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An almost four-year-old clip of Bo Burnham speaking about the ill-effects of social media has gone viral on Twitter amid Elon Musk's takeover of the platform.
The Tesla CEO's deal to take over the company closed last week, although the billionaire tried to pull out from the agreement in July, prompting Twitter to sue him in response. He has spoken of prioritizing free speech and reinstating banned accounts on the platform.
As Twitter users gear up for anticipated changes, a video in which comedian and filmmaker Burnham shared his take on the tactics of social media companies and the effect it has on everyday users has resurfaced online.
While promoting his 2018 movie Eighth Grade, which tells the story of a social media-obsessed teenager, Burnham, 32, spoke on a panel about the companies that he warned are attempting to "colonize" people's time.
In the video, which was originally posted on YouTube by the Child Mind Institute in January 2019, Burnham said of such companies: "They're coming for every second of your life...And it's not because anyone is bad, it's not because anybody in this company has evil plans or is trying to do this, they're not even doing it consciously.
"It's because these companies like Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, and everything, they went public and they went to shareholders, so they have to grow. Their entire models are based off of growth—they cannot stay stagnant. YouTube and Twitter grossed $4-$5 billion last year. It is in the red, it is unprofitable. It has to get more of you," he said.
"No matter how nice it's trying to be, it is all they're trying to get more engagement from you. We used to colonize land. That was the thing you could expand into, and that's where money was to be made. We colonized the entire earth. There was no other place for the businesses and capitalism to expand into. And then they realized human attention...
"They are now trying to colonize every minute of your life, that is what these people are trying to do. Every single free moment you have is a moment you could be looking at your phone, and they could be gathering information to target ads at you. That's what's happening," he said.
Burnham, who found early success on YouTube, said in the video that social media is "coming for every free second you have. And that's dark. That's really, really dark and scary. And for someone like me, I grew up a little bit on the internet, and I felt the repercussions of it. I suffer from anxiety, so I know where it leads.
"And I'm saying, like, you don't want this—trust me. You're not going to feel good about yourself. And you know it. The kids know it. Like, the whole joke on the internet is everyone's like, 'This place sucks, right?' I mean, that's like kind of the thing.
"That's why their memes are all ironic and detached and self-referential and 12 layers deep, because truth is completely dead to them and they know it. They look at the president, they look at the culture, they go, 'What the hell is this?'"
When posting the clip on Wednesday, a Twitter user added the caption: "Wow. Didn't know Bo Burnham was a real one. Couldn't be more relevant."
The video gained more than 5 million views on the platform and was also shared on TikTok, where it has been viewed 1.1 million times so far.
In a July 2018 interview while promoting Eighth Grade, Burnham told Newsweek that the film was not a take-down of social media or a generation's dependence on it.
"This generation is called self-obsessed, and that's true—but it's not self-obsessed in a narcissistic way," he said at the time. "It's self-obsessed in a sad way. You can't interface with this thing without taking inventory of yourself and objectifying yourself. It's just a bummer."
Musk's takeover of Twitter has put social media at the forefront of public conversation in recent weeks, with celebrities condemning the reported uptick in hate speech on the platform since his deal was finalized.
Meanwhile, Kanye West's antisemitic posts on Twitter and Instagram and in interviews have led to the platforms suspending him, multiple businesses cutting ties with him, and his net worth dramatically plummeting.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more