I wanted to look at a modern phenomenon through the eyes of a not so modern person, Luckily I’m fifty now and I qualify as not so modern.

For thousands of years people have communicated with each other, and for various reasons. We could speculate that in days past there might have been a good reason to make a noise, one that carried further than the human voice, that told the tribe trouble was on the way. Or we could contend, and likely be confident we are right, that humans have always enjoyed rhythms and sounds for the sake of pleasure, just as we do now.

Given that forms of communication, either for pleasure or information, have carried with us since the dawn of our species, it is a logical trajectory that links these initial non technical methods with the phenomenon that we know well today in X, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp (other social media is available). The goal is the same, it is only the method that differs. I could draw an unbroken line through all of human history, hitting chanting, smoke signals, drums, letters, Radio, postcards, vinyl, television, tapes, CDs, the internet, emails, instant messaging, DVDs, message boards, Blue Ray disks, Facebook, streaming, MP3s, chat forums, Zoom, X, and on and on, and it all makes perfect logical sense.

Each allows, and there are many others, for one human to share information for the attention of another human for some reason. Where I cannot find reason is in most of what I see on Tik Tok, I just don’t get how presenting yourself as yourself, is the conveyance of either information, or entertainment. To lip sync over someone else’s song with your face on camera seems pointless and without talent, like you are trying to shoehorn your person into a perceived participation in the event that exists already without you, while not adding any more value to it in any way other than your idea that people will want to see you do it. The ego involved here is staggering and may be part of the fragility of the modern young person and their often witnessed need for constant validation for just existing. Now I do not intend to put a dent in that fragility, but to imagine that the addition of you, and nothing else, enhances the media in any way seems ludicrous to anyone from my generation.

This is not karaoke, you are not singing, this is not a dance thing as you are not dancing, you are not playing an instrument or telling a joke, these are not your noises I am hearing. It is simply you, just a being in existence, added to a media that does not in any way need you. What I don’t understand, and maybe you could tell me, is how is this something that I am to get something from? I’d also like to know who it is that is getting something from this, and why?

Paul S Wilson