oh look
a little red square
with a small one inside it
just appeared on my screen…
how exciting!!
i wonder what this means?
oh…it’s just an event invite from a stranger
to a shit party in another city…
little red square…you disappoint me.
but WAIT! what’s this?
another one!
YES!
vindication!
validation!
victory!
oh….a friend i don’t really like
just liked a video i posted.
that’s pretty boring.
i got excited prematurely
and now i feel
empty…
ahh…little red square…
you give me meaning
then you cruelly take it away…
you’re a half empty glass of tepid water
and i’m about to die of thirst…
little red square…
you promised me so much
but delivered so little….
you keep us stuck to our screens..
waiting….
away from life…
away from our friends and family…
away from laughter…
away from smells..
and tastes..
and feelings…
away from mountains
and forests and the ocean…
and adventures…
you have replaced sensual encounters…
with digital longings…
we have become addicted to you…
we have all become addicted to little red squares
with numbers inside….
little red square…
we have no mutual friends….
i would not accept a friend request from you….
those two words do not belong next to each other..
you don’t request someone’s friendship…
it grows like a flower..naturally….
little red square do you have any friends?
are you lonely little red square?
Home?…
you are not my home…
home isn’t something you can click on….
you are the opposite of home…
you are a cold foreign land…
what do you actually do for me little red square?
you tag me in photos
when iv drunk too much…
you built a wall in all our gardens
for people to broadcast their social hierarchies upon…
you have destroyed friendships…
you have made it harder to love
and harder to trust.
my relationships with people have no status.
you trivialise love into pixels on a screen..
and crassly broadcast broken hearts
for all to see.
i hear people talking about you in the streets
with shrill voices..
and it makes me sad…
interested in?
who am i interested in?
im interested in both men and women..
you should be less vague and ask me
if i like fuck guys or girls or both….
you are our new bible….
there is no honesty in the pages of your book..
little red square you should be embarrassed…
you can’t show me the world…
you don’t make me feel anything…
you teach me nothing…
you can’t bring me love…
i can’t play guitar with you…
you don’t enrich me…
you just trap me…
you trap all of us…
in this transparent maze of ego driven bullshit…
little red square….
you are so unnatural…
you are not an organic little square…
i thought you were my friend
but no…
you have misled me…
you have misled all of us…
you have hypnotised me into thinking
the unimportant is important..
you have sadly become
the pseudo arbiter of achievement
and the broken yard-stick of success.
top news? top news you say…
top news today is a stranger in germany baking a cake..
woopty fucking doo…
you have tricked me into clicking through photos
of complete strangers just because
i thought she was cute or because
she had a nice smile or looked great in a bikini..
little red square…you should be ashamed of yourself..
look what you have created…
what have you done to us?
little red square…
you breed banality..
you foster falseness…
you validate the vacuous…
you vindicate vanity…
you manifest malice…
you cage creativity…
and curate capitalism…
you have shone a spotlight into the dark
recesses of humanity
and exposed all the ugliest things about us…
little red square…
you are so insidious…so insipid…
you have ruined us…
i do not like you anymore.
but you are rich, no?
you have made millions….
you are a vampire, fat and full of blood…
you care little for your subjects…
you are like a draconian king ruling
with a digital fist..
you have preyed on the weak
and as we speak
millions more of you
are popping up on screens
all over the world
and filling people with a false
sense of fulfilment…
if i was stronger i would log out
and say good bye…
if we were friends
id poke you to death
for the greater good..
or worse…
i’d delete you…

- jw