There's a low, constant humming noise. You don't notice it.
Everyone is ugly on the inside. Your beating heart, your fatty brain, your pus and shit. You're dressed up in skin and hair. Now you're not so ugly. I pulled back the skin. Its insides looked like Cruelty Squad. Ads. Funko pops. Bright, clashing colors.
My dad tried to show me a website. He wasted 5 minutes trying to close all the ads, then read it to me through a slit between the ad banner on the top, and the ad banner on the bottom, and the ad column on the left, and the ad column on the right. The humming gets louder. He scrolls past another ad. He misses the 'x'. Another 5 minutes.
I'm visiting my grandma. “You pay for Netflix. Why is it playing an ad?”
“What?” The ad is 5x louder than the show.
“I said, you pay for Netflix. Why is it playing an ad?”
“It's cheaper. Having no ads costs way more.”
She turns back to the screen.
But I use an adblocker. I go home and turn on my computer. It's still humming. I get another notification. Sign up for onedrive! I search for a file; Bing opens.
I switched to Linux. It felt normal. But I have to use windows on the university computers. I went so long without using it. It looked familiar, but it made that noise again.
I'm driving. The billboards are getting smaller. Water running, birds chirping, wind. The humming stops.