What Would Wallace Think?

We had our first meeting of the semester with Carissa to read pieces of DFW and discuss them (the best day of the week at the office for the conference interns!). This week we read My Appearance  and  E. Unibus Pluram and we have lots of thoughts that revolved around "what would wallace think about this?"

We all know from his apparent writing about television that he recognized the addiction to it and how it shaped us socially in many aspects of life (positively or negatively). I made a quick recap so we can discuss other topics instead.

• Having a relationship without the risk of putting in an effort
• Keeping a personal human connection without having to make an emotional effort and reciprocate the connection
• Irony of what we are seeing and what they are saying (characters)
• The model of the "American family" or any other family and how they live, but not having that be the reality because the only American family are the ones on television

The funny thing about television is that it shows actors playing "regular" people, but their lives are so exciting that they do not watch television themselves. This does not portray a "regular" family in America then because studies have shown that the average American household watches 6+ hours of television a day. Well that television show would not be that interesting if we watched television of people watching television of people watching television… 

This brought about the topic of having an addiction to keeping an emotional relationship with a device that can provide you all that you would need out of human interaction without actually having to interact with a human. 

We are not going as far as the movie "Her" by falling in love with your device, but just about fulfilling social discourses through television instead of humans.

So… What would Wallace think of:

• Netflix?
• Social media?
• Fandom?
• Cell phones?
• Texting?

These new addictions are because television is no longer enough. They could be worse because Netflix, for example, does not end when the episode ends. There are infinite (insert pun here) amount of television and movies to watch at the tip of your fingers, and wallet. But the real issue here is that these addictions are worse than television. The website gives you 15 seconds to decide if you want to continue watching another episode, which of course the answer is YES. 

Social Media might be the worst of this list because we are projecting ourselves onto a medium where other people will view our lives in one of two ways: perfect or a disaster. Either way, it is just the appearance of who we are and how we are presenting ourselves to the social media world. 

If we only post positive aspects of our lives (which is what would be expected), people will think our lives are perfect and that theirs should be as well. But our lives are not perfect, we are just choosing to have a positive appearance of ourselves online, therefore portraying the wrong image of ourselves.

On the flip side of that, if we post EVERYTHING that happens to us online, people will either think that social media is the only way we communicate with people and are not sincere. Did it really happen if you don't post a picture? If we post negative parts of our lives, or even our opinions, people will think we are only complaining and cannot find the goods things in life. 

We are not trying to bring ourselves down in the dumps, but recognize through DFW's filter the negative addictions of our lives and how they affect us every day in small ways that could eventually be a big way. Which on that list will be the new television addiction of the next generation of writers… the one we grew up with and see it as a piece of furniture and a necessity instead of a luxury? 

I am sure you all are aware of how much DFW's work makes your brain spin and that it might not be a good choice to read at the end of the day before bed. My brain is still spinning even after writing this blog!