you probably already know that social media companies have hacked your brain, feeding you dopamine hits to keep you fiending - and keep their ad dollars flowing.

you also know they use hate, outrage, and controversy to do it.

love and positivity are bad for business. people who are happy and fulfilled spend more time living and less time scrolling. i’ve seen enough crabs in a bucket to know when someone’s saving money on a lid.

GOOD ART IS BAD BUSINESS

these days, to have success, you need to appeal to an increasingly short attention span.

if people aren’t hooked in 3-5 seconds, you’re dead to them. and also, how dare you!?

then, once you figure out how to hook people early by shifting your creative priorities around and putting a neat little bow on your personality - if you don’t post consistently, you’re still dead to them, and also, you’re a disappointment for wasting everyone’s time.

when you add all that up, originality becomes too risky. it makes way more sense to follow a tried, tested and true formula, making carbon copies of the content that’s already proven to be successful. and that mentality doesn’t just affect what people consume, it affects the art that gets made in the first place. music isn’t immune to it. the reason you feel like real music is dead is because good art isn’t good for business anymore.

it’s being buried under shiny bad art.

YOU’RE THE PRODUCT

in a desperate attempt to connect, artists keep breaking the fourth wall earlier and earlier.

mystery; the thing that once made music feel larger than life - is dying.

before social media, many of the greats were weirdos who had a complicated relationship with fame - but once their art was shared, it would take on a life of its own and be the foundation of their identity.

social media has flipped that. now, fame is a prerequisite for success.

i see it happening everywhere, identity and personality aren’t assigned by the art anymore… they’re the product.

the genius anti-social weirdos - potential voices of a generation, like kurt cobain, thom yorke, and frank ocean - are being drowned in a sea of cool kids.

BRAIN ROT

consumerism, materialism, and vanity have brainwashed too many people, to the point where all they care about is material success.

fame is the main goal.

my whole generation has been brainwashed to believe that their value can be quantified with a number on a page.

likes, comments, follows.

they all have a chip on their shoulder. they all want to keep up with the joneses.

the second that fame becomes the driving focus though, their individuality dies.

that’s why it seems like everyone’s getting their 15 minutes, and almost nobody’s getting more than that.

with all the energy being spent on content, there’s less left for the music itself, so it gets watered down. artists used to split their time: studio, press, tour, repeat. now, every day is marketing day. the less time spent creating, the more the art suffers.

MORE BRAIN ROT

over time, i’ve noticed that the algorithm that’s supposed to be modeled after the human brain is actually rewiring the human brain by impacting the world around it.

our brains aren’t wired for a constant bombardment of bullshit. we feel way more centered when we slow down and appreciate what’s around us, but now the algorithm has people addicted to that bombardment, and nobody can sit still and be alone with their thoughts.

people are getting more depressed and the algorithm rewards them for leaning into it.

complaining, negativity, controversy, and outrage are like a car accident nobody can look away from, so the algorithm feeds more and more of it because it’s great for ad revenue.

but like a car crash, the more you look, the worse you feel - so we keep getting sicker.

MAKE IT BETTER

so what’s the solution? for some people, there isn’t one.

see: "terminally online" (wikipedia).

for everyone else, we can’t expect an algorithm that depends on our need to look at car accidents to reward good drivers.

not unless we steer it ourselves.

there’s a growing movement of people who are choosing health.

not the hallmark version of mental health that influencers have turned into a buzzword.

the real kind where you look inward, get to know yourself, and work fucking hard to cut out the things that don’t serve you.

some people are quitting social media.

many who depend on it for work, like myself, have learned how to steer the algorithm instead of letting it steer them.

i try to save my engagement for things i love - music, comedy, food etc. - and swipe past things that don’t serve me.

BOBBY’S WORLD

if you love music like i do, and you’re tired of the bullshit, hi. i’m bobby. i think we should be friends.

i make music for people who still believe art is bigger than personality.

people who are tired of watching algorithms replace culture and make people mentally ill.

people who miss the days when music meant more because artists put their art first.

if you miss that, you’re not alone.

there are lots of artists like me; they’re just being buried under things that hurt you.

WE ARE THE SAME

there’s always gonna be pain. pain is necessary.

without darkness, we wouldn’t understand light.

but we have to limit how much darkness we let in.

if you’re so far down the rabbit hole that you hate your enemies, and your social media algorithm is a spiral of us vs. them shit, i promise you’re part of the problem, no matter how bad your enemies are.

hate is all-encompassing. it’s a poison, and it kills the host.

even if you hate the hate itself, hate becomes you.

if you want to solve real problems, work on yourself.

you’ll realize we all want the same things.

we all are the same thing.

FINAL THOUGHT

in the words of john lennon, "love is the answer."

you can either listen to his message, or go make a video about how shitty of a person he was for clicks.

your choice.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA PROBLEM