I never thought I’d make the choice to conduct an amateur sociological study when I woke up this morning, but here we are. I’ve decided to write this “thesis” of sorts first, just in case actually watching the film in question somehow alters my mental history on the matter. My cyclothymia also tends to play tricks on me, so I’m not always sure what has and hasn’t happened. And, yes, that has caused me a lot of personal problems over the years.
Anyway…
I left modern social media some years ago, after being cruelly bullied off. The reasons they had for their behaviour were petty, reactionary, and selfish. I generally consider myself to be a nice person, so why were people treating me so horribly?! The event was something that has left me more isolated than I ever have been. It was then that I realised that something in the world had changed. In particular, something about the “social landscape” of the internet.
And not in a good way.
After the initial shock of what happened, and my resulting attempts to adjust without an outlet I had relied on for so long, I started to wonder what was at the core of the change to social media. I knew something was different, sure, but what?! Then it dawned on me: the people had changed.
Social media was initially developed, in the late 1990s, by shy, awkward, lonely nerds, just wanting to talk to like-minded, discerning souls and find a refuge away from the people out there, in the real world, who had dominated, bullied, and rejected them for so many millennia. These nerds had finally found a way to make true friends and maybe find love. For the first ten or fifteen years, social media was an oasis of calm, a golden age, then three technologically-positive things happened, but they had a negative effect on the lives of pale shut-ins everywhere.
These three things were:
- More easily accessible and faster internet connections
- The introduction of the smartphone, providing even more convenient access
- Monetisation, which offered untold riches to the most loudest, arrogant, popular person out there
Then, to paraphrase Star Wars, came the dark times.
Almost overnight, social media was swamped by all the people that we, the genuine nerd population, were trying to escape from. No longer were we free to share our thoughts, feelings, and satirical humour, without being bullied by hostile business managers, sat in traffic jams after spending the day subjugating their poorly-paid lessers. The water of joyful geekdom had been severely diluted by attention seekers, hipsters, arrogant parents, armchair politicians of all persuasions and, worst of all, what has come to be known as the “social media influencer”. This new wave of internet user had no desire to be sociable either. They already had friends and partners out in the real world, so woe betide you for daring to try reaching out to them. You will either be ignored or lashed out at.
This is no longer social media or social networking, it is the human showroom.
The dream we, the shy, awkward, lonely nerds of the late-1990s and early-2000s, had tried to make come true, finally died. There was nowhere to go, except outside. You see, people would never treat you in public the way they do on the internet. It’s safe outside now, because all the bullies are on social media, screaming and shouting at each other and begging for likes and subscribes and shares and donations and whatever else.
So, what on Earth has all this got to do with High-Rise, you ask? Well, it’s a significant film for me, because it was the first time that I noticed something had changed. I didn’t know what had changed back then, or how it would affect my life, but the pre-release hype surrounding this 2015 science fiction thriller (I assume it is, I’ve not actually seen it yet) was an early warning sign of the dark times to come.
You see, I’ve always been a movie geek. As a teenager, I used to buy up as many movie compendiums in print as I could, and watched every type of movie available. While I find the ambitious visuals of science fiction and fantasy to be my favourite, my heart has always been open. And that’s still the case. I’ll watch a dumb action movie in the morning, then a silent film from the 1920s in the afternoon, then an animated family-friendly romp in the evening. I even attended a film studies class for a couple of years, before my mental illness and visual impairment finally got the better of me. In short, I feel like I’ve earned the right to have an opinion about motion pictures. I’ve really tried to understand and appreciate the art form and, most importantly, to be able to predict whether a new release is going to be good or bad or just plain mediocre.
And here’s where High-Rise comes in.
For reasons that I could not understand at the time, High-Rise was getting an incredible amount of pre-release hype. Friends on social media, both close and casual, were getting excited; YouTubers I watched were getting excited; bloggers were getting excited; professional film reviewers were getting excited. Everyone… but me. Companies that made nerd-related clothing were even selling t-shirts and baseball caps heralding the arrival of High-Rise, our apparent saviour.
But why?! This is what I simply could not fathom.
I looked at the film’s cast and crew list, as I am now, and saw some very creative, successful, and capable people, but that still didn’t answer my question. Even the plot sounded too vague to get excited about. Then I realised: there was no reason why people were getting excited. The issue was a circular one: people were getting excited because people were getting excited. It’s like when there’s mass outrage these days over a war in a country that people have neither heard of or even know the location of, but they’ve got a “DONATE TO THE WAR RELIEF EFFORT!” on their website or channel or feed. Social media is now flooded with people who have no idea what’s really going on or how to feel and think for themselves. There’s a shiny thing on their smartphone screen, so they click on it and giggle. Bless ‘em. I mean, why would “Steve” next door, a guy who gets stoned and dances to rave music at 2 am in the garden with his dog, possibly know what a good or bad film is?! The truth is, he doesn’t know, but people will trust his opinion, because they don’t see how much of a dimwit he really is.
They also don’t see the dog-dancing.
People on social media are also afraid. Terribly afraid. And they have every reason to be. The same thing that happened to me could happen to them at any moment. Social media is watching, and it does not give you second chances anymore. People wilfully allow, through social media, bullies into their homes nowadays. And it is very difficult to get them out again.
Back in the early years of social media, discerning nerds would not have stood for such nonsensical hype over such a low-hanging b-movie. In fact, they would have just smiled wryly and waited for the inevitable implosion. And that’s exactly what happened: nothing. In fact, after a while, I began to notice that nobody was talking about High-Rise anymore, which seemed odd. I was all like: “Hey, I wonder what happened to that film everyone was getting so excited about. Is it out yet?!”. The sad truth being, not only had it come out, but it had vanished without a trace, receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews and becoming a huge flop.
Yes, my wry smile was rather large and smug.
Then, much like the hype itself, I forgot all about it. Along comes this morning (evening really, as my insomnia has turned my bedtime into 8 am this week), and I thought: “Hey, Jim, why don’t you buy that High-Rise film and see what all the fuss was, or wasn’t, about?!”.
Cut to me typing this.
I know a lot of my above personal ranting may seem rather, erm, awkward, but I do feel like the two issues are linked. Neither has anything directly to do with the other, but it’s the events surrounding them that are and, to me, very significant. So I’ve just ordered the High-Rise Blu-ray, which should give me time to calm down and enjoy a few palate cleansers before watching the film with a clear head.
We shall see…
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Toodles!
UPDATE: The full review is now up and can be found in my subsequent post here!
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