Dematerialisation.

craner

craner

Beast of Burden
version said:
I tried paying for drinks in cash a couple times last night and got the same slightly embarrassed look and response from staff that they don't do that anymore. Strange feeling to have something once so fundamental disappear before your eyes. Feels like you're inconveniencing people now. A dirty old world thing, like smoking cigs.
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It's wonderful to see you out and about again
 
version

version

Well-known member
An intriguing and somewhat disturbing development in my personal life was seeing my mum a while back and learning she follows a bunch of people on Instagram who are documenting themselves dying of cancer.

She says it motivates her to get out and live, but she doesn't really do much and just scrolls through their feeds like she used to scroll through the Daily Mail. It's all a bit morbid, like the narrator in Fight Club attending the support groups for various diseases he doesn't have.

The reason I post this here is because my mum's mum's pushing 90, has some form of dementia or memory loss, just had cataract operations on both eyes and elicits less sympathy than these strangers she's in parasocial relationships with on Insta.

To be fair to her, my gran's an absolute nightmare, there's bad blood between them and dealing with illness in person is incredibly messy and stressful, but it's fascinating to see this sanitised, digital package of illness sucking up all her goodwill whilst there's almost nothing but resentment towards the actual person in her life in a comparable position.
 
version

version

Well-known member
She's said when the people she currently follows die then she won't follow any others because it's too depressing, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the algorithm put her onto a new cast of characters, like the next series of a reality show.
 
ghost

ghost

Well-known member
Lots of these online sickness influencers turn out to not be sick at all, it's a whole scene. Good grift and easier to do it if you're not ill too, you've got a lot more energy and all that, you can figure out exactly when you need to drop the GoFundMe. Sad thing is that some get too into it, start giving themselves illnesses so they have good things to photograph. And then there's a whole parallel ecosystem of doctors who have a sick fixation on the idea that all their patients are faking it, who document and mock the fakers in great detail. They love when someone intentionally gives themselves gangrene or something. Horrible all around.
 
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version

version

Well-known member
Yeah, I did mention to her I wouldn't be surprised if some of them weren't ill at all and she just waved it away.
 
shakahislop

shakahislop

Well-known member
version said:
She's said when the people she currently follows die then she won't follow any others because it's too depressing, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the algorithm put her onto a new cast of characters, like the next series of an incredibly dark reality show.
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there's an article in the most recent edition of The Drift that's about people who post on forums about how all these sick people are faking it
 
version

version

Well-known member
A healthy person feigning illness or genuinely trying to cultivate illness could be an example of rematerialisation. An attempt to reassert the presence of the body.
 
shakahislop

shakahislop

Well-known member
i can't remember what that article says, it was OK i think. i was sat in a cafe grumpy reading it last weekend while the barista was for some godforsaken reason reading Bronze Age Pervert as though that was an acceptable thing to do in public, i had to pretend i didn't know what it was, but unfortunately I had listened to that bellend talk shit for four hundred hours when they interviewed him on red scare, and i didn't want to sit in a hipster coffee shop (the coffee shop made famous by Girls nontheless) and mention fucking anna and dasha like a big nerd and then asking about some stupid right book the barista is reading before sitting down to read dean fucking kisseck writing about the avant garde in Drift, this shit is just embarrassing, but this has happened twice now and if it happens again i'm going to have to have to ask why this nonbinary person is reading that book
 
version

version

Well-known member
shakahislop said:
i can't remember what that article says, it was OK i think. i was sat in a cafe grumpy reading it last weekend while the barista was for some godforsaken reason reading Bronze Age Pervert as though that was an acceptable thing to do in public, i had to pretend i didn't know what it was, but unfortunately I had listened to that bellend talk shit for four hundred hours when they interviewed him on red scare, and i didn't want to sit in a hipster coffee shop (the coffee shop made famous by Girls nontheless) and mention fucking anna and dasha like a big nerd and then asking about some stupid right book the barista is reading before sitting down to read dean fucking kisseck writing about the avant garde in Drift, this shit is just embarrassing, but this has happened twice now and if it happens again i'm going to have to have to ask why this trans (i think) person is reading that book
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I get the impression the people who like that stuff get into it somewhat ironically then eventually just start to like and agree with it after being immersed in it for so long.
 
shakahislop

shakahislop

Well-known member
version said:
I get the impression the people who like that stuff get into it somewhat ironically then eventually just start to like and agree with it after being immersed in it for so long.
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how the actual fuck do you read a book ironically its not possible
 
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