To be terminally online is to be in the loop and acutely aware of not just internet trends but of the culture of different spaces on the internet. To be terminally offline is to be completely unaware and uninfluenced by algorithmic culture.

Algorithms and authenticity

To be terminally offline is to be mostly free from algorithmic content, years ago a bunch of people got into eating ass because social media memes told them to, currently a ton of guys are getting into muscle girls because social media algorithms tell them to, a bunch of girls are now pursuing this aesthetic because social media has told them to – The idea that social media algorithms can create fetishes in you that did not previously exist should concern you, it screams of in-authenticity. That’s just one example think about how many issues that have 0 bearing on your life you know and are invested in, think about how much of ‘you’ is made up of things pushed on you by an algorithm

b-but I can escape the algorithms

This is a myopic view, algorithms will always follow you. To use youtube for an example the main algorithmic portions are the homepage, recommended and next up, So you hide them. However the content creators you watch are created by those same algorithms because they’re terminally online, they’re not just informed by the algorithm they’re rewarded for following the trends it sets, so now you’re still consuming algorithmic content you’re just one step away from the algorithm, Any content (on or off youtube) that is created by someone who is terminally online will follow this same pattern and almost all content online is created by people who’re terminally online.

The solution

Some online content consumption is probably fine, but the more references it makes to online culture the worse it is. You need content that is incredibly focused on real world topics, I’m going to give two examples

  1. A fitness youtube channel who gives advice and covers/reacts to the content of other fitness youtubers
  2. A fitness youtube channel who makes videos about fitness

The example is a clear one but channels who do “react” content are always going to be informed by/influenced by internet culture to such a degree you’ll get second hand influence, in my view the only way to overcome this is to be terminally offline

Terminally offline.

Now I don’t mean this in a literal sense I mean it more in a cultural one, first start by removing internet slang from your vocabulary some incredibly popular examples are

– unironically

– no cap

– bussin

Tiktok being a major trendsetter for internet culture means a lot of internet language will come from it. Next look at your likes and dislikes and try and figure out what’s been pushed on you, current internet trends are

  • Bodybuilding
  • Christianity
  • Muscle girls

Now to add a small addendum I’m not saying these things are bad, In regards to likes/dislikes you should try and figure out if it was pushed on you and if it provides value or has genuine belief behind it, a good litmus for this is if you stop consuming content related to it; stop talking about it; remove any mention of it from your online persona – does it persist?

These are good first steps beyond the obvious “stop consuming online culture content” the end goal you’re aiming for is if a person tries talking to you about online culture they can’t talk to you about any part of it because not only are you missing the thing (a) you’re also missing the context surrounding (a).

“Have you heard about (a) it’s insane isn’t it?”

“No, Whats (a)?”

“So (a) is basically (person) did (thing), and now everyones kicking off about it”

“oh”

“Yeah how crazy is that?”

“I don’t know anything about it”

Now this might seem like you’re just a moron with poor conversational skills but it actually has two major benefits firstly it frees you up from pointless and draining conversations and secondly it makes the other person feel stupid for caring so much about something they don’t know much about that has 0 bearing on their life or the lives of anyone they care about.

jonah hill was abusive to his girlfriend

I do not care, Domestic abuse is a serious issue not something to gossip about hopefully the guilty get punished past that I do not care, I don’t want to read half a dozen texts, I don’t want to spend my time talking about it, I do not care. I don’t feel a need to prove I think abusing people is bad.