Let’s take one cup of YouTube, three teaspoons of Tiktok, a pound of big-tech and a sprinkle of global capitalism. Bake for ten years and what do you get? Connectionless art.
Wait, what? Let me explain. Some years ago after getting into photography, I noticed a strange phenomenon online: although a huge amount of art was being uploaded and viewed, people tend to care very little about it. I mean, think about it. Have you ever come across a really great photo or drawing online, viewed it for a few seconds, and went on scrolling? I certainly have. Every time I see the results of the latest photo contest, I scroll through them quickly and go on with my day, barely giving each photo more than five seconds’ glance.
After observing the behaviour of other users on various forums for art, my behaviour doesn’t seem to be atypical. So I wondered why, if these photos are so great, why do they have so little impact on me? Is it just that because the internet can show you so many great photos, I’m less impressed with just “more of the same”?
I think the answer is far deeper: the true root cause is that the internet and its big-tech platforms have slowly eradicated the aspect of personal connection in sharing art, thereby removing the most important aspect of all: the ability to communicate with another human being using artistic expression.
This “connectionless art” as I’ll call it is art that has been stripped of its humanity and is mainly used as quick morsels of entertainment in infinite scrolling algorithms. And that make sense: big-tech wants to show you as many ads as possible so it is in their best interest to eliminate human connection (and thus slower appreciation) as much as possible.
Moreover, the promotion of art in this way has in turn influenced art to become more devoid of human connection, and we play right into the hands of big tech: we design what we upload to be as attention-grabbing as possible, rather than focusing on the expression of our own souls.
The end result is that artistic expression of humanity is suppressed, and people who seek out art on the internet can’t do much except consume in a way that is entirely unsatisfying. Of course, this is again good for tech companies: they provide minimal stimulation with just enough reward so that we must come back, and the stifling of genuine human connection means we must come back for more and more, just like a drug addict needs more drug every time.
Personally, there are ways out. I rarely view photos and videos online any more, and exception for my professional photography, I only share with friends and family. Truly, I don’t care at all about connectionless art.
Yet, I worry for the health of humanity, connected to the perversion that is online platforms controlled by big tech: there is almost no value in connectionless art. But people participate anyway because it is their only mental escape from a world that is being entrenched with technology that we don’t need and whose construction demands ecosystem and climate collapse. It is incontrovertible that we all need human connection, and big tech companies main goal is to eliminate true human connection and tighten their grip on the monopoly of the poorest substitute that they provide with their destructive platforms.
Yes, there is some hope with certain platforms like Substack and Slowly that promote a slower way of interacting that is more personal, but by and large, the cultural phenomenon of sharing visual media has been usurped and abused by big tech to put an end to the expression of the human spirit in all but the most resilient of people and in all but the tiniest corners of the world. Of course, the true solution would be local community and in-person interaction, but that is the neatest trick of modern technology: it is also efficient at destroying communities and removing the dependence people had and needed for each other.
I can only see one healthy way forward: the complete destruction of big tech and the return of smaller communities, both online and especially offline. Companies like Google, TikTok, and Facebook should be taken down so that they cannot have global influence, for it is only strong global influence that has the ability to destroy local communities.
We also need to take some cues from the Amish in a new society: no, we don’t need to adopt their religion. But we could learn from them because they do structure their community so their in-person connections remain strong and their homes are free of digital technology that they realized long ago had the ability to corrupt the human spirit. In other words, we need to transcend global capitalism by finding new ways to place safeguards against opportunists from destroying artistic expression for profit.
It is only once we do this; once we develop stronger human relationships with each other, that we’ll return to an arena of the healthy sharing of the human soul and an eradication of the pathological phenomenon of connectionless art!