What is Going on with the Internet? | Suyasha Athuluri | TEDxYouth@DoverSherbornHighSchool
sometimes but not often enough unfortunately people ask me what my favorite work of art is and every single time my mind always circles back to this this painting was found in argentina and it's entitled the cave of hands you really wonder why archaeologists gave it that name right but think about it these artists whoever they were had to deal with brutal weather conditions wild animals starvation disease and a load of other terrible conditions that people today know nothing about and yet they still found the time to make art they still had the urge to create to tell the future that we were here we were here and we survived now humanity despite all of our vast differences have always seemed to have a common understanding about the importance of creating art right some of it depicts historical cultural rituals and practices some of it documents historical people and events some of it is just beautifully endearing and relatable and of course we have the art that depicts the lowest most chilling moments of human history now these 10 000 years of art history these centuries upon centuries of perfecting techniques of discovering new technologies and broadening the scope of our imaginations beyond the scope of our wildest dreams has culminated in this this image has graced the forefront of too many of my social media pages and i am obviously not alone because this post alone got more than a million likes the modern day internet is completely nonsensical this doesn't make any sense but clearly there's some kind something going on here right something going on with the people who are creating and interacting with these types of posts that's what i want to talk about today the utter ridiculousness of the modern day internet and how we are meant to navigate it first off let's play a game i'm going to show you a series of images and you are going to guess whether these have been made by me and have never seen the light of day until now or if they've received thousands of likes on the internet ready let's begin what do we think did i make this did i spend 30 seconds of my time on this no it got more than 400 000 likes on instagram though what about this yeah yeah i did make this one i see some nods yes i did what about this i did make this one too i love a good pun or an anti-pun rather what about this one i'd love to say i did i love to say that i have this much depth and imagination but no i didn't make this it did get more than 150 000 likes on instagram though and our last one what do we think yeah i made this clearly there's something going on right clearly it does not take a lot of time or effort to create this kind of content right i if i know if i were watching this that i would not be able to differentiate between things that i've made and things that have received a million likes on instagram and even though none of these images have any meaning by themselves we're able to tell a lot about the people who interact with and create this content for example right now there are 4.48 billion active users on the internet and 1 billion active users on instagram alone right a lot of these content creators want to be able to rack up likes and follows pretty fast but they also don't want the kind of exposure that a lot of influencers get they don't want to be able to put in a lot of effort into what they put out in the world right none of us do none of us want to be able to put in a lot of effort into something that doesn't really require it so how do they do it they post content like this right but what's so funny here's a hypothetical situation imagine you're walking down the street taking in the sights and sounds and the people it's a nice day you're walking along minding your own business when suddenly a man in a banana suit zooms past you on a skateboard to singing opera and sobbing hysterically now after a moment of confusion you're obviously going to laugh right it's not a question of is this particular instance in any given situation going to be funny no it's about at that point in time being faced with something unexpected is going to make you laugh right and that's what makes these kinds of situations so similar if they want to rack up likes and follows really fast all content creators have to do is make their content unexpected now this isn't the first time we've praised ridiculousness right just look at artists like andy warhol whose depiction of mediocre everyday objects has started huge trends towards entire art movements or look at jackson pollock right i can say without shame that i don't find any meaning in this but yet this artist is one of the most well-known out there even today fine art has a reputation of being pointless let's look at some examples right banana taped to wall sold for a measly 120 000 bridge sold for the low low affordable price of 20.6 million dollars i would argue that these and these are practically the same thing creating both of these things doesn't require much work it doesn't require a lot of effort and they crea they both gain a widespread audience for no apparent reason which means we must try as hard to find meaning in this as we do in this right so let's do that let's do that whatever this is it's going to eventually die out right it's there's going to be a time and a place where everything i say here today is completely meaningless but that's what makes art so fascinating right we're able to tell so much about a specific group of people or a time period based on the art that they produce right now young people especially have to deal with a hyper awareness of everything going on in in the entire world right there's wars happening halfway across the world that we're so aware of there's climate change there's the polar bears sinking into the ocean there's all of these huge things but at the same time there's gpas there's sat scores right there's financial issues with your family and yourself there's mental health struggles all of these things are wrapping up into one person that's what prompted the creation and consumption of this kind of work it's like okay i'm a teenager and i'm so aware of every single conflict going on in the entire world and within myself but a few clicks away and i'm greeted with some ridiculous content that's going to make my life seem a little less scary we really have come full circle haven't we a person sitting in the light of a cave 10 000 years ago was tracing their hand on the wall for the same reason a teenager posts weird things on instagram the world is a scary place but somehow creating this art makes it a little less so thank you [Applause]