Moth Story
One time I was scrolling on Instagram and I saw a cool ad for a concert so I decided to go. When I got to the venue, the person siting next to me started talking to me. He asked how I had heard about it. I embarrassingly told him that I found out through an Instagram ad. In response, he said "No way! I'm here because of Chat GPT!"
We were two people in physical proximity, both algorithmically placed to be there. So I thought to myself, "How many other people in this audience were also algorithmically placed here?"
The concert ended up being really boring and uninspiring but halfway through, something had caught my eye. It was a moth flickering in the glow of the spotlight.
The moth was so beautiful and it completely captured my attention. The way the light was reflecting off its golden wings almost made me cry - I was so moved by it that I had completely forgotten about the performers on stage. It completely stole the show for me. What that moth did was break the fourth - it was a momentary glitch - an element that wasn’t supposed to be there, but reminded me of the context I was in. I was so immersed in the presence of little creature, that it brought me out of the experience of being an audience member, and pulled me into an entire dreamt up universe - where did it come from? Does it know its in the spotlight of a very boring concert? Do you think he misses home?
To me what that moth represented was a glitch, a disruption, but mostly a gentle reminder - to simply observe, and let myself be directed and oriented and guided by my own fleeting momentary instincts and desires. It allegorically showed me the difference between an experience generated through algorithmic tracking and targeting, versus the simple gift of paying attention and how much more value that holds. And as I sat there watching the moth flicker in the spotlight, I asked myself,
Am I going to let algorithmic targeting influence how I live my daily life?