For a decade we traded real communities for parasocial dopamine. We made teenagers into billboards and sold their insecurities back as lip kits. We let engagement algorithms decide culture and culture became a loop of the same face, the same ring-light, the same “mascara” highlight.
When the last ring-light dies, the lights in small theaters, bookshops, and local cafés turn back on. Attention won’t be a commodity to be ranked in Zuck’s server farm. We’ll remember that influence used to be earned by what you built, not by how many watched you pretend to build it.
Out of the ashes, we’ll get back the messy, human cities we traded away. And maybe, just maybe, our kids will grow up aspiring to be citizens again, not content.
