Because The Internet (Life as a troll)

Popularizing the internet was met with a big problem, that it would generate an existential crisis within the population. The internet would unlock so many dimensions and doors for the mind that it would struggle to distinguish reality from fables. Not that the internet would cause a cognitive decline but rather that the lines would be so blurred and so thin that reality and the internet would objectively constitute as one. Unsupervised, the internet would be a black hole, sucking humanity off its roots into an abyss – uncharted territory, for the mind to find its feet in a world of subjective space. However, the internet had been humanities greatest achievement. Our denial of death resulted in the concoction of forever. With the advent of the internet we could do whatever we wanted. It was a terrific tool. Communication barriers would be bridged. Entertainment widespread and rife and instant gratification would be the norm. Not making this available to the general public would be the greatest injustice in the history of humankind. It would deem us primitive in the context of time. Humanity needs this leap to fulfil what our soul’s desire the most – immortality.

In 2013, Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino released an album titled “Because the Internet” and it is about the struggle between real life and the internet. The album sounds like it is staged on the internet, like a blog – it is subjective yet crowded, authentic and reflects the times of this recently constructed timeline of the internet. It is scattered with different sounds and music, indicating the vast and different worlds on the internet. On the song “II. Worldstar” Gambino, mocks people who spend most of their time on the entertainment website (worldstarhiphop.com) watching fights instead of engaging with life. The album explores existentialism, the meaning of life, death, boredom, depression, love and fabricated happiness. He uses the internet as a metaphor to contrast it with life, especially with the notion that life is a loop. To communicate this point he makes the first track of the album and the last seconds of the last track on the album the same. The album loops and ever ends indicating the subjects covered in the album form part of a repetition in the game of life and the internet. Lupe Fiasco testifies on this sentiment on his hit single “Old School Love” when he states “Your future is somebody else’s past”. On the last song of the album he makes a bold declaration indicating that the internet and life is one of the same thing and that there’s no major distinction – life is a troll and the joke is on us. His words echo Horace Walpole who once stated “Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.” Glover extends his sentiments on the comic nature of life when he states “Funny, the day you born that’s really your death sentence.” The internet has the power to preserve and immortalize your spirit but once you are gone, your spirit is looped in the realm of time creating a pathological order in the world: so much for immortality, the joke is on you, for if you elevate your perspective you’ll see yourself as a grain of sand on a dessert. There’s no such thing as immortality.

You have to marvel at Glover’s intelligence, the album is a masterpiece. The internet has devoured reality perceived through our senses. What constitutes as reality is no longer objective but subjective. The Internet used to be abstract but it’s a very real thing now. Reality is blurred. The internet has immersed itself with our senses. We have become cyborgs – one with our smartphones that are connected to the internet and artificial intelligence. We cannot live without the internet. It has opened up doors that are impossible to close. Galaxies that are impossible to count and personas that need to be fed. We feared the internet would turn illusions into reality, we feared that it would leave us disconnected, we feared that it would make our minds passive, we feared over indulgence would lead to addiction, we feared that it would leave us lost – and it has, it has done everything and more. But it is still one of the coolest things we have invented. Life has improved, we have developed into a multifaceted species with god-like powers! When we finally get the meaning of life it will be because the internet – just kidding! There is no meaning.

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