#30 - I don't want AI to roast me I want community.
Are you sure you’re doing good by your friends, by your peers, by your industry?
It’s a mad train of thoughts today, but WTF is wrong with us, as a species.
How did I watch many of my creative friends follow this AI-roasts-my-profile? Are we slowly losing critical thinking?
And I’m including myself like, don’t get me wrong, I feel stupider than I was at 15, in many ways.
How can we jump on all these trends without thinking that we’re turning into AI’s Pets? And not in a tin-hat way, but really, why would you want an AI model to give you feedback? Seek feedback with an emotional involvement, seek conversation. Ask your peers, ask your friends, connect with PEOPLE. I sound old, but being online feels so lonely lately – we’re connected but not really, switchable on/off like we’re tamagotchis. I hate it. Cursed by early internet, all feels so sour now, I wish I could just go offline sometimes.
I wish all was more..human. I want trends to be uplifting, but they don’t feel like that. I want trends that pull us together, that connect us, that generate that special buzz. The internet has become, or at least this is how I feel about it now, a really angry and sad place. Each to their own, each one isolated but ready to bite. It’s no place for union, collaboration, connection.
Believe me, I have tried. I have tried shout outs and call outs and thing is, no one shares, no one cares, not many want to spend that minute trying to work for something bigger, something communal. I have enough fingers to count the people in my wider circle that are willing to talk, share, create a network, create movement, support and energy. The rest, is passive participation. Voyeurs of others. Vultures of others even.
We are ready to spend (any meaning: time, money, energy…) for stuff so far from us, yet our friends are struggling. We’re waiting for the next celebrity drop like we depend on it, but are not able to show support to people close to us. Even something so trivial like a like, a comment, a purchase. A symbolic way to say I’m here, I believe you, I support you.
I posted this on my insta and within a few hours, there’s like 100+ little hearts showing that I am not the only one feeling like this. But then again, are you sure you’re doing good by your friends, by your peers, by your industry?
Many people that left a little heart and maybe felt good about themselves there, I have NEVER seen publicly engage in community. I have never seen share, I have never received a comment from. I am not bitter, not anymore. I used to be mad at my friends and peers for not supporting my craft, now I’m just resigning to the idea that maybe not everyone wants to be doing well amongst people that do well. Maybe some people want their well-doing to feel unique, special, above others.
But why did I have to see a friend announce that she will QUIT her industry, to finally see some engagement from her followers, clients and friends? Would it not have been a lot nicer to support her WHILE she was trying to craft her place with her work rather than be there with flowers and farewells?
Enough with this avoidant attachment style. Yes, social media is vain, its not the real world etc. But we spend so much time online, and for some of us, our business relies on it… so is it really? I don’t want social media to feel like shouting my ideas into the abyss. I want us all to be a bit more critical of how we use it. I want to support and feel supported, not lonely and a bit delusional.
I think it’s vital that we make sure we don’t loose THIS part of being online, the communities and engagement, the mutual support that is native to it – even if the platforms, the methods and the currency change.
Do you feel a bit bad now? GOOD! Now go champion your friends, go be a shoulder, a cheerleader, a confidant, even a critic when needed. Share their work, be vocally proud of them. Do one good thing for the industry you work in. Do one good thing for your friend that is online with their business.
I’ll go first.
Here’s three (technically four as one is a duo) really cool people you should be keeping an eye on.
XOXO
G