The Checkpoint at the End of the Internet
In the greater void, an expansive layer of content veiled invisibly over our heads known as “The Internet”, one might in their travels stumble across The Checkpoint.
The internet is so massive, it would be fundamentally impossible to explore the entirety of it within the short span of our own human lives. One can easily assume then, that there is troves upon troves of lost media, dusty and untouched, layers of sediment atop content not seen since the early 2000s or maybe even before.
In the modern age, we tend to attempt to archive everything that is tangibly possible to archive. However, it is nearly impossible to imagine that we have truly grabbed every single thing. For example a video could have been uploaded by a creator who met an untimely end, only for the video to be deleted years later due to inactivity or changes in rules. Even with 200,000 views or many more, what guarantees that somebody pressed the download button before it was gone?
Many have taken up the mantle of “internet Archaeologists” and “Internet Historians”, committing serious amount of time exploring the vast open spaces of old MMOs such as Second Life (year), scouring for lost media of television era shows and movies, or digging through old forums, now tombs of old conversations held of people who have passed or moved on from that stage in their life.
Another day with some extra free time, you decided to open YouTube and browse what's on offer, letting the attention economy guide you. Many videos suggested are boring, many you've seen before, some new and from smaller channels, some educational. One, however, stands out. A black sheep, something is odd about it existing here, the title reads as follows:
とげとげクタルめいろすスーパードンケーキング2”
An odd insert of Japanese hiragana and katakana in your otherwise totally English speaking, non-Japanese YouTube pierces the video array like a dead pixel on a screen. The thumbnail a low-quality image of a pattern of vines over a blue and white sky. Something about this video evokes an almost ephemeral and dreamlike vibe, before even clicking in. Of course, now that you are so intrigued, you do decide to pursue further. What about this video is so attractive to you, apart from the fact that it clearly stands out.
As a small flash within the circuit board of the computer you’re on, data transferred from server to machine, and you are there. The video plays a soothing, harmonizing melody, composed of old 90s 8-bit sounds from the era of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The song is, in fact, Bramble Blast from Donkey Kong Country 2 played on repeat for 14 minutes and 52 seconds. Something way more interesting catches your eye, the description says to you:
“
Welcome traveller. You have reached the checkpoint of the internet.
This is an age-old story beginning with taia777 in 2012, where people from all walks of life would comment about how their life is going. In 2020 that original video was removed. In that video’s honour, I have kept both the original title and video, as we have all found the video recommended to us seemingly from nowhere, with a Japanese title and low-graphics thumbnail. Yet, out of curiosity, we elect to watch it and find a beautiful community of commenters.
”
The comments on the video are fragments of a strangers life. Memories and personal moments flow into a timeline from anonymous commenters revealing how their life is going, what’s happened to them lately, and where they are at. All who came to the video out of seemingly random chance and vague curiosity, leaving behind a fragment of time, shouting into the greater void of the internet.
The Internet can typically be a cold and brutal place for the inhabitants within it. It's quite normal for a person to have a separately existing online identity that differs often greatly from their real world self. This causes those within the space to often hide the traits that they dislike about themselves, or to never appear vulnerable to others. This can often be paralleled to the idea of social masking, where societal pressures cause a person to internalize their feelings rather than speaking their mind.
However on the internet, we can often see rise to a level of anonymity that lacks a tangible form of accountability for ones actions. Commenters on videos can viciously attack a creator for any mean they see as reasonable. Those famous who share personal information about themselves or their location can lead to real world safety issues, they can receive death threats, or be stalked by overly para social fans and groups.
Because of these and many other factors, it can be rare to see a genuine moment of vulnerability from a user of Twitter for example, or a commenter on a video, or even the content creator who made it. The Checkpoint cracks this open, commenters share intimate details of their personal life, the struggle they are going through laid out while others come to aid them and reinforce them, if only for a small moment. There’s something surreal and fascinating about the feeling this evokes, the amalgamation of internet culture and human empathy, a crossroads we often find lacking in modern media.
Across the entire idea, there is a light within these comments. Although many share thoughts of sadness, stress, and anxiety at the future, the people respond warmly and tenderly, showing a moment of care for complete strangers. In this light exists this strange community of travelers, waiting for the next time this video floats its way back to them in the sea of millions of videos. An unspoken set of rules exists here, ones that in a way, I am breaking by writing this;
1 - You are a main character here.
2 - You do not find this video, it finds it’s way to you.
3 - You must not share this video with anyone, it must find them.
4 - You are here to make a checkpoint, saving your progress in this moment in your life.
5 - After your checkpoint, you are here to support other main characters on their own journeys.
This is why, although I am sharing this information with you, I will not link this video to you, dear reader. Nor will I encourage you to try to find it for yourself. Be patient, and hopefully one day, it will come to you. When that time comes, I hope leave your own checkpoint.
