I see way-greener LA, that’s why I follow positive news outlets (they’re usually individuals, too, putting in work! Sometimes it’s minor things just so they can continue making their content and the algo happy, but still, I think we need more of it), that’s why I hold onto hope.
We have to maintain hope. I don’t mean maintain hope to bypass the absolutely horrific things that happen daily. I mean literally because our survival depends on it. We did not make it this far as a species while all of our ancestors eventually died out except for homo sapiens (I was watching NOVA: Becoming Human on PBS and it was so cool, I need to go back to it) just to lose hope and give up.
Do we deserve to survive? No, not really. We’ve not earned our place on this planet at all, making it all about money and accomplishment. Those things would be fine if there was balance, but there isn’t. Mamdani gives me hope, scientists creating moss for buildings give me hope, there is a lot to be hopeful about, even in these dark times.
And y’know, whatever escape you need, take it. I said those Anne Rice vampires are going to hold me for the next 4 years and season 3 is around the corner. I can’t wait. I’ve also been consumed in my own life and what the hell I’m doing with it. We all have things we need to do.
But please, imagine a cleaner, greener, happier earth. We need it. It is O-KAY to log off, to retrain your algorithm, to do what you need to do. But I echo Lois when I say keep that imagination strong. We need it now more than ever.
x
Tell me in the comments, what are you imagining? What are you hopeful for? What have you seen on the internet lately that’s soothed your spirit or sparked some hope?
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Good read. I think that while the internet can keep us chronically “informed,” I think more often than not, especially with social media, it keeps us chronically misinformed and quite frankly I think it’s toxic and damaging to our brains and relationships. What I am hopeful for I don’t know that I’ll ever get and that’s a world without social media. I would happily go back to the days where if you wanted to see your friend and what they were up to, you had to actually call them or ride your bike to their house and knock on their door. These tiny things are lost today because we all walk around with a computer, GPS, and tracking device in our pockets 24/7. Skynet is real. Watch out.