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Title: Between You and Me
Author: Anonymous
Date: Summer 2022
Language: en
Topics: technology, communication, revolt, Stoorzender, The Local Kids, The Local Kids #8
Source: Translated for The Local Kids, Issue 8
Notes: Previously appeared as Tussen u en mij in Stoorzender, Winter 2022

Anonymous

Between You and Me

Between you and me there should be no technological obstacle.

The screens between us don’t create connection.

They give us fonts to choose from, suggest a limited set of words to

express ourselves. They create a profile of who we could be. An endless

stream of images, lists, likes, exhibited and emitted opinions. As if

you can get to know someone by scrolling, or build a connection by

swiping right.

We’re offered a social network made of a digital language and digital

time, a network that only exists on a screen. We’re recommended social

contacts shielded behind membership, made possible by withdrawing

privacy, monetizing indoctrination, auctioning off behaviours,

manipulating wishes and desires.

Surely our dreams are not confined to lists, images, a social network

made up of electronic links?

We don’t want to pick,

We want to search – together – and find, together.

We don’t need lists to choose from, nor frameworks to restrain us?

We break out, we take our life.

Freedom is far more than picking from 1001 pre-selected fonts.

The “connection” promised by technology is a wall between you and me.

That “connection” between you and me is to observe, trace, orient us.

Technology is made in the image of capitalism – the ultimate goal is

profit from human resources. It is made to oppress us, distract us,

occupy us with the futile, detract and alienate us from ourselves and

the world around us.

Between you and me a screen offers no security.

A screen made by an enemy of our ideas. A screen that has harmed many a

friend and enemy.

Between you and me exists where the screen does not, where the screen is

destroyed.

Between you and me, we need nothing but ourselves. There is you and me,

there’s the space between us.

Technology wants to permeate daily life down to the smallest detail, to

every step we take. Literally. Technology wants to supplant our memory,

our communication skills; technology wants to determine how we relate to

ourselves, our lives, the people around us, the world we inhabit.

Between you and me is the communication we hold – direct communication,

without technological detours owned by rulers and capitalists.

Between you and me emerges spontaneously, from the creation of our own

norms and values, from connecting thought to action.

Between you and me, we build our relationships and our interactions, we

intervene in our surroundings and shape the world around us.

The actual world,

That we embody, experience, feel.

Between you and me are encounters.

Where we come upon and linger. Where we take time to get to know. With

discussions, disputes, understanding, and patience.

Between us is a world that goes beyond us.

Freedom and equality arise where we meet to fight against what oppresses

us, where we take what is ours.

Our lives in all their aspects.

Between you and me is a play ground for revolt, rebellion, and

possibilities.

Between you and me exists endless potential to destroy what destroys us.

The space where we decide and choose, where we act and create.

Between you and me there should be no technological obstacle.

Between you and me arises

power,

fire,

rebellion.

Between you and me comes life.