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In recent years, the dark side of social media has become more and more apparent with each passing day. Perhaps nobody knows this better than comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham.
In the wake of Elon Musk's recent purchase of Twitter and the changes he's already made to the platform, a rant from Burnham about social media companies' nefarious goals has resurfaced and gone viral.
Delivered during a 2018 Q&A while promoting his film Eighth Grade, Burnham spoke about the ways social media platforms strive to "colonize every minute of your life" and use each of us as a profit center.
See his rant below.
\u201cWow. Didn\u2019t know Bo Burnham was a real one. Couldn\u2019t be more relevant\u201d— Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN (@Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN) 1667409639
Perfectly describing the dystopia we seem to be falling ever more deeply into, Burnham explained that as publicly traded companies, social media platforms must find ways to produce infinitely increasing profits. The only way to do that is to sell our attention to advertisers.
As he put it:
"They're coming for every second of your life..."
"...It's because these companies like Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, and everything, they went public and they went to shareholders, so they have to grow. Their entire models are based off of growth—they cannot stay stagnant..."
"It has to get more of you."
Burnham went on to compare the industry to the old-fashioned way of building empires—colonization.
"We used to colonize land. That was the thing you could expand into, and that's where money was to be made."
"We colonized the entire earth. There was no other place for the businesses and capitalism to expand into."
"And then they realized human attention..."
Burnham then said this hunger for ever more profit is leading social media companies to attempt to "colonize" our every waking moment.
"They are now trying to colonize every minute of your life... Every single free moment you have is a moment you could be looking at your phone, and they could be gathering information to target ads at you. That's what's happening."
\u201cWow indeed. I think I need to start every day with this clip from Bo Burnham.\u201d— kyle kinane (Kansas City Improv 11/4-5) (@kyle kinane (Kansas City Improv 11/4-5)) 1667419502
\u201c@JoshuaPHilll Bo Burnham is unironically one of the realest comedians since Carlin.\u201d— Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN (@Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN) 1667409639
\u201c\u201cWe used to colonize land\u2026 They are now trying to colonize every minute of your life.\u201d Listen to @boburnham. It\u2019s time for a reckoning on social media in our lives, as we\u2019re a full generation into a reckless capitalist experiment we\u2019re not in control of.\u201d— Rob Sheridan (@Rob Sheridan) 1667415329
\u201c@JoshuaPHilll I'll look at this and go "yeah, he's right" and then 2 seconds later\u201d— Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN (@Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN) 1667409639
\u201cBo Burnham really went off with this.\u201d— Taylor Pate (@Taylor Pate) 1667403426
\u201c@JoshuaPHilll Using our attention to sell things to us while keeping us at each other\u2019s throats instead of theirs\u201d— Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN (@Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN) 1667409639
\u201c@JoshuaPHilll Well said.\n\nThe problem with capitalism is that you eventually run out of people to exploit.\u201d— Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN (@Read Jackson Rising by @CooperationJXN) 1667409639
\u201clet bo burnham shake you & wake you\u201d— tyler oakley (@tyler oakley) 1667443846
\u201cthat bo burnham clip about social media wanting literally every second of your life is so unnerving that i'm literally making a list of things to do with my time instead of being on social media. i'm not even having a good time here lollll\u201d— \ud83c\udf3a imogen \ud83d\udca5 Commissions Open! \u270f\ufe0f (@\ud83c\udf3a imogen \ud83d\udca5 Commissions Open! \u270f\ufe0f) 1667422686
Burnham, who began his career as a teen on YouTube and attributed his mental health issues to growing up online, has made criticism of social media a theme throughout his work.
Aside from Eighth Grade which centers on a social media-obsessed tween, Burnham went even deeper into the issue in his 2021 comedy special Inside, which was filmed in his home during the COVID-19 lockdown and went on to win an Emmy and a Peabody Award.