The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
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The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
Now “selling out” is tying your online identity to your IRL life and real name. In part, this is because one of the biggest impediments to countercultural activity is the fact that the internet doesn’t suppress expression—it forces you to express and then holds you accountable for whatever you say for years. On the platform, silence isn’t an option... See more
documentjournal.com • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
For one, anonymity, or at least pseudonymity, is increasingly important if not fundamental to being active online in counter-hegemonic ways.
Caroline Busta • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
To be truly countercultural today, in a time of tech hegemony, one has to, above all, betray the platform, which may come in the form of betraying or divesting from your public online self.
Caroline Busta • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
In context, these artists (like the psychedelic hippies of yore) were being literally countercultural—using culture against itself to violate the hegemonic push toward, in Allin’s and Rice’s case, neoliberal “responsibilization.”
documentjournal.com • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
What logic could possibly be upended by punks, goths, gabbers, or neo-pagans when the internet, a massively lucrative space of capitalization, profits off the personal expression and political conflict of its users?
Caroline Busta • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
“To be truly countercultural in a time of tech hegemony, one has to, above all, betray the platform which may come in the form of betraying or divesting from your public online self.”
documentjournal.com • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
Additionally, dark forest spaces are both minimally and straightforwardly commercial. There is typically a small charge for entry, but once you are in, you are free to act and speak without the platform nudging your behavior or extracting further value
Caroline Busta • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
“To be truly countercultural in a time of tech hegemony, one has to, above all, betray the platform which may come in the form of betraying or divesting from your public online self
Caroline Busta • The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
A truth specific to our time is that dissent against one level of authority is now very often driven by a deeper hegemonic force. Perhaps this is why, among many younger people (Greta Thunberg notwithstanding), there is less focus on battling current leaders and more interest in divining counter-futures