Something on the Internet
In Berlin-Mitte, you’re basically invisible if you’re not working on the internet. Working in a digital agency, freelancing, consulting on social media with that particular flavor of hipster obsession. Your Mac and iPhone out at all times, refreshing Twitter, watching your digital dashboard. The more money you’re making from this network of systems, the more you matter in this closed world of mutant nerds. A construction worker would just laugh.
Back in the Bavarian town where I grew up—where I spent those vicious years of adolescence—you’re already future-proof if you can get through signing up for Facebook without a panic attack. That’s the technological ceiling there.
When my little cousin asked me on chat what I do for work, I told her with a wink: Something on the internet.
She just went quiet. I could feel her confusion through the screen. But what exactly?
So I tried to explain. SEO, online marketing, WordPress, digital communications, social networks, public relations, blogging—all the stuff I do. None of it landed. So I simplified: I design websites. Lokalisten, Yahoo, OnlyParty—things she recognized. At least I didn’t have to admit I used to paint flyers for a living.
And that’s when it hit me that maybe I’ve just floated away completely, lost all ground in this bubble of status updates and software patches and Apple products. Maybe I’m trading an actual life for something hollow and pointless.
Or maybe the world outside Berlin is just years behind, and by the time they discover what I’m already drowning in, I’ll have already fused my consciousness with a smartphone and cloud storage.
The sane move would be to let UMTS whoosh past sometimes. Do something actually analogue. Give my battered mind a rest, maybe avoid the quarter-life crisis I can see coming. Next time my cousin asks what I do, I could just tell her: I lay on a sunny field and read a book.
Everyone gets that.