Talk of “the end of the image” is percolating across our internet. London-based creative agency MorningFYI discusses the trend of paragraphs over pixels in their newsletter Burn After Reading, referencing a 032c essay by Philip Pyle where he declares, “The image is on the decline.” While this seems like a bit of an overstatement (the level of effort required to test this assertion is significant), there does appear to be an observed truth to this. Pyle points to the development of the text image as a subcultural counter to the clutter of images we see in our daily doom scrolls. Of course, there’s no way to engage the conversation about the rise of text images without referencing FEST alum, Charli. (Will we ever see the end of Brat??? Certainly not this week.) Pyle points to the Brat phenom as emblematic of the subcultural preference for subversion, in this case it’s the text image that has crossed into mainstream consciousness. 

There’s relief in this revelation as we continue to navigate the tension within our multiple digital identities via our social media image consumption. The text image is distinct even from the quickpost content popularized by X, Warpcast, Bluesky, Reddit, etc, which all require meaningful mental energy to place the content of the posts into context. Further still, the text image is a particular respite from the manic, infinite remix culture of short-form video content.  

Our friends at Zora were early proliferators of the text image (anti)meme type. And who can forget the scourge of screenshot essays that started showing up on crypto Twitter in 2023, heralded by a particular class of casual thought leaders and investors as a way to field test potentially million dollar ideas right from the notes app.

“We’ve reimagined and recontextualised images at such a rate that we’re starting to lose grip of their meaning, and the growing prevalence of AI generated content is only muddying the waters further. Many of the images we create today mean so much, relate to so much, that they’ve lost their potency, or start to mean nothing at all. This runs in parallel to the flattening of culture we’ve been trapped in: we are culturally, and visually, burnt out.” – MorningFYI 

Enter The Substance. The Substance is a film about the brutality of femininity as much as it is about addiction. And yet–for a movie about the toxic pursuit of agelessness and gendered relevance, social media is largely absent. The images that plague the protagonist, facetiously named Elizabeth Sparkle, are billboards of her alternate, “better” self–a younger, tauter, collagen filled promising young woman who looks damn good in a lamé leotard. 

The Substance satirically explores our willingness to not only give up, but also go to war with our self perception in the pursuit of external, image-based relevance. It’s easy to see this as an addiction facilitated by our mobile social apps. Like Demi Moore’s character, we are collectively pursuing image-based validation to the point where our grip on reality loosens, where the self we portray online concurrently contains so much meaning and none at all. 

We desire to free ourselves from the addiction to our feeds, but at what cost? Like the question posed to Elizabeth Sparkle, are we willing to end our experience with the substance (in this case, image-based social media) and be left to navigate the horrors of life on our own? It remains to be seen.  

A final nod to our demure, mindful queen Clairo (please god, go listen to Charm) for her essay in Byline, where she admits to her digitally-induced loss of self perception: “There are soooooo many images of me on the internet, it’s insane. And I look different in almost every single one of them. I don’t even know what I look like.”

MEMBERS — SUBMIT YOUR CONTENT FOR FWB AMPLIFICATION

Based on results from the Member Survey, we’re stoked to amplify our member’s projects. If you are 1) an FWB member, and 2) you have a project or announcement you want amplified, submit your a) already posted content for amplification to FWB’s owned socials and/or b) content for a newsletter highlight. Submit below ⬇️

CREATORS IN SESSION W/ GREG BRESNITZ

How do you translate the philosophy of an experimental online community into consistently awesome experiences all around the world?

For the latest Creators In Session masterclass, FWB CEO Greg Bresnitz talks to Easol's Co-Founder Lisa Simpson about the unique challenges and opportunities FWB faces, their mindful events philosophy, and what the future holds for creators, both on- and offline.

TOKEN MIGRATION UPDATE

Crypto is a rapidly evolving industry, with tools advancing in efficiency and scalability everyday. It’s incredibly exciting, and it’s exactly why we proposed updating the FWB token ecosystem from ETH Mainnet to Base L2. As many of you know Uniswap is close to launching a more proven V4. After careful consideration, we are postponing opening the migration to align with the launch of Uniswap V4 in order to set the pair once. We’re still targeting Q4, but the exact date is still to come.

Q4 BUDGET PROPOSAL VOTE IS LIVE

Happy Q4 of the 2024th year of the Common Era. Our Q4 budget proposal is live on Snapshot! Vote open through Sunday.

⧞ ELSEWHERE ⧞

Moo Deng @ DevCon with LUKSO, Dora, FWB, & Offline Protocol

Join us on November 10th as we take a pre-Devcon excursion to meet with the one and only Moo Deng. RSVP must be approved!

ADD CULTURE TO YOUR TECH STACK WITH FWB

Friends With Benefits is a new type of cultural institution driving the adoption of emerging tech. Forged on the internet, FWB is a group of 5,500+ global members with a combined, cross-channel audience of 100K+ cultural producers, emerging tech builders, and early adopters. We partner with infrastructure companies, consumer brands, protocols, and communities to build user adoption strategies, craft cultural positioning, and deploy product launches.

What We Do: 

• Content & experiential marketing

• Solving cold start problem

• User acquisition & retention

• Community building

• Strategic advisory

How We Do It:

• URL → IRL Activations

• FWB FEST

• Incubators

• Strategic rollouts & marketing campaigns

• Thought leadership

Our Edge:

• Solving the Cold Start Problem: Our crypto-native community are the right first adopters paired with a custom rollout plan to drive early traction.

• Beyond crypto: We help you break out of the web3 bubble, ensuring your product resonates with a broader audience.

• A Community of Culturalists: Partner with us to access a global network eager to bring your vision to life and drive cultural relevance.

• Solutions for Newly Funded Companies: Our tailored approach maximizes your investment, delivering impactful results for your growing business.

More Than A Social Network

FWB was founded as a new kind of social network. Four years later, our network has evolved to produce cultural go-to-market solutions leveraging our 5,500+ global membership and wider emerging tech ecosystem.