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Sneezing is not normal.

2021-06-29 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Everyday life, Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, community lore

John can't stop thinking of a Dear Hank and John listener's doctor who said sneezing is not normal and he never sneezes; he argues that absurd, outrageous statements lodge in minds in a way nuance doesn't, which rewards the loudest stupidity in our attention economy, and that with no bright line between online and real life this shapes who we are.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The brothers' podcast Dear Hank and John as a highlight of John's week

  • ★★ Besides Vlogbrothers, John says, the brothers have a podcast, Dear Hank and John, answering listener questions with dubious advice and news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. — 00:00:01 · Vlogbrothers, Dear Hank and John, Mars, AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says making the podcast is one of the highlights of his week because it's two uninterrupted hours with his brother. — 00:00:12 · Dear Hank and John, Hank Green

  • ★★★ 46 days ago listener Sarah wrote that when she was diagnosed with asthma eight years earlier, her doctor said sneezing is not normal and that the doctor never sneezes. — 00:00:17

    “sneezing is not normal. I never sneeze.”

00:00:26 — Sarah's doctor who never sneezes, and why the line sticks

  • ★★ For eight years Sarah has thought of this doctor whenever she sneezes; now John does too, and since the episode aired hundreds of people have told him the same. — 00:00:43
  • ★★ John wonders how the doctor explains their own sneezes: a fluke, a sneeze-adjacent phenomenon, or a moral weakness to hide from the public. (playful) — 00:01:07
  • ★★ John says part of why he can't stop thinking about it is that Hank named the doctor Dr. NeverSneezer Scrooge, a perfect joke. — 00:01:30 · Hank Green

00:01:41 — Outrageous statements capture attention better than nuance; a bad way to organize an attention economy; no treatment known

  • ★★★ John says ridiculous, absurd and outrageous statements stay with him in a way carefully considered, nuanced statements don't; a nuanced doctor he would never have heard of. — 00:01:41
  • ★★★ In our attention economy, where capturing attention is itself valuable, John says 'I never sneeze' captures more attention than being a good doctor. — 00:02:02 · attention economy
  • ★★ John says people saying outrageous things online, like Stalin was underrated, lower legs needn't be washed or Grease 2 is the canonical Grease, lodge in many minds, though not positively. (playful) — 00:02:14
  • ★★★ John says there is value in saying the stupidest possible things in the loudest possible way, which is not a good way to organize an attention economy. — 00:02:30 · attention economy
  • ★★ John calls this a diagnosis, not a treatment, because he doesn't know the treatment for thinking of the line every time he sneezes. (unsure) — 00:02:44
  • ★★ John asks, not rhetorically, whether he made the world worse in a minor way by sharing Sarah's story on the podcast and again in a YouTube video. (unsure) — 00:02:55 · YouTube
  • ★★★ John says what grabs his attention in a crowded information landscape will always be what looks scary, different, outrageous or ridiculous, and he doesn't know what to do about it. — 00:03:08
  • ★★ John genuinely dislikes that a random doctor saying something ridiculous has reshaped his sneezing experience forever. — 00:03:19

00:03:31 — No bright line between the internet and IRL; sign-off

  • ★★ Until recently John thought of the internet and IRL as fundamentally separate; when young, he liked the internet precisely because it was not IRL. — 00:03:31
  • ★★★ John says there is no bright line between real life and cyberspace: the outrageous ridiculousness we meet online or off shapes who we are and the world we share, and he doesn't know what to do about it. — 00:03:43

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says The Anthropocene Reviewed book has just celebrated its fifth week on the New York Times bestseller list, and thanks readers. — video description · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book), The New York Times
  • ★★ In a comment John says latching onto the strange matters when foraging or hunting in a forest, but he doubts it is good when foraging for content online. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: attention economy · Sarah's doctor · sneeze

Also: People: Joseph Stalin · Sarah (person, mentioned from 2021)

Projects: Dear Hank and John

Works: Grease 2

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · YouTube

Concepts: Asthma · digital dualism

Places: Mars

Only in the description or credits: The Anthropocene Reviewed (book) · The New York Times

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