Stigma
There’s some stigma to being alone in real life. Dining at a restaurant with party of one and travelling by yourself could seem strange or scary to people. It’s the same thing with the internet.
To preface, today’s algorithms aren’t personalized. Although, they might present themselves as a “For You Page”. They’re meant to keep you connected to your category of content that similar accounts like yours have engaged with. Nothing you do or consume is really yours. It’s as if you let your waiter choose your food based on how you look. They serve you a discombobulated chunk of a burger with obvious bite patterns all around it. On the side, fries that are already soaked in ranch—you hate ranch. It’s not really your meal, and you obviously didn’t enjoy the food alone.
There’s a genetic stigma that being alone online prevents you from connecting with others on the web. Everyone is on Twitter, where the latest gender discourse is happening. The funniest and most popular memes your friends bring up in conversation are on TikTok. And the controversial man is being controversial on Youtube and you must know about it!
But does it really matter to you? Do you even care about any of this? Is it genuinely pleasing to you? Once you answer these questions and others like it, being alone doesn’t seem scary at all. It’s enlightening at most.
Being Alone
Being alone on the internet is the act of searching for yourself and becoming your own algorithm. It’s the rejection of being served that weird burger and fries and the act of cooking your own cravings and exploring new flavors that initially sound and actually taste interesting to your unique taste buds.
You’ll become someone decoupled from others—but you’ve always been connected and will continue to be. Your interests are yours—despite how many people share the same ones. The thoughts you have are unique—even though you and the original creator are branches from a tree, and so on. You’ll become more of an individual, where it’ll be easier to find your space, campus, parlor, center, or collective where you can cultivate curiosity and depth.
Surfing alone gives a special ability to navigate this noisy sea of information and turn it into a calm limpid shore, where every cute wave feels intentional and genuine.