Attention everyone!
I regret to inform you that I too have started a substack. Please enjoy my first post, and don't yell at me.
You know honestly, the funny thing about these boots is that they were everywhere in your feed for about a week, and then boom, by the time they actually dropped on MSCHF’s god-forsaken website (at the time of writing this, yesterday), you already forgot about it. Onto the next trending topic or piece of content that has colonized the collective mindshare of the internet. The topic of this essay as the title so cleverly suggests, hehe, is attention. Part of my job as a social media specialist is to scour the internet and stay ahead of the things that are making people talk. That means subjecting myself to the good and the bad… I’ve seen takes you people wouldn’t believe.
Something I want to dive into which I’ve recently noticed is the proliferation of memes that sort of break the 4th wall on the phenomena of viral trending topics. I think it’s fair to say that people have grown tired of the weekly memetic meat grinder that is “the discourse.” There’s always something people are freaking out about and somehow it’s the most important thing in the world for a few days (which they conveniently stop thinking about shortly after), which in turn inspires other people to freak out or engage in the discussion. Meme artists (yes they are artists) across the internet have evoked a certain ironic, detached, cynicism that generally embodies the mood of the culture, and I’ve noticed that they’ve been poking fun at the nature of how these topics take shape and eventually die out. Take the one below for example:
I think there were about two solid weeks where people were talking about buccal fat removal constantly and after that, the conversation died out and people came to the realization that yeah celebrities get plastic surgery, and then moved on. What are the actual implications of living in a culture and society that moves people to change the structure of their faces permanently in the pursuit of ultimate beauty and desire? I’m not sure and honestly, no one actually cares that much to think about it deeply, which is what makes most of these mass hysterias so annoying to see. We’ve gotten to the point where each topic or piece of news has the same gravity as the other. In the collective hive mind of the internet, the fucking MSCHF Boots carry the same weight as Buccal Fat Removal or even Ukraine. Recently, I’ve been reading The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch, and there was a particular quote that stood out to me:
“The propaganda of death and destruction, emanating ceaselessly from the mass media, adds to the prevailing atmosphere of insecurity. Far-flung famines, earthquakes in remote regions, distant wars and uprisings attract the same attention as events closer to home. The impression of arbitrariness in the reporting of disaster reinforces the arbitrary quality of experience itself, and the absence of continuity in the coverage of events, as today’s crisis yields to a new and unrelated crisis tomorrow, adds to the sense of historical discontinuity - the sense of living in a world in which the past holds out no guidance to the present and the future has become completely unpredictable.”
If everything and anything is breaking news that indicates the end of the world then nothing is. The tactics that people have employed to capture attention have led to a breakdown in our ability to gauge the seriousness of a situation and the complete loss of meaning in words. Is everything you don’t like fascist? If someone remembers something differently than you did, are they gaslighting you?
The fashion industry and more so the sneaker industry as a whole is intrinsically linked to the mechanisms of virality and attention. Streetwear and high fashion have blended together to the point where there is no observable distinction in their marketing practices, which is why you have a house like Louis Vuitton hiring Pharrell Williams as their Creative Director. Throw in a few collabs and well-produced runway shows/musical experiences and you got yourself a viral marketing machine right there. From a business perspective, I get it, but as a fashion consumer, I am a little disappointed. What happened to making timeless pieces? Why does everything need to be revolving around the fickle nature of attention? I understand making a splash and how important it is to break the feed, but it would be nice to see something that was created with intention of having a lasting impact. There’s a careful balance that brands must have to be successful. Sure, make the viral scroll-stopping content, but also be thoughtful and intentional in other areas. Anyways, that’s the end of my manic ranting. Here’s one more meme for making it this far.
