chuck

Sometimes, I really love Chuck Palahniuk. Yes, he actually did write books other than Fight Club. Check them out.

"We all watch the same television programs. We all hear the same things on the radio, we all repeat the same talk to each other. It's like we all have the same artificial memory implants.

We remember almost none of our real childhoods, but we all remember everything that happened to sitcom families. We have the same basic goals. We all have the same fears. The way ants are. Insectile. Sheep.

The big question people ask isn't 'What's the nature of existence?' The big question people ask is What's that from?"

This is from 1999, but it's more true of our generation, the internet generation, than of any generation before it. We've become machines that pass around links to things that other people have done, or amusing video clips, or stories. We've become a generation of watchers. We've become URL forwarding automatons, devoid of personal content.