Does anyone feel like we are straddling a strange, important time that will divide history from the future? And that, despite these intense, radical shifts in our culture, very few people seem like they actually want to discuss it outside of the internet?
Perhaps that’s just my personal experience, meaning I can’t make a generalization. But I have been noticing this odd phenomena lately, which I have been struggling to name for some time. Whenever I go online, I have noticed and have engaged with many conversations unfolding that seem very important and significant–about work culture, late stage capitalism, war conflicts, alienation, loneliness, and other important shifts we’ve noticed unfold in the post-Covid era. These conversations seem to articulate and foreshadow massive cultural and consciousness shifts that may change the way we in the West have always lived.
Yet despite the seriousness of these conversations, they seem to be appearing much less in reality. As in, they appear online much more frequently than conversations around the dinner table, or amongst friends, colleagues, and acquaintances in the community.
In previous decades, before I knew much about the internet, I feel I would have just dismissed these online conversations as simply not “real” or at least not very significant. If people aren’t discussing these topics in person, then why should it matter? People online make up shit all the time. People have all sorts of opinions, that are both rooted in reality and not. So why should we get wound up about anything we read online if we’re not noticing the conversations appearing as frequently in our communities?
But the volume of this online information cannot be ignored. And evidence does seem to support that our world is indeed undergoing radical shifts in the way people are implying. As the internet has become so complex and vital to people’s everyday lives, its culture now affects and reflects our reality just as much as in-person interactions. As third spaces disappear, social media is currently where most average people gather to discuss politics and current events. So I am currently in a strange space where I find that conversations in the online world are actually reflecting the current political climate and cultural change better than conversations that are considered socially acceptable to have in person.
I am currently in a strange space where I find that conversations in the online world are actually reflecting the current political climate and cultural change better than conversations that are considered socially acceptable to have in person.
For example, online, many people seem perfectly happy to articulate that something very strange and important may be happening to American institutions of power, and by connection, Western power and cultural dominance around the globe. We have assumed, for our entire lives, that the United States was destined to “lead the free world” forever. Based on their wealth and dominance following WWII, we assumed that they, and by relation, the West—Europe and its former colonies of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—would also forever enjoy a degree of power, influence, and moral authority over not only their own citizens, but the rest of the world. The messaging communicated to us was often that, if the West’s dominance was ever to collapse, the world would be doomed, because we’d be leaving the world in the hands of countries that do not care about “freedom.”
But the idea of the world shifting into the hands of countries outside of the West appears as if it may actually already be happening. The power of and faith in the West, and thus our Western leaders and institutions, appears to indeed be collapsing, and online, there seems to be an awareness of this.
There are many articles and videos for example about how the West is currently in shambles. Many of us are living in countries that are being led by governments that do not have the support of the majority of their populaces while other leaders outside of the West seen like they are more generally supported. In some ways, it’s no wonder. Canada is experiencing a housing and fentanyl crisis, and our medical system, which has always been globally lauded, is under so much strain that we are now having people defect to America or opt for medically-assisted death rather than wait for care. Germany is experiencing massive protests and tensions, as is much of the rest of Europe.
And of course, there’s the United States of America, whose global influence appears to have been significantly damaged not only by their internal polarization and history of imperialism but also their involvement with two of the world’s biggest conflicts: the Russo-Ukrainian War and the genocide in Gaza. Despite all the money that America and the West have put behind Ukraine, they may still be losing. And America has been entirely outnumbered by the rest of the globe regarding their support for Israel.
Though America is currently trying to performatively backpedal, it cannot change the fact that the States has already failed to act as a leader in this conflict. They deliberately ignored the deaths of thousands of Palestinians civilians and voted against a ceasefire three times at the ICJ tribunal. They only began providing support to starving people in Gaza when forced, prompting other countries outside of the West to take the lead where they might not have before. Others are declaring that there may no longer be a global leader of the world at all anymore.
This was previously unfathomable. But we can see the results of the West’s decline in influence unraveling in real time, and people are indeed discussing this online. When the UK and France, for example, seemed like they were attempting to float the idea to their populaces that they were/are considering entering the war in Ukraine, rather than support, they received hundreds of responses of mockery and contempt instead, as many people are currently so unhappy with their own governments that the idea of going to war to die for them seems perhaps ludicrous at this time.
It raises an interesting question–if the West was actually to go to war for any major conflict at this time, would any of their people actually get behind their leaders and enlist? I can’t speak for everyone of course, but I imagine that a large percentage of Canadian Millennials and Zoomers are unlikely to fight for Justin Trudeau.
This is quite significant, but it’s not discussed in everyday conversations.
Faith in the West seems like it is fading to a more critically significant level. As well, there is a rise of criticism online for the American Dream and traditional Western cultural expectations and institutions. A quiet misery appears to live in the virtual world, an absence of hope that the Western system can adequately provide for even the basics of a comfortable life–food, a home, a stable career with growth and fair wages, the ability to connect with others and maintain a healthy social life, the ability to afford children. And these younger, unhappier generations are set to inherit the world as Boomers age.
These power shifts seem extremely important. But while I have seen a lot of acknowledgment about this online, I find it is not as loud outside the internet. I continue to participate in conversations I’ve always had with friends, family, and colleagues, as if it’s still 2010 and we’re not standing at the precipice of great change. ““How’s work?” “How are your children?” “What are you watching on Netflix?” “How was your weekend?”
Alone there is nothing wrong with those conversations. But why is there such a difference? Is it just personal? Are other people within circles where they do not feel this divide? I have to acknowledge this as a possibility.
But maybe, there just is a very real divide between what is being discussed in the virtual world and what is being discussed in person. Perhaps it indicates something about our generational divide–younger generations dominate the virtual world, while older generations still hold control of most institutions in reality. Maybe this affects the content of subjects and where and when people are comfortable having these discussions.
Or maybe these conversations really are living primarily online because they are not ready to enter water cooler conversations. Change is a frightening concept, after all. We don’t know what the end of the American Empire could actually look like, and maybe we’re not ready to discuss it if we don’t actually know for sure if it will happen.
Only time will tell if it will leave the online space or stay there.
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Good point, Eleanor. I find much more meaningful discussion of issues that are important to me online than in real life. Sure, there are some good conversations, but often we skip the more significant ones.