Stop Looking At Each Other

Kylie Jenner’s second pregnancy, a secret she had kept from the public, was uncovered by TikTokers who noticed the inconsistency in her manicures across various platforms, leading them to deduce that she was posting with old photos. That’s how closely we watch one another.

We often compare social media to Orwell’s surveillance state of 1984 , but here’s what’s different about our telescreens: our screens do not exist to monitor us, but for us to monitor others.

Lifestyle influencers who speak to their millions of followers as if they were close friends demonstrate this point exactly. Voyeurism is ingrained in our culture, in genres like “Day In The Life”, “Get Ready With Me (GRWM)”, or “Outfit Of The Day (OOTD)”. You get to gossip with her as she puts on her makeup, see her family in their unposed moments... See more

Even on a local scale, the more connected you are, the lonelier you feel. As Freya India wrote on After Babel:

Many of us don’t have friends anymore; we have followers. We don’t deeply care about each other’s lives; we consume them as content. We don’t have people we can be vulnerable with; we have people who view our Stories. It’s hard to tell if w

... See more

“I don’t want Big Tech to sell my data.” “I don’t want employers to stalk me.” Not wanting to be watched is a valid reason to be anti-social media.

We often compare social media to Orwell’s surveillance state of 1984 , but here’s what’s different about our telescreens: our screens do not exist to monitor us, but for us to monitor others. There is n... See more