Do You Ever Feel Like a Product?

Every morning, millions of people wake up and immediately perform. They pick a profile photo, choose what to post, decide which version of themselves to show the world today. It happens so naturally that most of us don't even notice — but somewhere along the way, our identity started to feel less like something we live and more like something we manage.

That feeling of being packaged, optimized, labeled is something I think a lot of young people carry quietly. We're the first generation growing up alongside AI that can imitate our voice, predict our preferences, and generate a version of us from data alone. It raises a question that is genuinely strange to sit with: if an algorithm knows what you'll say before you say it, which one of you is more "you"?

I don't think there's a clean answer. But I do think art is one of the few places we can hold that discomfort without rushing to resolve it — and maybe recognize that we're not the only ones feeling it.