Corecore - The infinite loop of social media

Recently, I've been seeing videos on tiktok that use the hashtag #corecore. Many hashtags put "core" after whatever the hashtag is for, which makes it more of a theme. And this trend is sort of a theme about themes. These corecore videos often show examples of what media is now, with repetitive, attention-grabbing forms of content and overall bland and numb feelings that come with it. They often then compare them to real life, showing what social media has become.

The goal of videos like this is to bring attention to the stale nature of what social media has become recently. These videos often bring a feeling of sadness or even hopelessness, but they are also very good at bringing a sense of community, knowing that you aren't alone in feeling like this.

Recently, I've noticed that a lot of the time when I'm on social media apps and start scrolling and scrolling, I start to feel sort of sad. I can understand that I'm not really satisfied with spending my time like this, but still, I keep scrolling. I can't even comprehend what it is in my brain that wants to keep going, but it's such an easy way to spend time, and I can't help but keep going. This trend has brought to my attention that this feeling is not just me, it's happening to many people.

I think corecore videos bring awareness to the very important idea of the sort of loop that apps like tiktok have you in, just infinitely scrolling. One of the most interesting things about the infinite scroll to me is that it didn't even always exist. The infinite scroll was invented in 2006 by Aza Raskin. Later though, in an interview, he says that he really didn't mean it to have the consequence it did. He's actually a person who is very against addiction to technology. Before the infinite scroll, there had to be a lot more input from the user to actually keep going, but now it just keeps adding more content. The new age of media has made the attention of the user one of the most valuable things, and the competition for this has resulted in a giant increase in the use of social media, for better or for worse.

Honestly, the knowledge of all of these things will not stop me from using any of these apps, but I think even having the knowledge to notice when you get into too much of a loop is a useful skill to have, but it takes effort. My hope for what corecore will do is to give us all something that can remind us to notice.

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