here are two concepts that one must understand axiomatically before embarking on the journey this post wishes to take you on.
first, the attention economy: fukkrbook, gzoozle, microshaft, tickle-my-tcock, etc. they operate their entire business models on the premise that they can make money from you staring at screens. but staring at screens has been a business model tried for arguably thousands of years with limited results.
second, the fourth wall. in theater, when a character inside the imaginary world addresses the audience outside the confines of their known universe, they are breaking the third wall. until recently, this was uncommon. it was considered a cheap trick because it disrupted the flow and psychologically it might interrupt the shared attentional state. it can be likened to pulling the fire alarm in the brain.
so what is this new fangled technology? it’s the one in which the owners of media figured out how to grab your attention by constantly pulling your fire alarm.
wait, what?
have you ever pulled up one of those 7-second clip apps and felt like they were talking directly to you? yes, of course you have. it’s a trick that takes advantage of your primate brain. brains can be extremely focused, with good reason. that gazelle you’re hunting on the savannah, for instance. but what happens when the lion starts hunting you? another primate in your vicinity, potentially sharing an attentional state with you, notices and alarms you by screaming your name and warns you to watch out and run! run! run! you are about to die! the imaginary world, the hunt, is interrupted by the fire alarm, and the fourth wall is broken.
i’ll reintroduce a famous example. imagine you have just read plato’s allegory of the cave. imagine you are a spectator in a cave, chained to a rock and forced forever to look at the back wall, the “screen” — if you would kindly allow the semantic synesthesia — the screen which is showing you the shadows of the “actors” in the back of the room. all your life you have believed that the shadows were your reality. but strangely, they have never interacted with you. your reality has consistently consisted of the imaginary realms of others. now, imagine that suddenly one of the shadows on the wall starts talking to you!!! yes you!!! oh my, your primate brain says, me!! it’s talking to me!!! it then tells you that you need to run! run! run! you are in danger! how exciting! you are part of the imaginary action!
but wait. this is an imaginary world and you are functionally imaginary. you have never used those legs. your arms are atrophied. you can barely sit up straight because your core muscles are weak and useless. think: matrix.
then why would you care about the third wall being broken? you don’t exist. this is all imaginary.
wrong! your primate fire alarm has been pulled. your brain now produces, quite involuntarily, a series of chemicals. these chemicals elevate your heart rate, change your blood pressure and alter your state of consciousness. your neurochemistry changes. you are now a double captive. you must now endure the imagined world as though it were real.
here’s the fun part. we do it all the time and have for hundreds of thousands of years. storytelling, cave paintings, theater, etc. it lasts a couple of hours and then we go back to our physical lives and our blood pressure drips to normal.
but the attention economy has short circuited that. they have first and foremost lied to you. the third wall is not talking to you. the shadows on the cave wall are not talking to you. they are talking to thousands of fools like you — perhaps millions. and since you are unaware of this, they are tapping directly into the part of tour brain that allows you to be programmed by your peers. and they are doing it 24 hours a day and have been for decades. and they are burning you out and confusing you. your poor neurons!
so next time you sit down to watch all those news shows talking directly to you, or the pundits talking directly to you, or the 7-second influencer hacks talking directly to you, remember that they are not talking to you at all. it’s a cheap trick and you fell for it. no wonder you can’t sleep, can’t shit right, and eat everything in sight. your poor primate brain has been running a fire drill since the day you were born. oh, and you are chained to a wall watching shadows talk to you! go power!