If you’ve been on the internet for any amount of time, most likely you have heard the term ‘NPC’. A term originally used to describe a ‘non-playable character’ within a video game, is now applicable to conscious beings. Strange right?
In this piece, I, a stuck-up philosophy student, will unravel the deeper implications of this phenomena and how history may or may not take a roll.
This idea of an NPC emerged on both TikTok and Twitter within a bubble of the young ‘red-pilled’ community. With their lord and saviours being the likes of the glorious Andrew Tate and the intellectually gifted Sneako, their judgement is obviously thought through. It begun as describing people who would act like a videogame character, for example, repeating the same thing over and over, it has now evolved into a more reactionary insult, describing a more left leaning, often neurodivergent person, who opposes their opinions. Anything challenging a narrow, often hyper-traditionalist perspective is assaulted with NPC insults.
I believe this is a result of an ever-growing individual-based society combined with increased internet presence; during Covid our average screen-time increased significantly, with primary school age children, engaging for a concerning hour and twenty minutes longer a day. With TikTok's highly sensitive, personal algorithm, it selects videos based on time watching, likes, and engagement. By liking one far-right clip, hoards swarm your feed. When paired with generation Alpha’s concerning screen time, it is possible to see a large percentage of children isolating themselves on the internet and being bombarded with potentially harmful ideologies.
Cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am, most likely the most famous philosophy in the world, Descartes’ proclamation that he may not know anything else, but at least he knows he is a thinking thing. Although this argument is infallible and strong, it suggests an interesting issue of solipsism. Solipsism is the idea that your mind might be the only mind in the world; all others are not real. This, to me, seems eerily similar to the NPC insult which rejects another's mind.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, another renowned philosopher who came up with social contract theory, during the French revolution, vehemently opposed the monarchy and instead pushed for individual's rights and freedom. He argues that through a social pact, society will come together and form a people, becoming the “real foundation of society”. This social pact creates a world to treat others with respect and civility and is beneficial to all individuals, ideally creating an environment for the individual to flourish and pursue freedom.
This all comes crashing down when looking through a modern lens: if we reject the collective, we unintentionally fall into a strange rabbit hole of solipsism.
Now, main character syndrome. It sounds exactly like what it is, TikTok and X have been the coal to a blazing fire of every single person declaring their main character status. This itself has an odd implication to solipsism, best explored through the Truman show, the belief that you are an all-important protagonist - other's trajectory merely exists to further your own. However, if you are the protagonist, what will it take to get your happy ending? Where do we draw the line? Now, of course, prioritizing yourself in some situations is rational, but to completely discard others? I’d go as far as to say that goes against human nature.
This sounds dangerously similar to a Machiavellian view on life - of course it won’t result in the bloodshed and anguish you may imagine when thinking of Machiavelli, but instead we will use each other. Not valuing others is harmful, sapping our civility and perhaps becoming more of a concern the further we tumble down.
Sonder - the profound feeling or realization that everyone in the world has a life just as complex as your own. A beautifully existential feeling, rich in fear and dread and yet creating of a union between strangers. Not to shamelessly quote High School Musical, but we’re all in this together. To reject the existence of other's lives, rejects your own future.
The remedy? Burst the internet bubble, and become a part of an orchestra of life, where we all synchronize, to create something larger than us. We can amend our social pact to each other, through kindness and acceptance.