Based on the lecture by Drs. Quinn & Jonathon Button: “NFTs: More Than Digital Art”
https://channels.insideosu.com/media/1_aoetzu8a
I literally watched until the very last second to see if they said this was a prank. This is going to be my most opinionated piece yet. In the nicest way possible, this lecture made me want to cry. Before this video, I did not understand the hype of NFTS, but I also didn’t understand NFTs. Now I understand them, and I dislike them even more. This is SUCH a non-issue. I have always been told I have an old soul, and I think that is showing right now. I feel like an elderly man that someone is trying to explain TikTok to. I feel like I am being pranked. I don’t even have a majority of social media apps. I cannot IMAGINE caring about something like this.
During every reading or lecture you assign us, I take notes to help me write my written response. I want to share some of my notes from watching this one: (Virtual outfits for virtual concerts…are you shitting me. I am 30 minutes in and I still believe this is the dumbest shit in the world. ‘It helps keeps receipts’…okay? Metaverse- a network of 3d virtual worlds focused on social connection. Are you shitting me…seriously. I feel like this is a joke. Like, am I playing Club Penguin right now? Why would I pay money for a nice house in a video game. $3000 for A FAKE APARTMENT ARE WE DEADASS. ‘All about the price you value it at’. This is consumerism final boss. If this is what our world is coming to then I want to throw away my phone and computer and live on a reclusive commune as a farmer. This is such a rich-people-privileged thing. You can really sell dumb people anything. JUST GO TO A REAL CONCERT. Go touch grass. This has to be a social experiment. ‘I told my doctor to pause what he was doing so I could buy an NFT’ BROOOOOO???? How obsessed with classism and social status can one be? This is how this sounds to me: ‘why are NFTs valuable? So you can say that you have one’. Sounds like the meme that’s like ‘chronically online’. You’re telling me this wasn’t a prank……I find it so funny that at the end, she says, “There can be a lot of hype but not a lot of substance” as if that isn’t literally the principle of this whole concept. ‘It’s about critically thinking’ CLEARLLYYY NOT! It’s literally only about exclusivity.) If that doesn’t sum up how I feel after watching that, then I don’t know what would.
I had to do a lot of research for this lecture because I was not familiar with this kind of thing at all beforehand. I didn’t fully know what Blockchain was, but not from my understanding I would describe it as a decentralized digital ledger that securely records transactions across many computers. It is recorded in a way that ensures the data can’t be altered retroactively. It helps me to think of it as pages in a record book, with each block containing a list of transactions. Each block is linked to the one before it, forming a chain, which helped explain the name for me. It was interesting to learn that no single person or entity controls it. Instead, it's maintained by a distributed network of computers. I also learned that NFT stands for Non-Fungible Tokens, and they are unique digital assets that are stored on a blockchain. They represent ownership or proof of authenticity for a specific item that is usually digital but sometimes physical, too. Don’t get me wrong; I find the whole thing very interesting. I also find it very stupid.
I am not a very online person. I am very progressive and open to new ideas, but I would still say I am a traditionalist when it comes to my way of life. As I mentioned earlier, I am an old soul. I hate the saying “I was born in the wrong generation,” but sometimes I really wish I could have been born 50 years earlier. I don’t like social media, I don’t use a lot of modern technology, and all of my media interests are from the 60s-70s. I collect vinyl and prefer not to listen to music on my phone. When I settle down and have kids, I want to live completely off the grid, produce all my own food, and be as organic as possible. I especially love art, and I think that concepts like these are not real art; they are trashing art and concentrated only on profit, not on creativity. While the presenters emphasized the innovation of digital ownership and the potential for artists to monetize their work, the underlying premise seems flawed. The idea of assigning significant monetary value to digital files just sounds both impractical and detached from genuine artistic appreciation. The focus has shifted from creative expression and emotional resonance to speculation and profit. Artists are being encouraged to change their work in ways that prioritize marketability over meaning, and collectors seem more interested in financial gain than in the art itself. In my view, this risks undermining the integrity of art by reducing it to a vehicle for investment rather than a form of human connection.
I was also bothered by how deeply NFTs seem to reinforce class divisions and social hierarchies. While they are often presented as democratizing access to the art and tech worlds, in practice, they appear to do the opposite. The high cost of entry, both financially and technologically, excludes the majority of people from participating. Only those with substantial resources can afford to purchase or trade NFTs, turning the entire system into a status symbol for the wealthy and well-connected. Ownership of rare digital assets becomes less about appreciation or support for artists and more about signaling wealth, exclusivity, and insider knowledge. This dynamic cultivates a culture of elitism, where value is tied not to creative merit but to market speculation and social clout. In many ways, NFTs seem less like a revolution and more like a digital extension of inequalities.
