Bo Burnham: Colonizing Our Minds in the Age of Social Media

In a discussion regarding the film, "Eighth Grade"" written and directed by Bo Burnham, Bo discusses phones, technology, the internet, social media, and their effects on kids and society. Corporations are trying to colonize our mind, capitalizing on every free second you have. Self-Esteem in the Age of Social Media
#BoBurnham #SocialMedia #Phones #EighthGrade #KelsieFisher

[@NorthwestNicholas]

Man I wish Bo had a podcast. I could listen to him for hours.

[@lovescent46]

Same

[@dolphin8815]

The fact he doesn't is why you can. Also he's a genius.

[@ajmonkfish]

You don't see the irony of this comment?

[@dotunajayi2869]

Lol that's the problem , they want all your time

[@zukyozelf7144]

dude so much need a platform to just spit

[@BrokenCompass502]

"They're not living moments, they are planning moments in order to look back on them" - yeesh, too true. People literally book trips so that they can take Instagram pictures and post/admire the comments. They aren't admiring the view, they're way more concerned with whether or not others are admiring the experience that they are presenting.

[@Mr.Plant1994]

A lot of people do this subconsciously without even realizing though. Can ts like a symptom of their social media addictions. I went on vacation in 2019 and did a lot of really fun things, but I had 2 rules for me and my significant other. We couldn’t post anything about it online until it was over, and we had to live in the moment, so we couldn’t take photos or videos until after we had our fun doing whatever it is we did. That’s why my whale watching photo sucked. I didn’t wait the whole time for a good photo, I just took one toward the end when I knew it was winding down and we were gonna head back. That being said the entire time I kept having to check myself because we reach for our phones sometimes instinctively without even realizing it.

[@jaxter6037]

@@Mr.Plant1994 Was it worth it? Did it make the difference?

[@demiladeayeni]

right? it’s crazy!

[@Bill-ou7zp]

Nothing wrong with planning moments in order to look back at them. It’s another way of saying ‘plan fun things’.

[@MaxGiu]

i had a tough moment with my now 10years old relationship at the beginning... im 33 years old and i so away from social media (youtube is the only i really use)... and it was very difficult to him to realize i dont like to post private stuff about us... i wont get mad if he post something, but i dont like taking pictures about stuff we do to post it online for everyone to see... i believe intimacy needs to keep private but we are going to a future where privacy will be worthless and "useless"

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

I never once heard an even semi rational counter argument to this. Bo is spot on.

[@Victor-oy8bj]

its bc u dont do enough research. he says capitalism and these companies and shareholders are the problem, but its been happening forever and its what makes your computer work and able to use youtube and watch this video. if we as humans never made companies, or made more to grow and improve, we would all still be living in a dirt hut. it sounds scary bc he only highlights the bad, theres bad in every change and every new technology but generally, society changes for what we want and how we want it to improve.

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

@@Victor-oy8bj Bro, I think you don't do your research, that's complete and utter nonsense. We would not still be living in dirt huts without capitalism and capitalism is not the reason we have computers and KZbin. These things could have been invented under a different system, people invent new technology, not economic systems. There is nothing wrong with companies, they should just be democratically controlled by the workers. Our technology would be even better than it is now if companies were run like that and we had a better economic system. We wouldn't have shrinkflation, planned obsolescence, or any of the predatory practices capitalism encourages that slowly make good things worse. You have not presented a rational counter argument to what Bo is saying.

[@OrangeyTangerine]

@@Victor-oy8bj The thing is, society isn't really changing for what the people want, much less for what the people need, and it is arguably improving. Society is changing for what companies want to push, and if what is pushed is convenient, we settle for it. There's no reason other than convenience that the most used operating system is the spyware that is Windows, Linux is a much better choice in all aspects. Most of the stuff we buy coming in plastic is for short timed convenience, there's no reason for cereals to come inside a plastic bag that's inside a cardboard box, when you could just bring your own cloth bag to the store and fill it with wherever amount of cereal you want, like the old days. My point is, most of us are idiots, me included, we don't really know what is best for us, specially when talking about new technology and convenience. Sometimes the bad outweighs the good and we as a collective aren't really good at discerning that until it is too late, and it is already ingrained in society.

[@Victor-oy8bj]

@@OrangeyTangerine um what, so what ur saying is we as people dont know what we want so we are just bound for self destruction? and what about all of history, we were just lucky that we didnt self-sabotage ourselves over the past thousands years? bc i highly disagree, we've clearly been progressing

[@OrangeyTangerine]

​@@Victor-oy8bj Ye, I'd say we're lucky we haven't erupted into a nuclear war yet, plus the technological paradigm is way different nowadays than it was for the rest of human existence. Technology is evolving faster and faster everyday, just less than a century ago, computers were the size of a building, now they fit in ours hands. We are indeed progressing, but at some point, some progress can have bad consequences, which is what happens if too much convenience exists. Convenience equals more sales for companies and more sales, many times equals caring less about the consequences, being them good or bad. For example, this new AI technology that's changing by the day, some believe it is a good thing, some believe it is a bad thing, but the truth is, no one can single-handedly stop its growth if they believe it is bad, and we as a society don't really have a consensus on that, but at some point, if it turns out that it isn't that good, it is going to be too late to reverse it.

[@MrAlexmiele8910]

The girl to the left of Bo looks so sad while Bo speaks in this.. while the others laugh and smiles. She understands what Bo is saying and see how true it is.

[@ellenobrien4989]

Exactly, speaks for itself 😕💜💜

[@JessicaFriedman32]

That is Elsie Fisher, the star of Bo’s directorial debut Eighth Grade. Highly recommended film!

[@JestersPrivilege18]

“Bo we asked you what your favorite color is”

[@valoriewatson7621]

It's like the internet is so ingrained in our lives that the real world is just a backdrop or background to our lives online

[@flufflesjangles2612]

You’re so right

[@Kramerica962]

The internet is real life, stop making a distinction between the two. Everything you do online is tracked and can be directly linked back to you at any point in time. Just because you're name isn't attached to something doesn't mean it can't be tracked back to you. All it takes is one slip up and the links can be made. The invention of the internet wasn't about the free spread of information or allowing access to tools, it was about killing privacy. Privacy was dead the minute they convinced every person in the Western world to carry around a tracking device in their pockets. They don't need to have a camera on every street corner anymore because they convinced you to carry the camera on your person and they convinced you to install the camera inside your home. They can literally send a signal to your router that turns it into a camera via the signal pinging off all the walls of your home and that's not a conspiracy theory, that's 100% proven and you can look it up on KZbin to see it in action. None of it matters anyway. Who cares about them spying on you 24/7 when they're literally poisoning you through the food you eat and the liquid you consume? Try to break free from the matrix that is the modern Western world and watch how fast you're made an outcast. The sad thing is that "they" don't even have to do it, they convinced your family and other citizens to do it for them. Look at how your fellow citizens treated people who didn't want to take the "vaccine". Look at how they forced you to wear a mask that they now admit did absolutely nothing. Look at how much they've demonized "preppers" by calling them conspiracy wackos. Since when is being prepared for a worst case scenario a bad thing? You're all so wrapped up in the wrong conversations that you're not connecting the dots you should be connecting. We lost, it's over. "They" already won because none of you are ready to even realize who "they" are.

[@Sungunone]

The strange thing is ,as truthful and as honest as what he is saying is.... Just the fact of watching this video and being enlightened by it, that applies to you and me. What a paradox.

[@jacobw.6744]

I mean Bo has always really rode that line. His song about being canceled is incredibly self-aware. He realizes that he's a part of the system and was part of making "that era" of the internet...and there's nothing he can do to change that fact. The fact that his conversation here is going to go on KZbin and get liked, on Reddit to get upvoted, etc. etc. isn't lost on him. And it really, really seems like he hates it. Because there isn't another way to address the issue. There's nothing we can do to *reverse* the course. Hell, there's barely anything we can do to change it. But at least we can be aware of it. Bo is great. And I like that as I grew older I went from loving his edgy-teen persona (because I was an edgy teen) to loving his very self-aware and introspective self (as I've grown in that too).

[@SirPalsrok]

This is an amazing piece of consciousness shared. I love it. I'm a teacher. Tomorrow I will show all my classes those last two minutes and we will have a conversation about it. Thanks, Bo!

[@gavinrushing12]

Agreed, entirely.

[@PanicSatanic]

Will be curious to hear what they have to say. I think kids know the world is real. They don't think it's virtual. Kids are well aware how fucked the world is for them (whether you're talking about climate change or wealth inequality). I like Bo but he's being performative and exaggerative here. Which is not surprising if you've ever seen Bo's stuff. The irony is that you're a teacher in "the real world"... about to take this performative click-bait KZbin video and show it to your real world students in your real-world class.

[@kelsey8014]

Thank you for your service

[@ice8776]

mom at school my teacher told me truth is dead

[@lauramarinaperez8325]

@@ice8776 Bo said years ago that Art is Dead.

[@kittykatkween]

I absolutely loved every second of this but i want to bring up how i mostly loved seeing Bo visibly fighting back his anxiety to relay this necessary wisdom to us. Hes clearly overwhelmed yet speaking so eloquently . Ironically his quirks make him that much more special & interesting, what a fascinating man . .. it makes me realize how our capabilities have no bounds even through our active disorders.

[@sydneyvogel8121]

He doesn’t have a disorder dude, he understands the messed up society we live in and can’t do anything about it. Youd be “disordered” too

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

​@@sydneyvogel8121he literally does have an anxiety disorder tho, but you are also correct.

[@Coheed2113allday]

He definitely has a disorder. ​@@sydneyvogel8121

[@sueblue3080]

This video is about 6 years old. Awesome and still relevant. It was filmed about the time 8TH Grade the movie came out.

[@JessicaFriedman32]

Not exactly. This particular interview is from 2019, so it is 4 years old. Still crazy how relevant it is though!

[@kayleighkannthewisher]

We should have a massive public conversation about this issue

[@kilo3-186]

no doubt. "a spiders web" as stated in the bible code will be the downfall of the world. Skynet. transhumanism. terminator. Movies (fiction or not) is the subconscious of the global human hive mind

[@m.e.8244]

It goes against the interests of companies, so we won't. Every means to stop it would be called socialism or smth.

[@WetAlloy5316]

We really should considering all these politicians are too busy doing absolutely nothing

[@cjaria444]

Agreed, I'm gonna set up a forum for people to talk about this

[@estefencosta1835]

It's staggering to me that with everything going on in the tech realm that there's absolutely no discussion about how to live in healthy harmony with technology or what the negative impacts could be. Society feels very passive and bovine, just accepting uncritically not just how things are but that things could not be any way other. Corporations have convinced us that it is an immutable truth that whatever they push on us to increase their bottom line, there could be no other way.

[@samdayak427]

This clip is honestly chilling. The fact that this is from 4 years ago and aged like wine is so chilling...

[@MJZ7703]

He is so ahead of our time.

[@tenebrae23]

Are you really not having the same kinds of thoughts?

[@MJZ7703]

@@tenebrae23 I am. But the people in power are not.

[@timohummel9996]

​@@MJZ7703 The people in power are the ones profiting from stuff like this

[@mochileronomas]

Every person needs to watch this ASAP.

[@GMHEnglish]

Chris Ryan has said much the same in his book, Civilized to Death. (In his critiquing of capitalism and showing how corporations have become more like super organisms that have taken on a life of their own). Recommended reading.

[@calebhogue2619]

Honestly never knew as a comedian this dude is so smart and articulate!

[@LeftMindedThoughts]

Well an idiot wouldn't be able to write all those great songs. But I get what you mean 😄🖖

[@shoka_01]

Most commedians are! Satire and cultural observation takes intellect

[@nellkellino-miller7673]

A wise man in a period of collective hysteria is in serious danger of being lynched. Protect this beautiful man at all costs.

[@paulhanson2570]

Well it looks like I’ve had a couple beers and needed some Bo wisdom again

[@beeache7732]

This 3 minutes and 19 second clip sums up everything i hate about internet culture and even as i'm writing this comment, i despise myself for doing so, because nothing on the internet has any weight to it - every second i spend here feels like a waste of valuable time, but still i feel the need to express my point of view. So who the fuck am i to judge others activities and opinions on here

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

Too real. Same boat dude, I don't know why I'm in these comments.

[@andrewrhoden3301]

Boom. Nailed it.

[@diego5079]

It's so interesting I have to wonder why I've never heard about this idea since now

[@carbonatedwater2614]

There is a really good documentary about this on Netflix, it’s called the social dilemma.

[@gavinrushing12]

Absolutely brilliant.

[@XxXTheslayerXxX]

Does anyone else see the girl on his left having a “Oh my…” realization moment ?

[@7theconqueror937]

You can see the anxiety dripping from him

[@logan-pe4rm]

Bo absolutely fucking nailed it here, I love how frantically passionate he speaks and yet everyone stares at him with these empty-minded dead eyed looks as if he’s talking right through them. WE HEAR YOU BO

[@bryanlane7208]

This is why I've always hated marketing. Some part of me always recognized it was mental colonization even though I was never able to articulate it that way. How is this is a real job that people derive purpose and satisfaction from? Kind of a rhetorical question - just as capitalism is an extension of natural selection, colonizing attention is an extension of capitalism.

[@confusedpozole406]

There’s nothing natural about capitalism.

[@eedobee]

Come soon o lord

[@richlisola1]

Bo is really doing what Carlin once did-He’s a philosopher more than a comedian. Like Carlin.

[@logan-pe4rm]

God he’s so fucking awesome

[@ashmay84]

Vilem Flusser wrote a book about these issues in the 80’s called “Into the Universe of Technical Images”

[@IMatchoNation]

Bo Burnham is our generation's George Carlin; amazing stuff.

[@tenebrae23]

He's actually this generation's Bo Burnham. Do you really know all of Carlin? The most successful part of his career was cerebral stoner comedy. Then, he really focused and became a full time social critic. But lost it towards the end, with lists of "people who should be shot" and shit like that. It just degenerated. It was horrible. I was at one of his last shows. Actually, the night I saw him was the day after his wife's death. In Dallas. State Fair Music Hall.

[@RupertWins]

He's regurgitating

[@beetalius]

Surveilance Capitalism is a fantastic book on what hes describing

[@eslut]

I'm sure in a few years we'll have actual diagnostic terms related to internet use LOL.

[@sussy_Green_player]

fun fact bo burnham has an explicit song relatable Welcome to the Internet

[@Natallou55]

Haha i love incredibly uncomfortable some of the other panelists look while he is saying this, which I find bizarre, I would be nodding my head so much i think it would fall off.

[@lukewills6692]

1:50 is si good

[@eryne.9027]

It's been quite some time since I've seen this for the first time and I keep coming back to it. "They're coming for every second of your life" creeps behind me every time I look at my phone since I heared that sentence.

[@lordadmiralawesome2334]

I'm not a fan of Ellen DeGeneres but she makes a good point!

[@sharkguy27]

lmaoooo

[@MaxGiu]

Hypereality when digital platforms are not a part of reality, but reality itself, another way of reality... everything is merging i love Burnham, and he makes me laugh... but i like him more when he makes me think

[@TeSoad90]

So true

[@MaxGiu]

we have no time to think and process whats happening... it was 2nd cold war with korea, then Covid, then Ukraine-Russia, then another climate catastrophe, then you get fired, then another nuclear threat, maybe then another pandemic... plus we have no time to think about it daily, because we have to keep moving and keep giving our opinions as fast as we can, before its too late

[@Jj45353]

Without a joke people told me at least a 100 times in my life that I should stop thinking to much. Sometimes by strangers who know me just a second. But honestly compared to Bo Burnham my mind is just empty space with dead rocks floating through in it.

[@markwinterlin]

revisiting this on the day Apple releases their VR/AR headset

[@omnitone]

is there anything we can do to kick out shareholders? the social medias should be static in terms of power and size.

[@beat-root-2621]

i love bo but he blew this out of proportion youtube is creating massive service by giving a stage to anyone as oppose to tv networks and news

[@mrSlippinidiot]

The human race is a very social species, is too much social activity bad or good for us? It may just depend on the person.

[@johnrobinsons3835]

Harry Maguire does it again!!

[@HunterParkermusic]

Where do I find this full interview?

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

It was part of promotion for 8th grade.

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

Self esteem in the age of social media

[@sebastiaanmaure6434]

Zuckerberg stole the metaverse from Bo 😮

[@apocbible]

It's gone beyond strange into perverse

[@Anarkhipov_]

He’s so fruity in this interview I love him

[@CaptainPancakes]

I think Bo is aware he's a bit effeminate himself.

[@Anarkhipov_]

@@CaptainPancakes “I’m the effeminate Eminem, a slim shady lady but nice cause I texted Haiti”

[@NachitenRemix]

Does anyone have a link to the complete interview?

[@thebrewsky26]

Veritas and Pizzaman sent me

[@TheOneHereNow]

The ads still suck, I’m a dude and the platforms know this and I still get ads for tampons… what

[@linguine4500]

My g can't choose a direction

[@Raydoesitintime]

Where can I find the full?

[@RandoMatterhorn]

It showed up as a suggestion for me under this one from Child Mind Institute

[@MorbidNeeds]

What Black Mirror episode is it we're living in again?

[@MasDouc]

The one where everybody dies at the end

[@SaltNBattery]

Look at all the NPCs staring at him with dead eyes while he’s ranting truth. It reminds me of the crazy dude on the corner yelling with the Jesus sign. We don’t deserve this dude.

[@Jack-sd1ug]

“NPCs” nice way to talk about real people you freak

[@RupertWins]

stay twitchy

[@user-ex6xc5ox3k]

Welcome to Hyper-reality

[@williamroelant]

Where can I see the full interview?

[@TheKOzality]

Here's the full piece: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i564nmqld9Z2jNk

[@williamroelant]

@@TheKOzality Thanks :)

[@HaSTaxHaX]

When was this made?

[@MadScientistCinema]

If you like this video, and such topics, please Subscribe to my channel! 👍

[@iggswanna1248]

Bo u can colonize my time as much as you like...

[@Hollowsmith]

Sounds like Bo Burnham watched "The Social Dilemma".

[@tenebrae23]

Some of us have been thinking about this for a long time.

[@Chris_Thorny]

I agree except Truth isn't dead, they are.

[@jmighty33zero]

When you live in a country where you can watch one news channel and get one story and watch another and get a completely different story then yes, truth is dead

[@tenebrae23]

@@jmighty33zero Where are you seeing a completely different story? I never see that. It's real easy to pick out the essentials which everyone generally reports. I can't help if you get caught in the spin.

[@goddamnit]

It's really difficult convincing people of the dangers of this whole thing to the future of humanity... no matter how much I talk, how many points I bring up, it's futile, even after showing something like this video because my fingers got tired from typing and wanted to send a random example of my point instead... younger generations especially are so much more screwed. Our technology out-evolved us, and these corporations are milking and exploiting it to the fullest..

[@TheFamousMockingbird]

I am struggling with the same thing, it really shocks me. I don't think people understand the level which we have divorced ourself from what makes us human for the sake of on user end novelty, on owner end, economic produtivity for more money. Tech is getting so out of hand that its becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. I will see interviews with really big figures in AI and ML worlds and they talk about the potential dangers and how we dont know what will happen, but don't think "maybe we just shouldn't build this fucking monster that at best will marginally improve a small class of people, exponentially be good for the very top, and the rest of the world just has to sit here and non consentingly accept this clear insanity. If I hear someone use the world optimize or productivity again im gonna lose it. These people have totally separated themselves from their humanity and become submissive cogs to an economic model that has only been around for 300 years out of all of history, and pretend like we can not survive without the constant growth and consumption.

[@goddamnit]

@@TheFamousMockingbird EXACTLY!!! Everything has become a fucking business, including our very own minds and attention spans... this whole system is completely unsustainable, and has killed so many people, and made many more than that suffer already. Like you said, these are VERY new times, and no previous civilization before us dealt with systemic issues of this magnitude before. We have a complete lack of control against the conglomerates ruining our lives. All that matters is an increase in short-term profits for shareholders before life as we know it ceases to exist. The coal industry is fucking up the planet, the pharmaceutical industry is fucking up our health and well-being, and the tech industry is fucking up our minds with propaganda and censoring and data manipulation. We're actually so screwed. Human civilization NEEDS to take charge against shareholders ASAP. Unregulated capitalism will be the death of us.

[@bmkbbk123]

i keep trying to get my parents to understand this. the older generations seriously don’t think as fast as kids raised on technology. we all are thinking and processing at a higher rate than them. we were born into this era, a very new era for all of humanity, one that is allowing all information to be accessed easily. but that has its downsides. i just hate when older people don’t listen and understand the true problem of the phones and social media. they can’t understand you can be sick in the head, mental illness wasn’t really that big and was usually just brushed off as “crazy.” we are in a weird time for humanity, where almost feels the only way we will progress is if we just kinda euthanized all old people or something. they simply refuse to listen to the younger generation due to their traditional ways of thinking. but they can not understand the true shift in human intelligence that has gone on in the last 20 years. close minded old farts, i refuse to ever be like them when i’m older. i will always keep an open mind and understand as species we are evolving with these new technologies.

[@goddamnit]

@@bmkbbk123 Thank you, you're rgreat, and I have the exact same stance. Screw that "you tend to become more conservative as you get older" BS. No I don't. I actually became more liberal, if anything. I care about improving humanity, and I am already very open-minded. I plan to keep, and even expand upon my open-mindedness, and if I ever end up having kids, they will absolutely benefit from everything that I will share with them. Good things happen sometimes, bad things happen other times, and it's up to us to only ever make the best of it. We need to get rid of this peer pressure from dead people. The world is not like it was even just 10 years ago. We are in a BRAND NEW time of human history that hasn't ever happened before, and this will be the case for every future year from now on. We need to remember this for OUR future generations when we become old ourselves. Ignorance has no place in an advanced civilization. Also, Republican defundings of education and lead in the pipes over the past 50 years are also some of the reasons why things are the way they currently are.

[@bmkbbk123]

@@goddamnit agreed. and oh man, don’t even get me started on the dumbing down of america. the republicans made sure we stayed ignorant lol

[@Chef8898]

Guy should read Günther Anders

[@matty_daddy]

Why? What’s that about

[@tenebrae23]

Lol.

[@djexitvideos]

just me or anyone else find this dude extremely annoying, like hes explaining how snapchat works to his grandparents

[@harrytheurer6455]

Anyone want to wager a guess as to what combination of drugs Bo is on in this clip?

[@TommyLikeTom]

Bo Burnham is a part of it, he was raised to be a entertainer that captures attention. It goes back to the very reason we are alive, the very thing you are made out of. All we are is attention, and that's the only currency. Bo is freaking out but it's not something to be concerned about, it's existence. The mistake he is making is thinking that this is something new, or that it's "heading" somewhere. Everything is in cycle, we're all immortal digital beings, life _is_ an illusion and the whole point is to create more illusion.

[@Jack-sd1ug]

Go outside

[@Unanythang]

Cringe

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

Explain how it's cringe. Do you think he's wrong?

[@Animated-person]

He just makes sense and he cares so much about it, I love him

[@daviddivad777]

*he's right you know meme*