/lit/ - Literature

>>20976951
Interesting observation and rather fortuitously relevant to something I'm working on.

I'm weirdly fascinated by what the internet is doing to zoomers and inversely what zoomers are doing to the internet and the broader implications for media studies these generational developments betoken.

In broad outlines the evolution of media consumption has followed this general trajectory. Some of this has been said before but it deserves to be expanded on.

Among adults aged around 50 and above, the media habit is mainly defined by the passive consumption of "static" , non-interactive media products. So watching a movie for example.

For millennials the emphasis has shifted more toward interaction, though primarily through textual interfaces. 4chan and imageboards are actually a relic of primarily millennial image-based and textual content production and consumption habits. Vidya is another big example.

What's going on with zooms is a but more subtle. It's not only that they are doing the same thing as millennial but across more modalities. Although as the technology has become able to support it video has overtaken text and static images . It's a whole different beast.

What's different with zoomers is that their media habits is that it is immersive and embedded. Which is to say, it is not about mere media consumption, it's a genuine surrogate activity , a cheap and misguiding substitute for IRL socialization.

Twitch as you point out is one good example . As a kid I remember enjoying watching my older brother playing video games while we were together and he was better at them and would play the ones I was too scared of (like RE). So I get the appeal of twitch streaming. However me watching my brother play games as a young kid had some semblance of a genuine human connection involved. Twitch at best creates a hollow illusion of that. In a way this is a form of subtle exploitation of the unfulfilled intimacy and loneliness of zoomers.

There's also tiktok but what's really concerning as it pertains to the perversion of intimacy among zoomers is OnlyFans. One thing I noticed about zoomers is how extreme their casualness toward sex is, a product no doubt of the normalization of internet porn.

This has resulted in a culture that encourages sexual exhibitionism . Basically any zoomer who is popular and attractive on tiktok will be hounded incessantly to create an OnlyFans account by their generational peers. Said individuals are then both socially and potentially monetarily incentivized to follow through on it.

Despite how casual and irreverent zoomers are about sex, and despite how much many of them tell themselves a libertine attitude toward sex is normal, I do believe this self-exposure pipeline causes meaningful harm to their understanding of intimacy and emotional damage.

From the consumer's side, OF creates a different kind of simulated intimacy that is even far more abnormal than something like twitch streaming.