Pi Staker
10/23/18
Abyss: Preamble
It came to my attention after we discussed my poem in class that I should probably better explain what the meaning behind "The Abyss" so I figured I should write this preamble to better explain what I should have said in class.
I'll start off the abyss refers to the Nietzsche quote "If you stare into the abyss long enough the abyss stares back at you" and just how much it matches up with social media, specifically online underground community sub-cultures, issues with isolation; alienation; and everything else to do with staring at a screen late at night. Largely this was based off my in-depth experience with social media while recovering from heart failure but also witnessing the slow radicalization of the elderly, who weirdly assume anything from Facebook or any anonymous message boards are true.
My social media consumption is lefty progressive twitter, specifically rose twitter; worker/civil rights; anti-war and social libertarianism. It's not uncommon for me to come home from a long night of work only to stay up until the sun rises reading the horrific new happening in America and abroad, death destruction and the general hopelessness of our time. Even if I'm having a good day I'll just be engulfed by that hopeless feeling and I just decided to write a poem about it.
The other aspect of social media is people watching, remember there's almost always someone on the other end (unless it's a bot or a paid troll), it's incredibly horrifying to see the open arm acceptance of nationalism; Bolsonaro and general fringe anti-Semetic conspiracy theories among mainstream American news outlets.
What somewhat surprised me was the assumption it was about video games (I say "somewhat" considering the stigma around gaming, but it just reminds me of Public Service Announcements from the 70's where you would see a spokesman talk about the "dangers" of marijuana while smoking cigarette) and honestly it just kind of amuses me that people still blame escapism on platforms that are legend for turning people into extremists.
