This was strikingly on point, although I'm saddened it's mostly about the Internet, and only obliquely mentions the status games of office culture, wider adult culture, and pre-technology child's play.
One very, very uncomfortable feeling about the Internet is status-seeking, which is now omnipresent, feels a bit too good. I used to be able to socialize in places where I knew the interaction would lead nowhere -- acquire some status the time of the conversation, make people laugh, make people stay longer than they wanted, maybe buy me candy or silly things -- then leave and kinda calmly come down and sleep and forget about them. Nowadays it's all permeating everywhere and if I want to play the game it has to be "for real" spending a bit of time building up a persona, staying on a platform, knowing whatever happens may live forever on some server or the minds of the mostly random strangers I was trying to impress. The fun part happens a lot less fast, and in addition, you have to deal with it encroaching on your real life and the status games that actually matter much more. (For example, nosy interviewers who want my GitHub.)
There used to be, well, recreational status-seeking, and now, all recreation is status-seeking. You can't even go walk in a park without somebody almost having an accident trying to take a "unique" cellphone pic. I miss having "on" periods that are intense fun but temporary in nature and "off" alone calm periods no one sees. Please somebody turn off the social thingies and give me that world back.
One very, very uncomfortable feeling about the Internet is status-seeking, which is now omnipresent, feels a bit too good. I used to be able to socialize in places where I knew the interaction would lead nowhere -- acquire some status the time of the conversation, make people laugh, make people stay longer than they wanted, maybe buy me candy or silly things -- then leave and kinda calmly come down and sleep and forget about them. Nowadays it's all permeating everywhere and if I want to play the game it has to be "for real" spending a bit of time building up a persona, staying on a platform, knowing whatever happens may live forever on some server or the minds of the mostly random strangers I was trying to impress. The fun part happens a lot less fast, and in addition, you have to deal with it encroaching on your real life and the status games that actually matter much more. (For example, nosy interviewers who want my GitHub.)
There used to be, well, recreational status-seeking, and now, all recreation is status-seeking. You can't even go walk in a park without somebody almost having an accident trying to take a "unique" cellphone pic. I miss having "on" periods that are intense fun but temporary in nature and "off" alone calm periods no one sees. Please somebody turn off the social thingies and give me that world back.