The Instagramification of Human Experience

2026-06-02 · letter vlog · John · 5:36 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Books & writing, Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

John tells Hank why Andy Warhol, subject of the film inside his novel Hollywood, Ending, foresaw the flattening of 3D experience onto screens: repeated images such as Jackie Kennedy after JFK's assassination lose emotional force, algorithms now demand ever more outrageous content, and everyone now trades private experience for public attention.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Why John wants Hank to know about Warhol before Hollywood, Ending; Warhol as poet laureate of the 2D world

• ★★ John wants readers to know as little as possible before his novel Hollywood, Ending (out September 22), but wants Hank to know something about Andy Warhol. — 00:00:00 · Hollywood, Ending

• ★★ John calls Warhol kind of the poet laureate of the 2D world, a world where 3D human experience is shrunk onto screens; he famously flattened cylindrical soup cans. — 00:00:00

  “Warhol is kind of the poet laureate of this 2D world”

00:00:29 — Warhol's repeated images (soup cans, Sunset series) and his foresight about influencer culture and fame

• ★★ John says Warhol's Sunset series from 1972 takes the same sunset and renders it 632 times. — 00:00:29
• ★★ Two people seeing the same sunset see different sunsets, bringing their own experiences and feelings, so the same sunset 632 times is kind of 632 sunsets. — 00:00:58
• ★★ John says Warhol saw influencer culture coming and understood social virality, saying that in the future everyone would be world famous for 15 minutes. — 00:00:58 · 15 minutes of fame
• ★★ Warhol worshipped celebrity, as we all do now, and understood what happens when you trade parts of your private life for public attention; he worked hard to keep his own private life opaque. — 00:00:58 · celebrity

00:01:27 — Warhol's Jackie Kennedy series: repetition dulls horror, algorithms escalate, screens flatten witnessing and expose private grief

• ★★★ What fascinates John most is how Warhol's work dealt with celebrity: fame renders you both larger than life and two-dimensional. — 00:01:27 · celebrity
• ★★★ Warhol's series of Jackie Kennedy just before and after JFK's assassination explores how repeating even a poignant image makes it less emotionally engaging with each picture. — 00:01:56
• ★★★ Horrible images cease to shock with exposure, and with algorithms generally you need ever more upsetting, outrageous or horrifying content to feel anything, which the internet will inevitably provide. — 00:01:56 · recommender system
• ★★ John says JFK's assassination was the first news story ever covered non-stop on American television, which Warhol showed both heightened and flattened the response. — 00:02:26
• ★★ No one could watch McKinley or Lincoln be assassinated frame by frame, but people could witness JFK's, only two-dimensionally on a screen, as now with countless horrors. — 00:02:26

• ★★★ Warhol kind of saw the Instagramification of human experience coming: screens would reshape our relationship not only with pleasure but with fear and outrage. — 00:02:55 · Instagram

  “Warhol kind of saw the Instagramification of human experience coming”

• ★★ Jackie Kennedy was exposed in a traditionally private moment of grief, unprecedented then; in 1964 we rarely witnessed the worst moment of someone's life, in 2026 all the time. — 00:02:55

00:03:53 — Against 'Warhol didn't intend this': car crashes and electric chair; John doesn't care what artists intend

• ★★ To the objection that Warhol was just entranced by Jackie Kennedy's beauty, John replies that he also made repeating images of car crashes and the electric chair. — 00:03:53

• ★★★ John says he doesn't care whether artists know what they are making; it doesn't matter to him, he is only there to find the meaning he can find. — 00:03:53

  “I'm only here to find the meaning I can find”

• ★ Not only with art: John is interested in looking carefully at the world to understand ourselves and place ourselves in the universe. — 00:03:53

00:04:22 — The film at the heart of Hollywood, Ending: Andy Warhol Never Gets Old and Warhol's last year

• ★★ These ideas were in John's mind writing the film at the heart of Hollywood, Ending, Andy Warhol Never Gets Old, about Warhol's last year (2025) in the 1980s, struggling to stay relevant in the world he presaged. — 00:04:22 · Hollywood, Ending
• ★ John teases that Warhol in the 1980s, running many things and trying to stay relevant, was not unlike Hank. (playful) — 00:04:22 · Hank Green

00:04:52 — Everyone now exchanges private experience for public attention; the questions the novel asks; sign-off

• ★★★ Huge corporations mediate the exchange of private experience for public consumption; once a problem for people like Jackie Kennedy and Grace Jones, it is now an economy everyone joins with each post. — 00:04:52 · attention economy, social media
• ★★ From health updates to gender reveals we render 3D experiences into 2D posts; John asks what that does for us and to us, questions Hollywood, Ending tries to answer. (unsure) — 00:05:21 · Hollywood, Ending

In the description and comments

• ★ In a channel comment John says Warhol's polaroids really saw Instagram coming: they are basically analog Instagram. — creator comment · Instagram
• ★★ The description asks viewers to pre-order Hollywood, Ending at hollywoodendingbook.com. — video description · Hollywood, Ending

Threads in this video

• restate · Is fame good for the people who have it? — What fascinates John most is how Warhol's work dealt with celebrity: fame renders you both larger than life and two-dimensional. (00:01:27)
• restate · Is the internet, including social media, good for people? — Horrible images cease to shock with exposure, and with algorithms generally you need ever more upsetting, outrageous or horrifying content to feel anything, which the internet will inevitably provide. (00:01:56)
• restate · Does the author's intent matter to what a work means? — John says he doesn't care whether artists know what they are making; it doesn't matter to him, he is only there to find the meaning he can find. (00:03:53)
• looked back · Hollywood, Ending: announcement and publication of John's novel (2026) — These ideas were in John's mind writing the film at the heart of Hollywood, Ending, Andy Warhol Never Gets Old, about Warhol's last year (2025) in the 1980s, struggling to stay relevant in the world he presaged. (00:04:22)
• restate · Do people need a private self, different from the self they show in public? — Huge corporations mediate the exchange of private experience for public consumption; once a problem for people like Jackie Kennedy and Grace Jones, it is now an economy everyone joins with each post. (00:04:52)
• reminder · John asks viewers in the US and Canada to pre-order signed copies of Hollywood, Ending (2026) — The description asks viewers to pre-order Hollywood, Ending at hollywoodendingbook.com. (video description)
• restate · Do spoilers ruin a story for readers and viewers? — John wants readers to know as little as possible before his novel Hollywood, Ending (out September 22), but wants Hank to know something about Andy Warhol. (00:00:00)
• restate · Does documenting an experience (photographing it) diminish having it? — From health updates to gender reveals we render 3D experiences into 2D posts; John asks what that does for us and to us, questions Hollywood, Ending tries to answer. (00:05:21)

Mentioned

Central: Andy Warhol · celebrity · Hollywood, Ending · Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis · privacy · Warhol's Jackie Kennedy series

Also: People: Abraham Lincoln · Grace Jones · John F. Kennedy · William McKinley

Works: Campbell's Soup Cans · Sunset series

Organizations: Instagram

Concepts: attention economy · authorial intent · compassion fatigue · influencer · recommender system · social media · sunset · television

Events: Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Characters: Andy Warhol Never Gets Old

Memes: 15 minutes of fame

Also centred on privacy: MORTIFICATION · Getting Personal about Getting Personal

← Previous: Chemo Cow Body Odor YouTube Helen Hunt Commute · Next → The Things We Don't Discuss