Millennial Anger, Tall Trees, The Internet We'll Leave Behind

It's your VFD Member's Links.

I finished reading Book 2 of Knausgaard’s My Struggle series a few weeks ago (I know) and then I read Halle Butler’s The New Me. Both are books about angst and reality and internal anger, a certain kind of bitterness wrapped in a warm hug. I guess they’re about relationships, too, and our own individual place in the world.

Everything about Knausgaard has already been written — but he is most successful in putting you into some sort of dull trance (I’m selling it), mindlessly pouring over a stranger’s life in exact detail (I’m really selling it). It has the effect of obstructing the way you read other texts — in that I read The New Me while quite consciously wanting to know more about the characters, despite Butler doing more than enough.

Anyway, they’re both good, and seem to compliment each other well.

This Week:

I have been thinking about the internet we’re living in now and are rapidly leaving behind. Seems to be there’s a certain lens put on our digital experience, largely reflecting the market’s approach to Big Tech, that treats every new feature or initiative as an idea made to succeed or fail. But I think there are a few major changes in the works, around AI, around paid access, around a gated internet, and around verification, that represents more about the internet we are leaving behind. More on that later…

I also have been thinking about a certain amount of misunderstanding in the culture around Millennial anger, treated often as something that contrasts Boomer success (which it does). But I see a future where the Millennial gatekeeping and generation-angst is filled up with the less physical (can’t buy a house, anyway). They will be the first to grow up and age out of internet culture. Could be messy. More on that, in a bit.

Anyway, the links…