Source: Aaron Ross Powell
by Aaron Ross Powell
“So much of being online is constructing and performing identity. You present yourself as something to people listening to, reading, or watching what you choose to put online, and that “something” isn’t who you really are. … This sounds grim: You’re just a brand you’ve constructed. My Marxist friends would say it’s another example of the late capitalism draining us of humanity. But let me push back. Because there’s something amazing and optimistic and encouraging about this. Online, you get to be who you want, or who you can figure out how to present. And you can be that thing consistently. You can, in other words, go all-in on your obsessions. … Except. The other thing about the online world, as it is now in its major structures, even if not as it always used to be, is that there are metrics. And metrics interfere with, smooth out, and dissipate obsessions.” (09/16/26)