Here is a spontaneous thought: Digital crowds have surpassed the level of dread that real life crowds held.
Let me try to explain: I’m an introvert. I don’t need to be just by myself all the time, but being amongst people drains my energy and I need some quiet time to recharge or rather recover from keeping up conversations, filtering out conversations around me and being aware of others.
So, to me large crowds come with a certain amount of dread, because it’s not my natural habitat. I prefer smaller gatherings, where you can have deeper and longer conversations, don’t have to say hello a million times etc. I’m used to it, this is my life and I’m fine.
The funny thing is that digital crowds used to be an interesting way of staying connected without the energy-sapping overhead of real life crowds. When I was 14 I spent a lot of time in chat rooms. Later it was video games or even some of the social media precursors like StudiVZ (German platform for university students) or similar. It felt comfortable, because even in a larger crowd you had ongoing conversations, got to know some people and were recognized yourself.
Digital crowds don’t work like this anymore, I feel. They have become too big. Combined with the short attention spans that have been discussed at length over the last decade, it’s a crazy combination. I never had a Facebook account and never dove deep into Twitter or Instagram. I deleted my Twitter account over a year ago (mostly because of Musk, but also because I didn’t really see the point anymore). Instagram with its focus on photos and short videos never appealed to me.
And now the key moment that triggered this initial thought. Earlier, I opened LinkedIn. (I have an account there for career reasons, usually I just open it for the messenger or occasionally to announce a job ad.) I had first glimpse of the feed spring into view and my fingers hit CTRL+W to close the tab immediately, without any conscious thought. It was like quickly slamming the door back closed upon hearing the first noise of a huge crowd outside.
And that’s the point. In modern social media everybody seems to be shouting and nobody listens anymore. And to me, this makes them way worse than real life crowds. Even with kilometers of cable between me and everyone else. I guess the silver lining is that the real thing suddenly feels a lot more approachable.