Photo – AFP
(This English Column is the ISP’s translation of the original Burmese version published on February 14, 2025. Read the original Burmese Column here.)
Introduction
There was a time when the world was a stage on which real artists shone. Comedians could make people laugh until their sides hurt, painters could capture a soul in a single brushstroke, and musicians could turn sorrow into a symphony.
That stage has now been burned to ashes and replaced by a seductive darkness called the “Social World.” In this realm, those without genuine talent rise to stardom, while true artists fade into obscurity and disappear. It began quietly enough. A girl lip-synced to an ordinary song. Soon, the Social World crowned her a top model. A boy danced the same cheap routine again and again and became a millionaire.
This is the world of digital evolution. Here, natural selection—once about survival of the fittest—no longer favours what is best or most capable for human flourishing. Instead, it proudly selects the loudest, the most conspicuous, and those willing to sell their dignity for fifteen seconds of fame.
Chapter 1
In a dark room, a painter stared at what he believed to be the masterpiece of his career. His heart pounded as he took in its detail and depth. He never once thought he needed an audience in the Social World. Elsewhere, a person filming a TikTok video ate rice topped with pounded fish paste with exaggerated relish. Companies lined up to make that person a brand ambassador. For them, artists were superfluous.
Two comedians, who had spent decades refining their craft, now performed for a thin crowd at the edge of a night market. Their routines could not compete with ten-second prank clips in the Social World.
In this new realm, a generation raised on the dopamine hits of Likes and Shares has discovered that skill is optional. They have decided that attention is the only real currency and that any means used to obtain it are justified.
From short videos pranking strangers in the street to eating ice cream from a toilet bowl, to staged outbursts in markets and crowded restaurants, nothing is off limits. For them, dignity has no value in the Social World.
In truth, perhaps they do not deserve pity but a kind of grim applause. They have understood the laws of this world. They have realised that, instead of spending years mastering a discipline, it is far more efficient to manufacture drama and ride the algorithm.
Chapter 2
Real artists are reduced to fading embers in a world intent on forgetting them.
A poet writes and posts his work online; his poem earns two Likes—one from his mother, one from himself. A composer releases an original melody into the Social World; it is quickly buried beneath remixed one-line TikTok hooks.
Watching the unskilled become millionaires, those with genuine talent are left in shock. Wave after wave of attention-hungry personalities crash across the Social World, moment after moment.
A generation raised on the dopamine hits of Likes and Shares has discovered that skill is optional. They have decided that attention is the only real currency and that any means used to obtain it are justified.
Chapter 3
Eventually, the artists could bear it no longer. Comedians, painters, dancers, writers—they gathered together. Their goal was to reclaim the spotlight. Their plan was simple: infiltrate the Social World, open accounts, and create precisely the kind of content they despised.
A comedian went live, staging pranks for the camera. A painter splashed sauce onto a canvas and called it “art,” hiding his true mastery underneath for those with eyes to see. A composer turned satire into an upbeat dance track.
The strategy worked. The Social World, unable to distinguish between real and fake, propelled them to the forefront of public attention. The artists reclaimed the crowd through the very things they loathed.
Conclusion
The struggle lasted for a while. But in the end, the artists were seduced by the very darkness they had set out to destroy. Gradually, artists and attention-seekers merged. Cheap stunts and shallow performances became the most valued “art” in the Social World. Ordinary people, frantically chasing Likes and Followers, forgot what they once wanted from life.
The world did not end in war or nuclear fire, as you and I might have imagined. The great arc of human history ended instead with applause—for the mediocre and the absurd.
R Kyan is a young journalist currently studying Media and Psychology in the United Arab Emirates.