Journey to the centre of the Deep Web – By @gringojoe96
By Joe Ribton
Journey to the centre of the Deep Web
I don’t know how it came to pass, but I’ve been labelled as something of a meme kid. Sure, I made all those memes, and do enjoy my fair share, but to be honest all of my knowledge comes from my little brother – who fills my inbox with the latest memes on the daily. I, being a sophisticated older gentleman than he, paruse the Internet at large on a daily basis. I often find weird and wonderful sites, insta accounts, YouTube channels and subreddits that I think are full of creativity and insight into the Internet generation. Below is a compilation of great places that I urge you all to check out.
Instagram:
These 3 Instagram accounts cover a broad audience, hopefully there’s something here that appeals to you. My favourite of the bunch is the incredible Snakepit, for its irrepressibly damning content. It is essentially a log of all the humans in this world who have decided to tattoo something obscene on themselves, mostly of an incredibly graphic sexual nature, but sometimes just really obscenely poor craftsmanship. An excellent reminder of our own depravity. Secondly, the Sad Topographies account shares spots from around the world that have been named downbeat names, like Destitute Island and Hopeless Road. Perfect for that #2019 #depression, also just an oddly nice aesthetic. Finally, Tanaka Tatsuya is an unbelievably unique artist who crafts miniature scenes out of everyday items and figures of human beings. His work is really laterally devised and uses form and shape in an amazing way, definitely worth a follow for the occasional nice thing on your timeline amongst the penis face tattoos and depressing cartography.
Snakepit https://instagram.com/snake___
Sad topographies https://instagram.com/
tanaka_tatsuya https://instagram.com/tanaka_
Reddit – There exists millions of subreddits with their own unbelievably weird and esoteric communities, but none of them unsettle me more than r/Breadstapledtotrees. Nearly 160k people post images of them stapling slices of bread to trees… That’s it. 160,000 human beings follow this trend… Its really interesting watching people scrambling to capitalise on it too, there are VR apps, how to guides (?) and Tshirts, but nobody is paying attention, they’re just there for the sweet, yeasty, content. Secondly, I promised myself that I wouldn’t include memes on this list, and I feel like I’m actually not breaking that promise in sharing the subreddit r/surrealmemes. This in an entirely nonsensical community that posts the weirdest and most esoteric content of almost any subreddit, memes which are intentionally surreal and without an obvious joke or meaning. Dali chuckles from the beyond. Finally, r/whatisthisthing is an amazing active community of all sorts of people, who come together to help define what something is from an image. Sometimes it gets a bit Antiques Roadshow, but on certain days there will be posts from people who have, for example, been hit by a car that has sped away and only left one small piece of bumper or whatever. They work out the model and have literally helped solve crimes. There’s often really weird animals posted on it too if you’re on the search for a zoological pointless answer.
Bread stapled to trees https://www.reddit.com/r/
Surreal memes https://www.reddit.com/r/
What is this thing https://www.reddit.com/r/
Websites – These 3 sites are all quite primitive in relation to the potential capabilities of internet sites, I’ve followed them for several years now and they are relatively unchanged. First is the aptly named Fucking Blog, which just posts links to interesting things in different categories everyday, including interesting stories, images, scientific breakthroughs. It’s great for getting lost on, as it’s archives are preserved from the last few years. Secondly is a site that I only know as Swirly Thing, it’s been open on my chrome for more than a year as I don’t want to ever lose the URL. It’s certainly my kind of mindfulness, definitely give it a spin – just open the link and touch the page. Finally, in a similar vein to the Fucking blog, the Useful interweb provides links to interesting content from all corners of the Internet.
Fucking blog http://fuckinghomepage.com
Swirly thing http://csh.bz/line/05xp.html
Useful interweb http://usefulinterweb.com
YouTube – What an amazing platform YouTube is, however woefully misunderstood its creators are by the suits that run it. Kurzgesagt is an unbelievable tool for education and creative, philosophical thought. We have seen their unique animation style in several projects so far this year, which is obviously very aesthetically clean and enamouring, but perhaps more potent here is the global and supermassive issues conveyed in such a digestable and accessible manner by the narrator. I would go as far as saying it is the most important channel on YouTube. Secondly, you have probably heard of Primitive Technology by now, but his videos are so therapeutic and astonishing that I had to share. ‘He’, the anonymous mute who runs the channel, is an Australian who wanders out into the outback jungle and constructs amazing tools and buildings, soundtracked by the ambient noises of his work and the buzz of the jungle. Finally, if you ever want to jump down a bottomless pit of videographic depravity then look no further than the Instant Regret Playlist, where all good memes are memorialised. There are so many videos that there’s probably something for everyone in there, it’s just a matter of how many weird and wonderful videos you can stomach.
Kurzgesagt https://www.youtube.com/user/
Primitive Technology https://www.youtube.com/
Instant Regret Playlist https://www.youtube.com/
