She was out there, in ideas and intentionality.
By high school, she had already separated from the herd. She refused to abuse herself into the maw of conformity.
College was a continuation of being different. The more she resisted, the more natural it came. Listening to herself ranged beyond self-absorption.
But then the internet came along, and she found herself a social creature once again. She joined a tribe of like-minded others on Twitter. Web 2.0 flattened the world, vitiated maps of their territories.
Just as fast as niches became mass, destroyed by the stylization of the hipster, she withdrew into rebellion once again.
She ceased shoulder-surfing and went off the grid to depart the maelstrom of information and the celebration of indifference.
She developed a type of buoyant skepticism to defend herself against the easy access of the mind and harmonized tastes.
“What if our capacity to imagine has been so badly damaged by the information climate of our times that destruction is all we can see?”
John Freeman, Dictionary of the Undoing
The illusion of immediacy burnt the truth and convinced her that no one knew anything. The constant bombardment of shocking news entertained others into inanition.
She revolted against weird and felt compelled to reinforce normalcy. She morphed into a fully formed and groomed individual.