By The Online section treats shitposts like they were serious cultural works and serious cultural works like they were shitposts. Interdisciplinary, experimental, ill-conceived, playful. If it sounds like a ridiculous idea, the Online section is where it belongs. We lean into the Huh?ness of the internet here. The Online section is the finsta account to Merry-Go-Round Magazine’s other sections.
We can expect two types of posts here.
The first are the posts that find the “I’m obsessed” and inexplicably-enjoyable veins in the film, TV, music, and video games we experience. If you can explain it fully you should maybe write about it in one of the typical sections instead. These posts can be very short and mostly image or video-based. In a way, this is where we can post things that could be posted on our own accounts if it didn’t seem out-of-place or overly-involved. Maybe you were taking some high notes in your phone about a movie you watched, which the morning after you couldn’t quite articulate without sounding like a galaxy brain meme; well, what if you actually put it in the form of a galaxy brain meme? A paragraph got cut from your review? With sideways thinking it can become its own thing. A rewarding editing here will look a bit more like developing art practice, where aesthetics can be an expressive addition to a traditional criticism.
The other kind of posts are curious and insightful about posts and posting and posters. This is where traditional criticism writing can be accomplished. In a way, posts of this type treat the section like a group message, where the memes and accounts and YouTube trash we send to each other come with some additional writing reflecting on why we felt compelled to share the thing, a little more focused pulling on the thread of “why.” Longer writing can analyze posting in general (what is it about this account I love? This trend? This forum?) and take the form of interviews and collaborations with people we think are a great follow.
Ok, but, why?
Because everyone must be able to participate.
Because surprising answers follow from surprising questions.
Because the stuff you experience when you’re not really paying attention lives on the semipermeable membrane between your life and a life, its meaning.
Because thinking you can’t be fooled is cancelled, hard.
Because sometimes you need a break from pretending like you know what’s going on.
Bookmark the Online section.
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