…I was born in 1990 and I was sort of raised in America when it was a cult of self-expression, and I was just taught, you know, express myself and have things to say and everyone will care about them. And I think everyone was taught that and must of us found out that no one gives a shit what we think. So we flock to performers by the thousands ‘cause we’re the few that found an audience, and then I’m supposed to get up here and say “follow your dreams,” as if this was a meritocracy? It is not, okay? I had a privileged life and I got lucky and I’m unhappy. They say it’s…it’s like…the ‘me’ generation. It’s not. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. It’s self-conscious. That’s what it is, it’s conscious of self. Social media is just the market’s answer to a generation that demanded to perform, so the market said: “here, perform everything, to each other, all the time for no other reason.” It’s prison, it’s horrific. It’s performer and audience melded together. What do we want more than to lie in bed at the end of the day and just watch our lives as a satisfied audience member? I know very little about anything, but I do know this that if you can live your life without an audience, you should do it.

— Bo Burnham, Make Happy