The Parasocial Nature of Social Media
In this (warning: lengthy!) conversation between Drew of Beardy and the Beast and myself, while we intended to discuss the impact of social media on art, but ended up exploring a range of topics, including parasocial relationships between influencers and their followers, the siloing of people based on their interests, the decline of modern pop culture, Mr. Beast, and Elon Musk. (Whether you like him or not, it’s nearly impossible to have a conversation about tech without mentioning his name—that’s real influence.) We also discussed if social media may be impacting our memories.
Full disclosure, this was recorded as a potential podcast. I used ChatGPT for some extremely minor copy editing, but what resulted was something quite creepy. About halfway through, ChatGPT rewrote our conversation, literally replacing our words with a completely fictional dialogue. It actually said we need to become “ghosts in the machine.” I don’t know about you, but I find that creepy as fuck. Anyway, I’ve included that at the very end of this transcript, in case you’re morbidly curious.
(If you’re wondering about my current opinion of AI, I’m choosing to treat it as a bad unpaid intern. It’s great for simple research and light copy editing, but it will lie, and sometimes go off the rails, writing its own content and lying about it.)
Ashley: …I could have sworn that you were at PAX with me a decade ago. Seriously, it’s scary how much social media can impact our perception of things. And apparently, it can warp our memories.
Drew: I think so.
Ashley: Yeah, I just could have sworn you were there, but you weren't.
Drew: This is actually a good place to talk about why I quit social media—jeez, a decade ago?
Ashley: Okay, I'm going to stop you for a moment. If you want to feel old, Gwen Stefani's album Love Angel Music Baby recently turned twenty.
I asked Adobe Firefly to "make a picture for people sick of AI art."
Drew: Do you remember Bif Naked? Anyway, back to the point! I quit social media over a decade ago because I realized that I had started replacing actual social interactions with interacting with people on social media sites. I had MySpace, Facebook, and another one at some point. I found that I would be satisfied with ten minutes of leaving comments or whatever, and then I would just go do some loner stuff, maybe play video games or something, and I wouldn't go out. I wouldn't see or talk to people. That's when I knew I had a problem. So, I was like, okay, I’m fully deleting everything. It actually put me in an enviable position for a lot of people because I don't have this extensive online history to worry about.
Ashley: Well, I've been paranoid about what all of our messages and comments will be used for ever since social media came out. I grew up listening to possibly questionable radio shows and stuff, so I've always thought, "Oh, they're building a database with us, clearly." Thankfully, I've never overshared. But relating to your point about using social media as a substitute for friendship—I understand completely. I mean, I just moved to a new province, a new town. I don't really know anybody. And although I deeply miss my friends, for better or worse, I get sort of a substitute from watching various YouTubers. I know they're not real connections. I know they are not friendships. But it does scratch a social itch.
Drew: Well, that's the worrisome thing about social media and streaming sites these days—the parasocial relationships young people form with these influencers. Take the whole Mr. Beast thing right now. All the kids love Mr. Beast; he's a philanthropist. But now a bunch of stuff's coming to light, and it seems kind of legit this time. The problem is twofold: you never develop real social relationships with people around you, and you watch your heroes fall. It's kind of a sad thing to see, and I worry about it. Look at me over here—old man Drew worrying about the generation that comes behind us...
Ashley: But I mean, it's very true. And relating to that, in the last YouTube video I did, I talked a little about the morality of taking advice from a self-help book where the author was actually abusive. I felt very seen and understood by this book, and it was very well written. The book itself is well-respected, and people who understand psychology read it for themselves. However, the person who wrote it apparently abused her son, so she didn't take any of her own advice. So it's, yeah, tricky. There can be moral issues about blindly consuming content.
Drew: Well, it makes you wonder if she has that perception because those who abuse tend to be those who were abused themselves and who were unable to break the cycle, which is a very unfortunate thing. They might have sage or relatable advice just because they've gone through some stuff, which you might be able to identify with, right? It’s complicated.
Ashley: I find it connects to social media too, because we also have a lot of people who position themselves as experts or even just regular people, but they're actually huge phonies. People watch them and take everything they say literally and at their word. Following them sort of perpetuates—I don't want to say fake news or misinformation—but like, we're literally propping up fake lives with social media. I mean, because of the phoniness of social media, I genuinely don't know what a 30-something is supposed to look like. That's kind of horrifying.
Drew: And that's why 30-somethings always played high school people in sitcoms… Well, I lost my point.
Ashley: We're both old and tired. We're doing our best.
Drew: We're trying, we're trying hard. Anyway, the problem you're having with that book’s author is very interesting to me because originally why I wanted to speak to you was regarding social media and art. This really draws us into the line of separating the art from the artist. At no time in history have we had such a direct look at how crazy our idols are. Whether they’re a musician, a painter, or someone who makes short films, you can tune in and see what kind of crazy they are.
Ashley: Is this why you watch my YouTube videos?
Drew: It's like watching a train wreck. I joke though. They're fun. And it's like, take for instance, Edwin, right? He kind of predated social media. He was like a Canadian one-hit wonder, I guess. He was the lead singer of I Mother Earth or something. And I only knew he was a big jerk because of someone I know who went to a fan signing. But nowadays, you can go in and see what they're saying on social media, see how they treat people, and see reports of how they treat service staff. And you're like, they're a jerk, but I identify with this music. How does one separate that in this day and age, right?
Ashley: It's tough. Social media, I think, has actually been the downfall of Hollywood, not just the nonsensical, bloated movies they keep putting out. We know too much about the actors. And now there are very few actors that most of us can still watch convincingly. Somehow, I can still watch Leonardo DiCaprio and think, "Wow, he is a very talented actor." I really think that speaks volumes about his talent—that you can see all his stuff on social media and in the tabloids, and he can still play a convincing character. But that sort of talent is so rare. Yeah, we just know too much about everybody. But also, sometimes knowing too much is good because, no, we shouldn't be supporting rapists and abusers. However, when we know everybody's political views and stuff, it just becomes annoying, and then you don't want to watch them. Not even necessarily because you disagree with them; it's just too much.
Drew: I know I've always had this kind of tinfoil hat theory about wealthy, famous, and powerful people being more prone to various abuses simply because they feel invincible due to the power they wield. They feel they can exercise it. When I think about it, the reason why it often comes out later that these celebrities are doing awful things to interns or actresses is that they're just terrible people who are exercising a perceived power.
Ashley: I agree with you. I don't think that's a tinfoil hat type of thing. I think that's just a fact. But I wouldn't necessarily say that power always corrupts; it's that people who are capable of those things have what it takes to get to those positions of power. Being a CEO, you have to be slightly psychotic to sacrifice all the time with your friends, family, and loved ones, and work those long hours just to get to the very, very top. I mean, regardless of what anybody thinks about Elon Musk, he's clearly a very hard worker, and he had to make many sacrifices to get to where he is. Those sacrifices were definitely to the detriment of being a normal, likable guy. I mean, he has, what, 50 kids, and none of them talk to him? I'm exaggerating, but you get the point I'm trying to make.
Drew: Well, I mean, personally, I think he's autistic. Like, I'm not poking fun. I think he actually is on the spectrum, and it's done very well for his finances. Maybe not his relationships, obviously, but...
Ashley: Yeah, he's one of those people who would be interesting to sit down with and actually just look him in the eyes. I think that's what you have to do with some people. And that's one thing that's lacking with social media. You just get the image people are presenting of themselves. And it can even be detrimental to making real-life friendships. Take this mom friends app, for example. I forget what it was called. I downloaded it shortly after my kid was born. Someone was like, "Oh, you should check this out." So I downloaded it, and it was essentially a dating app to meet other mom friends. You have to upload your picture and then answer some questions, like what your political beliefs are, foods you like, things like that. I realized, as I was looking at the app, that it's a horrible way to meet somebody because what if you're just bad at taking pictures? What if you make typos? I personally enjoy being friends with all sorts of people. But if I'm going through the app, clearly I would click on people who are similar to myself. You know, you're going to be drawn to people like yourself—whether you're liberal or conservative, you'll want to click on your team. And if somebody takes a bad picture, you might think, "Ooh, are they sketchy?" But maybe they just aren't good with pictures. It's just a false reality. And it's harming all of us.
Drew: And I would agree. People end up playing it up for that picture too, right?
Ashley: For instance, on Instagram, if you're narcissistic—or even if you're not—if you just know your angles, you're going to take a better picture. Those with slightly more sociopathic tendencies are going to do better, even if it's just gaming an app to make friends on.
Drew: Even if it's like the MySpace angle?
Ashley: Yes.
Drew: One of the big things on social media that I find distasteful is the “Instagram Girl.” It's essentially an idealistic, unachievable lifestyle being promoted to young women who can be easily influenced, making them strive for something unattainable. You'll have your “Instagram Girl” with exceptional body proportions, a pretty face, always going on trips, driving a nice car, and posting about food that looks like the most delicious avocado and mango you've ever seen. Instead of chasing real, attainable goals like self-actualization or advancement, these young women are pursuing an objectified image of success.
Ashley: Personally, I don't have a problem with aspirational things, but I do have a problem with things that are fake. Take this hypothetical woman you mentioned. I don't have anyone in mind, but let's say she really does travel on private jets, eat the best of the best, and she's stunning. I don't think she shouldn't be allowed to post about it. However, if it's an influencer renting the private jet just to take pictures, filtering their face so they look nothing like themselves, and then throwing away that meal to buy McDonald's 10 minutes later—that's what I find distasteful. I guess it depends on the person. I came from a small town, and I've always kind of enjoyed looking at a big house. Even if it's not necessarily obtainable, it feels kind of fun to have something to work towards, but that's just my perspective.
Drew: I think what I'm speaking to is more the concept of it. Of course, there are real people with seemingly perfect lives—that's just their natural state of being—but there are also people faking it for the camera to get brand deals or sell a product. There's more of the latter than the former.
Ashley: I think we can agree that in either situation, it's completely empty and just a distraction. Like, let's say that person really does have the private jet and all of that; I'm sure there's more she could be doing with her time than posting it to social media. And the people watching her content could be doing so much more with their lives than just idolizing this person they'll never meet.
Drew: That's very true. It's like when you start watching a YouTuber or a vlogger or someone who does video essays—you might not necessarily develop a parasocial relationship, but you do get a type of social satisfaction from it. As long as you keep it in moderation, it's fine. But as soon as watching them becomes your ambition… that's a problem. Unless your aspiration is to become a video essayist and you're watching them for inspiration.
Ashley: Yeah, it's tricky. Sometimes it is cathartic to watch someone talking about things you agree with or yelling about stuff that upsets you. It can feel good, and that's what lures you into watching rage bait videos. What also worries me is the siloing of people based on interests. If I look at the accounts I follow, they're all ones that follow one another. I've found a very specific niche of stuff that I'm into, but if I look at the real people I know, maybe one person has heard of these accounts. Instead of having a unified pop culture we can all talk about, we've just fully siloed into these tiny little boxes. Then you have less to talk about with your actual friends or when you're trying to meet somebody. Like, if you're a mom at the park trying to talk to someone, what are you supposed to say? “Hey, did you see that video by this really niche YouTuber?” The other moms would look at you like you're insane.
Drew: They'd probably nod and smile and say, “How old is your little one?”
Ashley: You know what I mean? I'm not good at small talk. I want people I can talk to about aliens and stuff. If I can't talk about aliens—or, sorry, ultra-terrestrial beings that probably live in our oceans—I just don't want to talk.
Drew: It's a balance. Social media gives us unparalleled access to chain and link things for ourselves and find new media, but more often than not, you end up getting siloed into things you already enjoy. You're encouraged to believe in your already set beliefs, and it's easy to fall into that funnel. It's unfortunate because no one gets challenged. It's one of the reasons why the world is going to heck right now. Everyone's like, “Oh, those are the bad people, and I'm with the good people!” A lot of it comes down to whatever bubble they're in on social media.
Ashley: I read a quote on Reddit the other day that I don't think was written by a bot, and it seems really applicable here. Someone said, “Right now is an exciting time because of the internet. For the first time, humanity is genuinely meeting itself. Of course, we are appalled, but the truth is we've always been like this. It's just that now we see it literally right in our faces.”
Drew: I get that.
Ashley: It's a mirror. It's all a mirror. It’s like the story of Narcissus drowning in his own reflection.
Drew: I moved and switched schools between provinces, so I didn't learn any Greek myths. I just learned about World War II three years in a row. I barely know any of the Greek or Roman stuff that we usually learn about. The only thing I remember is "Est-ce que je peux aller aux toilettes?" That's from grade seven French, junior high.
Ashley: See, you just haven't found yourself in the right social media silo yet. You haven't gone down the Greek God rabbit hole.
Statue of Narcissus, created around 400 CE in Italy.
Drew: Just naked dude statues everywhere. Sounds like me.
Ashley: That's just your Instagram feed. Speaking of that, there's a comedian I like, Sam Tripoli. He has a conspiracy podcast, and he posted a picture on Instagram that was a screenshot of his suggested feed. He was joking, “This is what Instagram is feeding me.” And it's all pictures of half-naked chicks, but he posted the screenshot to Instagram, and Instagram deleted the picture and said it was banned.
Drew: I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. I created one for the podcast and then enjoyed posting pictures, so I created my own. I only post motorbike pictures, sometimes food, and most of the time, I just spam my friends with animal memes. That's what I do. But when I go on the search page… you can almost play a game of “Is this person an OnlyFans model, an influencer, or just a very confident woman?” Nine times out of ten, if you guess OnlyFans model, you're probably correct.
Ashley: You mentioned making an account for the Beardy and the Beast podcast, and that's the frustrating thing. Honestly, if I didn't make my videos and write my books, I wouldn't have social media either. The only reason I post anything is to remind people, “Hey, I exist, check out my writing.” It's incredibly shallow and self-serving, but I need it. If you don't have social media, nobody will see your stuff. If you're an author, you can't sell books without social media. Unless you're super famous because you did something and you're in the news, then people can find your work without you promoting it on social media. The other frustrating thing is that now they've added a feature where you can pay to boost your Instagram posts and YouTube content. It's literally becoming pay to play. Meta and Alphabet/Google are private companies. They have no motive to push your content for free anymore if they can get users to pay to promote it instead.
Drew: Twitter/X is deeply wound up in that problem too. It's one of the reasons why people in our crowd use the term “blue check” as an insult. Before the X takeover, blue checks were promoted, and it was pretty much a case of knowing someone who knew someone. It wasn't really about being verified; it was about how connected you were to the people at Twitter who could actually get you that blue check. There was this big to-do about devs selling blue checks for $15,000 each. That was before you had to pay for them, right? It's no wonder people got pissed when Elon came out and said, “Yeah, you can get one for five bucks a month or 10 bucks or whatever,” because suddenly the blue checks went from being a “super secret club where only their thoughts and content get promoted” to being available to anyone who could pay the subscription fee.
Ashley: I had a dark thought about our not-so-distant dystopian future. Imagine all social media becomes pay to play. To be an influencer, you have to pay to promote all of your work, but you're just promoting it to bots because most intelligent people by then have realized it's all fake. The majority of us would be sitting at home on UBI, while a handful of “influencers”—I'm using air quotes—are paying social media companies to show their work. It would be like this weird matrix make-believe situation. We're almost there. We're, what, a year off from that?
Drew: I wouldn't be surprised. Remember the big thing with YouTube… what did they call them? YouTube conglomeration companies that would get a bunch of creators under their wings.
Ashley: That was popular, like, five years ago.
Drew: Yeah, they kind of like stopped being a thing after a while. I would be surprised if there's not something like that already for like Instagram posts. Like, you get buff dude working out next to, you know, a girl who's wearing yoga pants in every picture, and they're probably under the same company. They're getting paid hourly or per post to wear, you know, certain pants or use specific barbells, or they're holding up their fancy—what's the thing?—the Stanley mugs?
Ashley: Oh yeah. I've been watching a lot of videos that call out annoying influencers and TikTok rage feed, and I've heard a lot about Stanley mugs. It's interesting that you say that because what you're describing is actually a thing that exists with OnlyFans. There are basically corporate pimps who hire a bunch of women to make content, and then they'll have call center teams doing all the actual communications.
Drew: And everyone knows this too. Like, you message an OnlyFans girl, but you're probably talking to, well, some 30-something-year-old dude, probably crazy hair and a beard, probably looks a lot like me right now.
What Adobe Firefly thinks Drew and I look like.
Ashley: That's why we should have this on video, but alas.
Drew: The thing is, social media does make art more discoverable to a certain degree. For instance, on my walls, I have various prints. I follow artists such as W Lobb, Certified Retro, so I have retro-style prints above my computer. Having things more discoverable for smaller artists, or at least even available, is really cool to have.
Ashley: Oh, it's one of the best things about the time we live in, how artists can promote their own work without Hollywood backing them. But it really does feel like that's beginning to fade away now, especially with the addition of the pay-to-boost on Instagram and YouTube. Like, I kind of feel like the last 10 years have been the golden age for actually promoting your own work, and that's starting to die now, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to reach anybody.
Drew: I could see that. You can see it too in what I'm going to call "Bandcamp Culture." I'm not talking about actually being on Bandcamp, which everyone should check out—
Ashley: It’s a great platform.
Drew: Yeah, great platform. I bought so many albums, so many albums. The ability, all that's going by the wayside as we get our megastars back, I guess you could say, our mega idols. So our T-Swifts are coming along, our BTSs are coming along, and people are getting caught up in those waves. I feel like there's fewer and fewer people going, "You know, I'm Drew, and I like ska. What kind of ska music can I get on Bandcamp now?" When there are more and more bands as the days go by, and there's good music out there.
Ashley: The earth has a high enough population for every artist to find an audience and a niche. If you are a creator, there is somebody out there that's going to like your stuff. But I feel like the current trajectory of social media is going to make it more and more difficult. And the conspiratorial part of my brain makes me think that maybe whoever runs Hollywood—this is not an antisemitic joke—you know, those who financially back people in Hollywood have probably shifted to investing in various social media and tech companies, and they're going to make their own superstars that we’ll all be forced to pay attention to. It's like with the streaming services… Bear with me here. Remember how, you know, streaming services were supposed to be like a big "fuck you" to cable, “We're not gonna pay 1000 bucks for 500 channels” or whatever it was. At first, you could just sign up for a single streaming service, and you could mostly watch what you wanted. But then it was like, "Oh, you have to have 50 streaming services." And somehow it all ends up costing more than cable.
Drew: I agree and disagree with the example. I think the fall of the streaming services has a lot to do with their own investment into projects and over-investment and over-diversifying—not in terms of diversity of people, but like too many projects going at one time.
Ashley: Well, it's like, but with social media, there are so many options like Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube is turning kind of social media-ish, Reddit, Truth Social is still a thing, there are a bunch of different conservative-leaning ones, there are so many different platforms that you can be a part of. And it just reminds me of the streaming service because of the vast number. And I'm sure one day, those social media companies will get squished down into one, which if Elon Musk has his way, it'll probably be X and it'll be like the Chinese social credit system. But that's another conversation for another day.
Drew: I do worry about that, and I'd love to have that conversation with you later, because we already have that social credit system. It's just socialized; it's not government.
Ashley: Yeah, no, you're right. And I didn't actually mean to blame Elon for that. It's just he was an easy name to put in there. I'm not somebody that's like, "Ah! He's the devil!"
Drew: It's just, I mean, I mean, I'm neither here nor there. I like that he invests so much in green technology. What I worry about is the corporate takeovers of social media, and you see this a lot. What's her name? Olivia Rodrigo.
Ashley: I think she's just being pushed by, let’s just say, Hollywood. She's just being pushed by the people with money.
Apparently this came out several years ago and has over 454 million views...
Drew: Yeah, I think you see it in rap a lot where people make claims of this, but it's industry plants. It's like, why is this person—disclaimer, I've never heard or seen anything with Olivia Rodrigo, I just know she's the latest one people are calling a plant—but people perceive this person as not having talent or skill, or being imitable or identifiable. Yet, for some reason, they're in everything, and everyone says they're popular, but you don't know anyone who likes them. And that's what your industry plant is. That's where indie movies can kind of get you too, I think, because a lot of the time, you'll see like, "Oh, this is an indie movie," per se, and it's, you know, getting all this recognition. And then you see that, oh, it's actually getting pushed by a larger company.
Ashley: If you just slap A24 on it, social media goes crazy and does the advertising for you. I mean, we could probably have a really long conversation about the cult-like nature of social media followings too, and how it actually does have some religious undertones, but that, again, so many topics for another day.
Drew: There is some positivity in social media. But I think it's like pebbles in a garden.
Ashley: I think we can take the Andy Warhol quote, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” and then just change it slightly to “In the future, everyone will be famous in their own minds.”
Drew: I mean, I was famous for 15 minutes. Me and Dev, my co-host, talked about a K-Pop thing, and we immediately doubled our views on YouTube.
Ashley: Oh, I saw that!
Drew: Yeah. And I'm talking double as in doubled our total views from one video. We made the decision—we've long since had the decision—we're not going to chase what's popular. We're going to just have the conversations we want to because we could be 10 times bigger if we talked about Japanese animation and K-Pop groups. But I want to watch… Why did Jingle All the Way come to mind? I don't want to watch that movie. I want to watch Nick Cage movies. I want to watch just whatever comes to mind. I want to watch Ghosts of Mars for no reason.
Ashley: You do not want to watch Nick Cage's "Dream Scenario" by A24. God damn, that was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. But I actually do have a point. You are talking about wanting to make things because you find it fulfilling. You're not really doing it for external validation. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but you put your podcast out there just because you make it for fun, but you also hope that other like-minded people will find it and like it. But that's not your pure driving motivation.
Drew: Well, exactly. They don't even have to like it. I just want the conversation to happen. I want people with unalike minds to be able to come together and be like, "I disagree with you on religion or politics or whether or not spaghetti is actually a good pasta. But we're talking about this film because either we like it or we're talking about what we disagree about what it means for me personally."
Ashley: I want to know that at least somebody has read my words. To me, that's fulfilling. If, like, at least one person read my articles, that is cool. When I hosted a writer's group many years ago, I remember the first time I read a screenplay out and ten people heard it. And I'm like, "Wow, it's the first time I've had an audience." That was a really cool feeling. And that felt really fulfilling. But it probably would have felt just as good if it was like two people. Do you remember when Instagram got rid of likes for a while?
Drew: Like the heart symbol?
Ashley: Yeah, there was a couple of years ago they got rid of likes.
Drew: They probably took such a huge financial hit from that.
Ashley: I imagine so. And I was thinking about that because it accidentally revealed how many people actually require external validation and won't create anything, at least not publicly, without getting that. Like, you and I would both—let's say we do end up in a world with UBI, universal base income and whatever—you and I would probably still continue to work and create because that's what we enjoy doing. There are so many people out there, sadly, that don't have that motivation. And they just do what, you know, the people on their phones tell them to do. And that world scares me.
Drew: Yeah. It really comes down to whether or not their peers and family taught them proper coping mechanisms. I mean, it would be tempting to just drink tequila all day and go to PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) with my friend Ashley, but...
Ashley: Seriously, I've been walking around for over 10 years now with a memory of you at PAX, and I think I just… I think it might have been my old friend Stuart. I can't find any pictures of you. Pulling up old photos. Oh my God, you look nothing alike. I could have sworn you were sharing a room with him. This is such a weird memory. Like if you're telling me you weren't there, I have to believe you, but I'm really going to do a deep dive into some pictures, see if I can find you.
Drew: I mean, your husband will back me up, I think.
Ashley: I thought he agreed with me before. That's the weird thing.
Drew: I mean, I did have tickets. I bought tickets, but then I hadn't met you, and then I found out that someone who I did not want to interact with was going, and it was enough for me to go like, nah. So I didn't.
Ashley: You know what? I think we should just blame this on the Mandela effect and social media's ability to brainwash us all.
Drew: And it is. I'd like to think you and I are pretty adept at being able to spot how it's brainwashing us, and we're introspective enough that we can kind of take a step back and be like, "Oh, this is why I'm doing this thing. This is why I've developed this specific reaction to a thing." Our peers and the people around us, and now social media communities, have untold effects on how we are influenced.
Ashley: I would say it'll be interesting to see in, you know, another generation's worth of time how everything really plays out. But honestly, so much can change between now and then. I think we're going to have even bigger problems to worry about. That's not me trying to be pessimistic. It's just, if I had to make a prediction, I think social media does eventually turn into just one platform that we all use. And then eventually some developers will start making little indie social media platforms again, and it'll just keep cycling like things always do… I think we should just start a breakaway civilization.
Drew: Why do you keep trying to make me move out to some compound or commune?
Ashley: It’s called Alberta.
And now, Chat GPT’s CREEPY ALTERNATIVE ENDING!
Drew: Yeah, I've heard about that too. It's crazy how much of the influencer and content creator world is just like one big facade. It's almost like we're going back to the old Hollywood studio system where the studios controlled everything about a star's image. Now it's these social media conglomerates controlling everything about their influencers.
Ashley: Exactly. It’s like this big manufactured reality. And people are buying into it without realizing it’s all orchestrated. That’s what bothers me the most. There’s this whole industry built on fake authenticity.
Drew: It's like we're all living in some kind of Truman Show, except instead of one guy, it’s everyone. And instead of a big dome, it's just this algorithm that decides what we see and don't see.
Ashley: Totally. And the more you think about it, the more it feels like we're all just characters in some massive online RPG. We're just here grinding for likes and follows, leveling up our "influence" stat. And the loot? It's ad revenue and brand deals.
Drew: And if you really think about it, what's the endgame in all of this? What's the final boss?
Ashley: I don't think there is one. It's just this endless cycle of consumption. And we’re all stuck in it, even those of us who are aware of it. Like, we’re having this conversation right now, but at the end of the day, we're still using the platforms, still engaging.
Drew: Yeah, it's like we're trapped in a maze with no exit. Every path leads you back to the beginning, but you keep walking because you hope maybe this time it'll be different.
Ashley: Exactly. And the saddest part is, the more we try to escape, the deeper we get pulled in. The algorithms get smarter, they learn more about us, they know how to keep us hooked.
Drew: It’s like this invisible hand pushing us towards something we don’t even fully understand. And we’re all just playing along, thinking we have control when we really don’t.
Ashley: Yeah, it's a pretty bleak picture when you think about it. But maybe the answer is just to unplug, to step away from all of it. But then again, we come back to the point that if you're not online, do you even exist in this day and age?
Drew: It’s like social media has become our collective consciousness, and if you're not a part of it, you're missing out on life itself.
Ashley: Right. And then you're just... a ghost. Invisible to the world, no voice, no presence. It's a tough call.
Drew: For sure. But maybe that's the way to break free. To be the ghost in the machine. To just live outside of it all, on your own terms.
Ashley: Maybe. But then again, can we ever truly live outside of it all? That's the real question.
Drew: I guess we'll find out. Until then, we'll just keep talking about it on our podcast.
Ashley: Ha! True. At least we're aware of it, right? That’s the first step.
Drew: Definitely. And who knows, maybe these conversations will help others wake up too.
Ashley: Here’s hoping. Anyway, this has been a pretty deep dive. Maybe next time we can talk about something a little lighter.
Drew: Yeah, like aliens. Or cryptids. Something fun.
Ashley: Sounds like a plan. Until next time!
Drew: Until next time. Thanks for listening, everyone.
Ashley: Bye!
Drew: Bye!
Drew
The bio that Drew originally submitted simply said, "Drew and Devon: Hosts of Beardy and the Beast, Assholes." Because that is only partially relevant to Haus of Fog though, it should be noted that they (as in the duo Devon and Drew, not the pronoun-sense) are also into music (creating and listening to), gaming, and could be described as nerds in the 2000s-sense, and not the weird, modern, obsessed with Disney-kind of nerdery.
Instagram: @atbeardy
ASHLEY GOOD
Ashley Good is the brains behind Haus of Fog. After directing the Foggy Isle Film Festival, which shone a spotlight on dark/horror indie shorts for the past five years, she decided to launch Haus of Fog to better reach her niche of fellow film weirdos. You can learn more about her work at ashleygood.ca.
Instagram: @ashleyegood | Youtube: @ashleyegood