A Facebook hanger-on you haven’t seen since high school is obviously going through a prolonged emotional crisis, but he’d rather get really weird on social media than go to therapy.
Going along with a techno-nihilistic streak endemic to 20-something men, your old classmate has abandoned all concern for decorum or expectations of what a grown man should be. Instead, he is broadcasting his mental instability all over your feed.
His friends say he is experiencing some relatable hardships. He hasn’t become financially independent enough to move out of his parents’ house and has experienced romantic isolation because of it. But they worry that by exposing himself to the neurochemical charges of base-level internet content all day, he is only worsening his mental health and turning into a downright strange guy.
They couldn’t recall him ever having as many strong opinions on B horror as he has publicly expressed lately, nor did they think B horror has anything important to say about the bigger societal themes he expounds upon in his posts. And they certainly didn’t expect him to tie in his sexual proclivities while he did so.
Furthermore, his friends have noticed that his primary online interlocutor — a woman named Jessica who is listed on his Facebook profile as his girlfriend — has the same profile pictures as a stock model on a cosplay website. Given the immediacy and vehemence with which she agrees with his opinions, his friends believe he has made her up and has been talking to himself through her for weeks on end.
His comments on women generally are frequent and embarrassing, ranging from hyperaggressive incel to hyperdeferential male feminist. Further, the disorganization of his thoughts and the steady decline of his grammar suggest a budding alcohol problem. His friends would like to stage an intervention soon, but they’ve learned on a status update that he bought multiple cases of Red Bull and doesn’t intend to leave his room until he’s replayed the entire Max Payne video game series, as long as his mom doesn’t interrupt him.