A chorus of yowling

From a Kyle Chayka article in The New Yorker 2/10/2022:

Here is a partial list of things that people on Twitter “can’t stop thinking about” in the span of three hours on a recent afternoon: the latest episode of the HBO show “Euphoria,” “Euphoria” ’s soundtrack, the film “Drive My Car,” the plot of the 1997 film “Beat,” the Netflix show “Maid,” getting a whale tattoo behind one ear, the new Kid Rock song, an online reviewer of L. L. Bean clothing describing their body as “my architecture,” making taco soup for dinner, eating lasagna despite never having eaten it before, scallion cream cheese, a beatific photo of the Formula 1 racing driver Mick Schumacher, the word “ocean,” death, a summary of the TV show “Raised by Wolves,” and even, reflexively, endeavoring to “become the version of yourself” that you can’t stop thinking about. This constant refrain is, in a way, the coyote howl of social media. It is used to point to something that the utterer is concerned or excited by. The more vehement the exclamation, the more intense the feeling inspired by its object. The call operates collectively, and it can have a cascading effect. If one person shouts that she can’t stop thinking about something, the natural response is not to join in her particular obsession but to yelp that you, too, have something that you are obsessed with. An unspoken competition takes place to see who can profess their passion of the moment in the most attention-grabbing way. The result is an incomprehensible chorus of yowling.

Of course it is.

Noise pollution is far down the list of our own concerns-of-modernity. Yet it might well be the first thing a person would notice if transported here from 1491 Lenapehoking. So the first thing you might hear her say, upon disembarking from the time machine, would be: “How do you endure all the noise?”

(Not just in the aural sense, but in the sense of general overstimulation, everywhere, constantly.)