The Unbearable Lightness of the Internet

twitter ain’t schwer

One way to look at Milan Kundera’s novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is this: in the overall scheme of the universe, almost everything we do each day has no lasting meaning. And, if you think hard about that, it’ll bum you out. Being becomes unbearable. For humans, things that are meaningful are the antidote for the Unbearable Lightness. Humanity creates and seeks out that which is heavy (e.g. Stonehenge, The Pyramids, Death In Venice, Enter Sandman, Werner Herzog films, etc.). Germans call this kind of serious stuff schwer.

The Internet can be unbearably light. Twitter is the opposite of schwer. The ephemeral has its place, but naturally, all of us, because we are human, yearn for things that are deeper, more meaningful, and more schwer. The real work for artists–authors, musicians, filmmakers, photographers–is to try to answer this call. Serious artists create things with meaning. We devour their work, they are our heroes, and we want to get close to them because they combat our Unbearable Lightness of Being. And, deep inside, we want to do something meaningful for them because they share our values. We want to help them to keep working. We need to connect with them.

On the internet this need to support and connect with creative people manifests itself in platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Patreon. These tools give us a chance to get closer to creators, to support them, and to show we share the same values. As the Internet becomes more unbearably light, the tools that allow us to access things and relationships that are schwer will matter more.

Justin Szlasa founded Internet Famous Database where he’s working to build a better creative economy. Keep it unbearably light on twitter @justinszlasa or, if you want it schwer, message him at justin at ifdb.com