This is the unique pathology of the social media age. The old voyeur wanted to see without being seen. The old exhibitionist wanted to be seen without seeing. The new hybrid wants both simultaneously: to have their binoculars and their spotlight.
What drives this? Perhaps it is a fear of insignificance. To simply see something beautiful is a private joy, but it leaves no mark. It evaporates. To be seen seeing it, however, is to claim ownership. It is to say, “I was the witness, and therefore this moment belongs to me.” The exhibitionist observer cannot bear the thought of a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it—so they make sure to record the sound, and then record themselves listening to the recording. exhibitionist observer
And the saddest part? While they are shouting, the canyon is silent, the sun has set, and the moment—the real, unobserved, un-shareable moment—has passed them by. This is the unique pathology of the social media age
Consider the architecture of a “live-stream.” The streamer is ostensibly observing an event—a protest, a party, a quiet walk through the woods. But their primary gaze is not on the event. It is on the floating comments, the viewer count, the potential for virality. They are observing the audience who is observing them observe. It is an infinite regress of looking. The camera becomes a two-way mirror: one side reflects the world, the other side reflects the self. The new hybrid wants both simultaneously: to have
But there is a cost. This split consciousness—one eye on the world, one eye on the mirror—dilutes reality. You cannot truly surrender to a sunset if you are worried about your angle. You cannot truly listen to a secret if you are already planning how to leak it. The exhibitionist observer lives in a perpetual state of deferred living. They are always documenting the present for a future audience, which means they are never fully in the present.
But we are no longer content to be just the eye in the sky. We want to be the sky itself, and also the bird flying through it, and also the person on the ground tweeting about the bird.