On living life online and the dark forests of the Internet

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

To some, the answer is no because there’s no one there to perceive it.      

I think about this question a lot when it comes to living on the Internet these days. Growing up during the Myspace, Facebook and Instagram eras, we’ve grown accustomed to sharing our lives online. At first, to an audience of our close friends, but later to a wider audience of acquaintances, and sometimes strangers. What started as ‘sharing’ in earnest gradually morphed into what feels like ‘broadcasting’:

Instead of having a direct conversation with the few friends who post a comment to, say, ask what makeup product we’re wearing in a picture, we broadcast the answer on Instagram Stories: ‘People have been asking! Here’s what it is!’ And maybe include an affiliate link. The friends who reach out for connection are relegated to spectators. We end up not really talking to them at all.    

- Kate Lindsay & Nick Catucci, ‘You can’t innovate away loneliness’

Other online communities have felt splintered in the past few years from the selling of Twitter to artists leaving Instagram in droves due to their stating that they will use public posts as data to train their AI models – not to mention our general trust in online platforms has been deteriorating in the past few years and many are just opting out overall. Having moved provinces last year and just having friends moving away from cities in general, I find maintaining my online connections to be just as important as my in-person ones. I’m just a little lost on where to go right now.

The Dark forest theory

While thinking about this I stumbled across the dark forest theory – which I think aptly describes the kind of shift I’ve been feeling about spending my time online:

“Dark forests like newsletters and podcasts are growing areas of activity. As are other dark forests, like Slack channels, private Instagrams, invite-only message boards, text groups, Snapchat, WeChat, and on and on. This is where Facebook is pivoting with Groups (and trying to redefine what the word “privacy” means in the process).”

“In response to the ads, the tracking, the trolling, the hype, and other predatory behaviors, we’re retreating to our dark forests of the internet, and away from the mainstream.”

- Yancey Strickler, ‘The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet’

Back to the falling tree thing – I often wonder / worry if people will remember me if I’m not posting publicly online anymore. I also don’t know what, or who I would post for right now (relatedly, this is the first time in a long time I haven’t held a ‘creative’ job so maybe I have less to share, and I’m feeling a bit of loss around that. More on that later).

All of this to say– maybe I’ll tend to this newsletter more. I’m trying to find joy in creating things again. Maybe I’ll consume media and engage in community in a more thoughtful and meaningful way. In the meantime, I’m always just a Zoom/phone call away :)