Stop embarrassing yourselves for brands
I'm begging you.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
FINAL reminder that ICYMI, the Slate podcast I host, is doing a live show TOMORROW, July 21! I’d love to see you there!! —Kate
New on ICYMI: scaachi joined the podcast to talk about Dave Portnoy’s memoir, and Barstool’s secret influence on the entire internet.
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Like fashion trends and taste in music, internet behaviors and aesthetics are often embarrassing in retrospect. Peace signs and shot-from-above MySpace selfies, for instance, are only ever used ironically today, and even early TikTok behaviors are already being spliced into cringe montages. What, we say to ourselves, were we thinking?
Normally it’s a futile effort to predict what will later seem embarrassing, but I am certain I’m right about one current habit. If you want to reduce the amount of digital kompromat your future romantic partners or children or job prospects or anyone else can find on you, I’m begging you now: Stop talking to brands online.
Stop liking brands’ comments on viral videos. Stop tagging brands in your posts if they’re not paying you. Stop commenting “the marketing team deserves a raise” when brands riff on a meme. I never thought I’d miss the days of people dusting off their Twitter for the first time in a year to yell at an airline about their seat assignment, but in hindsight, those people were the only ones with a sane relationship to a company’s online presence. You are, at best, talking to a customer service agent, not your bestie.
This is not a dig at the employees behind these brand accounts. The brands started replying to us, but then we started replying to them. We’re stuck in a cycle of delusional capitalism.
Look, it’s not that I think the couple who scaled the Empire State Building were revolutionary, and yes, their “when the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace” flag was a little “tell the world, stop the war” for me, but is this not worse:
