āAs a child plotting my future adulthood, I couldnāt imagine becoming someone who ogled the glow of screens and sweat-clenched the square edges of devices,ā writes Felicity Fenton in her new chapbook, User Not Found. āNot once did I believe I would partake in an incessant perusal of digital walls, skimming notes and pictures from others about their physical and emotional whereabouts, or that I would send others notes and pictures about mine.ā This idea is what the chapbookās single, long-form lyric essay hinges on: Though most people have accepted our collective social-media addiction, it isnāt what any of us dreamed our lives would look like.
If User Not Found had a firm timeline or a narrator with clear goals, it would likely feel like a gimmick-fueled memoir about the difficulties of quitting social media. But as a lyric essay, where Fenton lets personal experience and imagined scenarios mix with abandon, it becomes a joyride. Itās a think-piece on our preoccupation with screens. The conclusions are pragmatic, but theyāre found through fun and playful prose.
While the chapbook looks at the large-scale ways our obsession is silly or sad, itās a personal journey more than a cultural critique. Fenton isnāt trying to create the ultimate social-media analysis. She simply wants to snap herself out of casual acceptance and hopefully, in the process, snap others out of it tooāif only for a moment.
āI feel sorry for all users and long to free them from the walls,ā she writes. āLetās eat pie, I think. Letās stare at the back of each otherās hands. Letās talk about the weather. Letās make out. I want to smell you! I look outside. Orange with thwacks of blue. Itās easy to put my shoes on, to open the door.ā