Bo Burnham: Colonizing Our Minds in the Age of Social Media

what is a phone what the definition of a phone changes every single day like when's the right age to get a phone I don't know because by the time your kid gets to that age a phone is a completely different thing spiritually like I'm saying these things are like interacting with our souls in a deep level and that's the problem of the internet and that's the challenge obviously you guys have with young kids is that but that's like yeah good luck like having them like uh when my kid's nine he's not gonna have an iPhone yeah of course not because it's going to be plugged into his head or whatever at that point you know no but truly so like that that's the really hard thing is that and even with formulating opinions or making art about uh the internet um by the time you take the time this this is the problem of the internet in general by the time you take the time that is needed to think about something to articulate it it is obsolete kids are like walking through this like meta virtual reality world it's not that they think the the world in their phone is real it's they think the world in the real world is virtual and that this is actually actually just like a thing to be seen and everything I'm doing is actually a performance that can be captured and looked back on at any moment and I'm not just living moments I'm planning moments to look back on them it's very very strange and like heady they're coming for every second of your life that that's what these companies are coming to this company as well and it's not because anyone is bad it's not because anyone in this company has evil plans or is trying to do this they're not even doing it consciously it's because these companies like Twitter and uh YouTube and Instagram everything they went public and they went to shareholders so they have to grow their entire models are based off of growth they cannot stay stagnant YouTube Twitter grossed four or five billion dollars last year it is in the red it is unprofitable it has to get more of you that could be the ceiling for a place like this YouTube the ceiling could be three hours of Engagement no matter how nice it's trying to be it is all that they're trying to get more engagement from you we we used to colonize land that was the thing you could expand into and that's where money was to be made we colonized the entire Earth there was no other place for the businesses and capitalism to expand into and then they realized human attention that we can now they are now trying to colonize every minute of your life that is what these people are trying to do every single free moment you have is a moment you could be looking at your phone and they could be gathering information to Target ads at you that that's what's happening so like as much as we can you know as have really good conversations and try to humanize uh the conversations the like mechanism of the business is is rolling towards that just because of the market so like it's coming it's coming for every free second you have these content creators are wrestling with these difficult questions um of the sort of weird meta like hellscape that it is to be online it's weird it's weird and it's complicated and the kids know it and they sense it that's why their memes are all ironic and detached and self-referential and 12 layers deep because truth is completely dead to them and they know it they look at the president they look at the culture they go what the hell is this they look at like Coca-Cola commercials that are winking at them and smiling and they go like forget it you know so like oh I have no idea what's gonna happen

Channel: Mad Scientist

Views: 86,427

Keywords: Bo Burnham, Social Media, Bo Burnham corporations, Bo Burnham social media, Bo Burnham comedian, Eighth Grade movie, Eighth Grade (2018), Kelsie Fisher, Bo Burnham phones

Id: SUTbnjIHfkg

Length: 3min 19sec (199 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 03 2022