Arma virumque cano

I sing of arms and men. Possibly a good way to describe this Blog - possibly not. I have decided that, as someone with many humble and many not so humble opinions, it is time to create my own blog - in true oldschool internet fashion. As for what that means to me - I get to tell stories, opinions and thoughts - basically whatever the fuck I feel like sharing - and whoever reads this blog - well, they get to read it. If you decide that my opinion is trash, my hypothetical absurd or my reasoning utterly illogical, feel free to send me an email and I will (potentially) adhere to what you have to say. This blog will (probably) mostly be about philosophy, computer science and current events that I’m interested in.

“Why the fuck are you blogging in 2024?”

I find it most absurd that what the internet has evolved to through social media is essentially one huge blob of advertisements - in a literal sense and in a symbolic sense. If you look at modern social media like instagram, snapchat or twitter, you will find that the most signicant part of these platforms consist of advertisements - for products, for bodies, for businesses or simply for people. The main problem with this is that advertisements are - by definition - superficial because they are biased and give limited insight to the actual object - or subject - that is being advertised for. And although I myself quite enjoy scrolling through instagram or twitter to look at memes or see the latest gossip, I have found it to be a lot more interesting to read blog posts. Blogs are fundamentally different from modern social media because they are - at least nowadays - made with the sole purpose of sharing thoughts and opinions without anything else in mind - simply because there is nothing else you can do with a blog.
But Louis, if you say blogs are so great, then why are blogs dying out?

Charles Darwin versus the Blogosphere

If you consider blogs as an entity in an evolutionary scenario and the userbase of the internet the surrounding environment, then it is not really too big of a surprise that blogs are dying out. Back in the days when the internet was only really used by what were then considered “nerds”, the userbase of the internet was a lot different from today. Basically, if you used the internet, you were technologically proficient enough to be able to use the internet. Nowadays, being technologically proficient enough to use the internet means being able to tap an icon on your phone but the further you go back in time the more effort had to be put in to connect to the internet. And well, it just so happens that people who fall into this category of technological proficiency don’t usually take particular interest in superficial topics. But because nowadays virtually everyone is using the internet, the userbase has changed significantly and rendered the Blogoshpere essentially uninteresting to a wide majority of the userbase. Blogs are going extinct because they are as an entity not fit enough for the environment that they are facing nowadays.

Superficiality as a tool for fast judgement

The arising question is then: Are humans really that superficial on average?
Well, the answer seems to be a very clear yes. I remember reading latin literature in high school and some roman author was talking about the theater and that the most important thing was not the performance itself but rather videre viderique - to see and to be seen. The superficiality seen on modern social media is not a new phenomenon, it is simply natural human behaviour, which is now taking place in a (more or less) highly digitalized world. Now it seems like I’m being very critical and ranting about how terrible humans are but that is really just because superficial as a word has a quite negative connotation. Being superficial at times is not bad in essence - it helps to assess situations and make decent decisions based on limited available information. If I see a tiger then I’m gonna run as fast as I can - how superficial of me. Maybe the tiger was hurt badly and could have needed my medical attention and it did not have ill intent. Superficiality comes natural to humans because it is a very useful thing in many situations - especially the ones that a caveman might encounter.

Resisting the temptation of fast judgement

However, in modern society we have a lot less decisions to take and a lot more information available to us. Superficiality is wasted, if it is not connected to a concrete decision - in other words, why are you judging a situation when you don’t have to judge and you have too little information to assess the situation thoroughly? I have found that many people believe that they are entitled to a strong opinion even when they know very little about the topic, especially when it comes to politics and drama. That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to have an opinion on a topic that you don’t know all about - after all it is virtually impossible to fully understand complex scenarios. Nevertheless, humility is a very important aspect when encountering complex scenarios. Always be prepared to be wrong.
Therefore, disclaimer: I’m usually wrong and if I’m right, then probably not for the right reason ;)

“That’s a lot of yapping!”

Yes. Yes it is. I’m gonna go back to scrolling instagram now.