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  1. Galaxy BrainCharlie Warzel6/9/2112 min
    15 reads7 comments
    9.0
    Galaxy Brain
    15 reads
    9.0
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    • thorgalle
      Top reader this weekScoutScribe
      2 years ago

      You might join a Facebook group about Weber Grills and then join a few more at the social network’s suggestion and, three years later, storm the Capitol building.

      Posting this again, just to recommend a nice New York Times podcast "miniseries" about this exact phenomenon: Rabbit Hole.

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      2 years ago

      Has anybody been watching Inside? This review is amazing.

      • stphac2 years ago

        I've watched it twice and had it in the background at least three times more. I've also had the album on loop multiple times.

        Thank you for sharing this review! I've been hankering for other people's thoughts on Inside and was getting tired of reactions on YouTube (see also: Unpaid Intern segment).

        I cannot get enough of his visuals in this film. I think '30' should be released as a clip because more people need to see it.

      • jayvidya2 years ago

        Yes I watched it a few weeks ago and found it incredible !!!

      • thorgalle
        Top reader this weekScoutScribe
        2 years ago

        Yes! Have you? This review is great! I watched Inside without knowing any of Bo's background. It was funny, disturbing, confusing, cynical.

        It’s funny and clever and disturbing and representative of what it’s like to dip into a social feed at any moment. It feels a bit like channel surfing every single human emotion at random.

        The way the author interprets the flood of online content is something writers have been doing for some time; I'm thinking of Patricia Lockwood's "The Communal Mind", and my Readup fav "My Instagram" by Dayna Tortorici). So many thinkers reflecting on this.

        As my former Times colleague Taylor Lorenz details in a number of her excellent stories, it’s not uncommon for younger, influencer raised internet citizens to see IRL events primarily as opportunities to make content.

        Ah, this exactly was also observed by Harari in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, in one of his mindfulness coaching passages:

        If something exciting happens, the gut instinct of Facebook users is to pull out their smartphones, take a picture, post it online, and wait for the ‘likes’. In the process they barely notice what they themselves feel. Indeed, what they feel is increasingly determined by the online reactions.

        Burnham’s internal dialogue is at its most illuminating when he talks about atoning for problematic parts of his past or trying to navigate his privilege as a famous white guy. There’s a hall of mirrors quality: he’s trying to earnestly reckon with himself and his actions, but he’s also mocking the self-serving reality of doing that reckoning via a Netflix comedy special.

        Well put. This mocking got meta, meta-meta-meta even, to the point where I was left confused at what Bo's intention was. Satyrical inception.

    • bartadamley2 years ago

      Whoa great find @bill.

      I have added Bo Burnham's "Inside" netflix special to "my list" and have been meaning to watch this. I cannot recommend enough viewing his previous comedy specials, as he has a very unique approach to his comedy interweaving a great sense of humor & legitimate musical talent.

      His thoughts on how life under digital conditions is harming our view of our everyday realities.. are quite striking.

      “being nostalgic for moments that haven’t happened yet.” It’s a life lived on multiple time scales, he argues, where kids are “planning [their] future to look back at it.”

      It is one thing to see it in yourself: and then a whole other factor seeing it in kids. If we always waiting for that next moment in which we have the chance to create a "photo opp" . . . we are going to miss the music of life that is continually dancing all around us.

      Really cool to see Burnham's work progress to this point philosophically. Will definitely plan on watching the "Inside" special this week.

      • thorgalle
        Top reader this weekScoutScribe
        2 years ago

        legitimate musical talent

        Yep, Welcome to the internet became an earworm for me.

        And the passage you quoted, yes... I think that if you'd be posting things like Instagram Stories daily, like many are, you're training the mind to think "Would this moment/view be nice to share?" - and it would be impossible to avoid that thought. Which indeed sounds at odds with "enjoying the moment", or the music of life as you put it.