The revolution will not be Instagrammed.
[No. 82]
WHAT’S SOMETHING THAT SCARES YOU THAT YOU’VE NEVER SAID OUT LOUD BEFORE?
A guest essay by MBA editor Verônika Shulman
It might actually be the end of the world. There was a fish spotted in Japan that, according to mythology, only comes at the end of the world.
The planet is getting hotter. “For laborers,” the New York Times writes, “not working because of extreme temperatures can mean not eating.” One study I read said that we only have seven more summers outside. Seven. My goddaughters will not even be twenty.
When you get an Americano at Eataly or buy a new pair of Levi’s, you get the mistaken impression that everything is okay. But I feel something brewing. We watched years ago as Russian Facebook ads helped get Trump elected. We know in our hearts that social media makes us feel icky. That it makes our stomachs churn. Like cigarettes, however, we return for more. Just this pack, then I’m finished. “I’m a social smoker.”
Today, the war in the Middle East ravages the earth. Ukraine and Russia continue to fire at each other like it’s a video game. The Congolese government is crumbling. And yet, it concerns me that we get this information not by book, not by newspaper, not by critical discourse in college classes, but by sometimes clunky, sometimes classy infographics…on Instagram.
Who makes them? We don’t really know.
Do they have skin in the game? We don’t really know.
Who does the algorithm benefit? This one, we know. Are they trying to keep us quiet, make us dumber and more obedient? If we feel empty, we will buy more things. We will be hungry.
In the words of poet Saul Williams, your diet is not just what you eat. It’s everything you consume. It fatigues me to see the world suffering and then in the same breath to jump to a grainy paparazzi photograph of Lily-Rose Depp. Is it healthy to consume information this way? I just feel that it can’t be.
And yet at the end of the day, I believe in both sacrifice and indulgence.
So, here is my vow, to you.
Rather than starve myself of the internet entirely, I promise to engage with others on the things I care about in real life. Over a bowl of pasta. Or something.
We are changing the world, whether we like it or not, just by being alive. So we might as well do it right. We must. Open the minds of those we hold close, and then let them open ours. Leave our phones at home when we go out (sometimes, it’s so liberating, seriously). Plug in our spirits instead. Open mouths. Open hearts. Our questions are our greatest weapons.
If these are our last years months days on earth, let us try to understand each other.
Let us learn each other’s languages.
Let us listen to each other’s favorite songs.
Let us sing each other’s harmonies.
And let us dance.
[Come talk about real life things every Sunday with Verônika at Good Housekeeping in Highland Park at 6 pm starting June 30. x]