"Influencers are not just people who sell things. They are the thing being sold." interesting so even though they're paid to do that there is still something about them that's being "sold" since usually they say if something is free, like a service, you're the product 🤔 i liked his performance for the nostalgia & it felt like a chill hangout but there *is* something unsettling about his whole career being recorded

specifically for consumption, i'd be happy if i had everything of my life backed up for me, but not publicly to sell and have scrutinized forever... being an influencer sounds like it sucks what are you influencing if anything *you* are being influenced by everyone and everything for the sake of your livelihood

@Grey Saw your post about his Coachella performance last month! I totally enjoyed it as well but was really really nagged about the idea of it being a power move or something that was the complete opposite... the word 'influencer' has always been a bit of a con to me. You're not influencing anything, you're being continuously shaped by an audience, an algorithm, and a brand deal, all at once.

The product is you but you don't own any of it...

Well said. Especially as someone who has been (unfortunately) studying business as a part of their major, you really see what...they think of creatives & how they'll do anything in their power to commodify you or (with the rise of AI) replace you. Not to mention how they treat the everyday worker (had a professor explain why unions were bad & why they shouldn't be a thing)

But all of that to say that dehumanization economically & financially makes its way into our culture & media. How they treat what gets regurgitated to us through all screens or radios--& how even though something like Bieber did could just be normal to someone not batting an eye, it's really eye opening to the state of culture in our modern day, speaking from an U.S perspective. idk if that made sense. bazinga.

absolutely elegant segue from biebs to 9/11 and back again. i loved your final call to arms to make weird stuff. a counterculture is still possible, i think???

@lee made total sense very well said!!

@anthill TY I was worried that it felt out of left field for everyone so that's reassuring.

I do think we're already in the early stages of a counterculture, honestly — the indie web is a pretty good sign of that. But it's too early to tell where it's headed or whether it'll hold.

The tricky thing is that countercultures run on the feeling of being part of something exclusive, something not everyone has found yet and the second that feeling gets too big, the machine notices and comes for it. The hipsters went through exactly that cycle. So did punk. So did every subculture that ever meant something. The question is whether this one is small and slippery enough to survive,,,

Thank you! c: I see peak on your site brb

I read Colleen Hoover's Woman Down, start to finish, and it was such a fun read for all the wrong reasons.

i bought the first ACoTaR for this reason haha. i also own a few Colleen Hoovers.

@brittany Woman Down is my first impression of her, excited to explore some more actually..

i read colleen hoover's 'ugly love' a while ago! part of me still wants the time i spent reading it back LMFAO. wouldn't recommend it at all, but i have to admit that i found it very (painfully) entertaining...

@her-letters Loll the title alone is calling my name...

don't have the energy to read what i like imagine reading something i don't, nope lol though i enjoy hearing about those who do hate-read/watch something

@grey RELATABLE but somehow there is this itch in my soul that seeks out this kind of entertainment 😭😭

Considering it already takes me a bit to bring myself TO read (between school & work), if I don't enjoy what I'm reading in that moment I drop it pretty quick. I once dropped this book my senior year of highschool because it was like...every bad Y/A trope after 18 pages. Plus the formatting was a atrocious. A PUBLISHED PIECE BY THE WAY. Something was in the water to have our book club advisor assign that book.

I read “it ends with us” a while back. If you can sit through bad writing, a weirdly edgy main character, and some contrived plot points, it’s really not that bad!

Atlas Shrugged. Couldn't finish it.

same ^ ayn rand's influence has been catastrophic, and her writing is ass. not a fun hate-read

I've tried to read bad books for entertainment w/ my friends, but even w/ ppl to talk about it with, I just found it excruciatingly painful and I couldn't see it thru.

Happy Birthday!

Happy bday ^w^)/ 🎉

Happy birthday!!!

happy birthday!! *<|:D

happy birthday! ^^

aw happy birthday!

Happy birthday.,!,!!,!!

happy bday ^_^

Happy birthday! Hope it's a good one :)

welcome to the 28s, happy birthday!!!

Happy Birthday(*^^)v☆ミ

Happy birthday!!

today's the youngest you'll ever be again! does time feel like it's speeding up for you?

Thank you, everyone!!

@simplescott it really does seem like that these days!

Ooh look at those lil guys swaying in the breeze, very lovely! Ty also~

julian being hair inspo is so relatable lol

all roads lead to Julian xD