This Gchat Has Been Condensed and Edited

The New Inquiry is excited to announce the addition of two new Contributing Editors to our masthead, Nathan Jurgenson and Sarah Nicole Prickett:

Nathan Jurgenson is a social media theorist, musician, and photographer working on a dissertation in sociology at the University of Maryland. He is also co-founder of the Cyborgology blog and the Theorizing the Web conference and is currently living in Washington D.C. Follow him on twitter.

Read his contributions to TNI here.

 

Sarah Nicole Prickett is a reactionary socialite who writes a lot.

Twitter explains everything.

This is her website.

Read her contributions to TNI here.

 

 

Most of Sarah and Nathan’s Gchat history has been selectively deleted, leaving behind a new conversation. All the remaining text is in its original order, each line intact. The new conversation feels both decoded and like more code; unfamiliar, but no stranger than the originals. It appears, after you erase all the lols, that we spend a lot of time being scared.

nathan: i'm good, yeah, gchat is fine
however, not today
sarah: no no not today
i have been so scattered
nathan: becuase of fun? or not fun? hope it is fun
sarah: it's just the lack of sleep
nathan: those hipsters rioting!
this is surreal
sarah: i am so sorry
nathan: i'm pretty angry
good thing you have no clue how many times i've complimented you on my facebook
sarah: be back, cigarette
liminality impossible on route 66
also: lol american socialism
nathan: do we have a name for that?
sarah: mmhmm
i wish there were a different world though
nathan: i got a little scared at night
but i slept on the roof of the car and was fine
sarah: i am mostly scared i'll get married
THIS COUNTRY, man
nathan: awful
b.a.n.a.n.a.s.
sarah: ick
i only have one conspiracy theory
nathan: no four-lane roads, right?
what's your route?
sarah: magic
i know NOTHING
nathan: nothing comes to mind
sarah: you can't drive home again
nathan: well, there were less regulations than there are now
esp. in the desert
regulations are partly a byproduct of allowing the rest of the world in
sarah: the future is so regressive
nathan: it does break down at some point
sarah: i'm gonna start
nathan: haha no, dont walk away
sarah: not skipping any steps
i only worry that he's not romantic
nathan: dont step off, keep at it so its as good as it can be
sarah: how do i make a scared face
everything is happening
nathan: same here
sarah: and i think i should quit and write memories
i didn't know it was a beginning
and he didn't
and then said he had ambitions on a different scale for me
nathan: strange
well, nice that he has made plans for another human
sarah: but i'm being very combative
nathan: i dont know who this person is
sarah: are you kidding?
NIETSZCHE, MAN
like people don't read nietszche in high school? freud?
nathan: i did that once recently
sarah: it's a little sick but i enjoy it
nathan: record it all and cash in with a tabloid
U
S
A
U
S
A
sarah: what does that mean
nathan: it was a really terrible joke
sarah: screaming
also i want fireworks
am tired of reason
nathan: tired of reason
hahahah
and here we were talking about guns
"evil seeks out the helpless old person, the vulnerable woman, the child yet unborn"
sarah: please don
't
nathan: go back?
sarah: i'll be around
i said i would be happy to serve as his total replacement
nathan: what did you sign us up for
sarah: i don't know!
i'm being extreme
about the future... but like, a week from now
nathan: no one will remember their facebook password or why we used that site
sarah: it really is the evil empire
nathan:i made that up