September Update
How is everyone doing? Hopefully you’re all having a fun/restful/busy/stressful/whatever-mood-you-desire type of summer. It has been a minute since I sent out an update for Haus of Fog, but the truth is, I don’t want Haus of Fog to be just another content farm. Our goal is to share pieces and start conversations that will hopefully have some lasting value, even if that feels pointless in this day and age. After all, what truly exists that is new? Social media is mostly just beautiful people peacocking and a constant regurgitation of old memes and rehashed joke videos.
I recently listened to Lily Allen’s "The Fear" for the first time in ages and couldn’t believe how pertinent the lyrics have become. Back in 2009, when it was released, Lily Allen was a darling of the indie scene, and the lyrics were seen as a critique of the UK’s tabloid industry. Listening to it now, though, the song can be interpreted as a criticism of social media and propaganda. Seriously, give it a listen and tell me what you think. There really isn’t anything new.
I had an epiphany this summer while watching Mister Rogers with my son. In one episode, Mr. Rogers used paper straws; in another, he used vegetable-based food coloring. No, Mr. Rogers wasn’t the original “trad wife” (Can we please stop insulting women for making choices that are different from yours? K, thx). Paper straws and natural food dyes were just what was normal in the 1970s (plastic straws were invented in the 60s but didn’t reach mainstream status until much later, while Red 40 wasn’t added to foods until 1971). Eventually, though, in the name of “progress,” plastic and unhealthy chemicals became normalized despite their harm, just as social media and ADHD-inducing children's shows have become accepted in modern society. Yes, these things serve a purpose, but we must weigh their perceived harm against their benefits.
But… where was I going with this? Oh yes. There really isn’t anything new. Almost as a form of capitalistic eternal return, everything simply repeats. Nearly all “new things” are just slightly tweaked versions of things that have existed for the past 75 years. Let’s take AI as an example. AI, in its current form, is simply a predictive text generator. In extremely simple terms, this means it “guesses” responses based on texts it has learned from. It’s like a very efficient form of early Google, while Google itself is essentially a giant encyclopedia. I could go on.
(Remember when Google would actually give you hundreds of thousands of search results? Try clicking on the Os at the bottom now—nearly every search will only show you 100 results if you keep going. Watch our old video on the Dead Internet Theory if you want to learn more.)
There are so few genuine advancements being made that it feels like society is at a standstill as we all wait for the next metaphorical shoe to drop (I don’t need to list every global calamity for you to understand what I mean). All this is my long way of saying that Haus of Fog will continue to publish articles and mini-docs, but only when there’s something or someone we genuinely want to discuss. We want to start new conversations, not rehash old ones.
Thank you to everyone who has continued to share our articles during these slower summer months. I look forward to sharing the new pieces currently in the works!
Ashley
P.S.: I prefer plastic straws over paper. Fight me. Lol