The Pioneer Newsletter #10

Wednesday, Nov 29th

Fringe Social Media

What’s your relationship status with social media? Is TikTok both your melatonin and alarm clock? When the world sets on fire or Chris Pine gets spat on, do you turn to X? [insert overplayed Twitter/X joke here]

I, myself am not a TikTok-fiend or X-head, but I do have a dramatic will they/won’t they love affair with Instagram. I’ll go months with it deactivated. Then, a few more as a browser-god exclusively. Finally, for largely professional intentions, such as promoting this newsletter or my Academy Award ineligible short Will Makes Rice, I find myself back on the app store holding a boom box above my head. You’d never believe it, but Instagram always takes me back. It’s not long before I’m twelve reels deep into electric content such as Cillian Murphy press junkets.

Recently, I’ve returned to browser-god status. A conscious uncoupling with the app became necessary after a few too many hours with Cillian and some unexplainable hate-binges of that dancing weatherman. But luckily, every time I delete the app, I miss it a little less. It’s largely due to social media’s weakening hold on those around me. I believe, with absolutely no statistical proof to lean on, that there is a growing age disparity between it’s highly addicted users. Its perceived necessity in the structures of high school and college still exists. And many of our parents, who 10 years ago were figuring out their phones’ flashlights, are now being manipulated by the very apps they once lectured us on. But between these two demographics are 22-40 year olds. We remember dial-up internet but also held an iPhone in 2007 and knew exactly how to use it. Having been alive but young during a time of such emerging technology, I beleive has resulted in a certain level of awareness. While still manipulated by social media’s highly addictive nature, many of us are far more conscious of its damaging effects. This awareness is starting to show itself as I now know many other browser-gods and even a few Christopher McCandless-type motherfuckers who’ve dipped off the digital map altogether. Far fewer of us tweet or snap as Twitter is purely for information gathering and Snapchat is simply a digital yearbook. On Instagram, stories and posts are increasingly less concerned with our best selves in the current moment and instead far more concerned with the curation of images over an extended period of time - many of which are taken without specific intention or context. I’d say this is generally a good sign. The less we use these apps for serious communication and look where I am posting, the less we feel the need to check up on them. This is not to say the we are all on our way to a harmonious age of digital sobriety. Shit on the internet is still funny. Probably funnier than any “From the guys who brought you” comedies of the last fifteen years. So many of us, in this macro generation I’ve just made up, find ourselves deleting and then once again retreating - wanting to lead 7 billion into an era of enlightenment only to trip up on a hungover Sunday morning and spend 3 hours watching recipes for roasted Brussels sprouts.

Will this perpetual cycle end? No idea. But I generally try to stay away from buying into extremes. I don’t think we’ll ever revert to using our phones again as simply a phone, calculator, and flashlight. I also don’t believe we’re all destined to become the humans on the Buy-N-Large ship in Wall-E (shoutout to a friend and reader who once confided to me that he’s got a thing for Eve). Instead, there might just be a compromise. One that is slightly dark yet oddly hopeful. A compromise for the many of us who feel the incessant need for connection while also constantly finding this connection veering towards addiction.

Fringe social media.

I’m not referring to fan accounts for that slept-on J.J. Abrams show, Fringe. Instead, fringe social media refers to any platform that is built around the very framework of social media without containing the algorithms engineered to suck you in and harvest your deepest and darkest interests (Cillian Murphy press junkets). Fringe social media is not vast but instead quite concentrated. These platforms are hyper-focused on one specific interest and in turn, can build communities that do not argue about geo-politics but instead maybe wine from the Burgundy region.

For example, some of you might be on Strava - an app introduced to me by a friend and reader (a different from the friend and reader who’s into animated robots). Strava is for running, biking, or just about any other physical activity. Go on a five-mile jog and Strava will keep track of your route, pace, and personal achievements. With a few photos, a map, and a brief description (possibly of your jams on said run) you then post away to your following. I have a whopping 4 followers on Strava and unsurprisingly, I know each and every one of them personally. At a bar one Saturday night, I ran into 25% of my Strava audience. We hadn’t seen each other in months but he immediately shouted over the noisy crowd, “Great run today brother”. I then asked about his. Two pedestrian-level friends, connected through a shared hobby, and able to bond through the power of technology. Fringe social media at its finest.

You already know where I’m goin’ next. Fuggin Letterboxd.

For anyone who’s either trapped under a rock or simply not a member of the coastal elite, this is the movie review app. Every day, I check in to see what films my vast and all-encompassing army of 18 followers has logged and reviewed. Sometimes, later that day, I see a follower in person and ask what prompted their watch of Liar Liar last night. They in turn ask me why the hell I rewatched Burnt for the fifth time this year. I have no answers of course. But we end up talking Cooper Scooper for a good 20 which really makes my day. I believe Letterboxd, just like Strava, is at its best when used in small circles. I understand there are super reviewers out there, holding influence over thousands of followers and I check up on a few of them from time to time. But really, I just love to see a clever comment or log from a friend whose taste I find interesting and unique.

What about Pinterest? That surely qualifies as FRINGE. I believe Diane Keaton once said, “To know me is to pin with me.” While I hope Ms. Keaton soon finds her way to The Pioneer, I also hope she skips over that quote because I completely made it up for style. She is, however, an avid user and has even published a home design book titled “The House That Pinterest Built”. Similarly to Strava, my circle is small. That’s for the best. My interests are quite narrow and I’m very selective on my pinboards. “Olympiad of Fit” is for menswear, “Ur Pad is Dope” is for home design, “Title Card Hell” is for well…title cards, and my newest board, “I Now Pronounce You Fitted” takes a spin on Olympiad of Fit and instead focuses on celeb couple fits such as this OG Bacon/Sedgwick look.

My Pinterest use might sound all about ME but don’t worry, I’m an engaged follower as well. For example, a friend of mine has a board similarly titled “Fit Olympics”. It’s safe to say we both cross streams and duel swords on occasion.

If none of this fringe sounds at all intriguing, I encourage you to seek further and dig deeper. Are you drinking an Ithaca-based IPA on your way to Dead and Company? You might need to tap into Untappd. Are you the guy who calls shotgun in Uber XLs? Get more social on Soundcloud already. Are you a terrible neighbor and interested in arguing with other terrible neighbors on subjects such as noise at 9:30 PM, carjackings four blocks away, and Ron DeSantis? If so, please get on Nextdoor and promptly delete my number.

So next time you’re bored and pick up that piece of metal glued to glass - consider spending a little more time self-archiving instead of self-promoting. Consider withholding from Zuck’s algorithm of tailored suggestions and scroll through another feed so directly personalized - no equation could’ve possibly created it. This is where the good stuff lies. Where you’ll find an honest reflection of those you choose to surround yourself with. Where you’ll find information you can more profoundly engage with. Where you may just find a friend’s personal best in the 5k or their three and half star review of Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar. This, my dear friends, is fringe social media.

Keanu and Sophia in ’91. I’m out.