âAs a child plotting my future adulthood, I couldnât imagine becoming someone who ogled the glow of screens and sweat-clenched the square edges of devices,â writes Felicity Fenton in her new chapbook, User Not Found. âNot once did I believe I would partake in an incessant perusal of digital walls, skimming notes and pictures from others about their physical and emotional whereabouts, or that I would send others notes and pictures about mine.â
This idea is what the chapbookâs single, long-form lyric essay hinges on: Though most people have accepted our collective social-media addiction, it isnât what any of us dreamed our lives would look like.
If User Not Found had a firm timeline or a narrator with clear goals, it would likely feel like a gimmick-fueled memoir about the difficulties of quitting social media. But as a lyric essay, where Fenton lets personal experience and imagined scenarios mix with abandon, it becomes a joyride. Itâs a think piece on our preoccupation with screens. The conclusions are pragmatic, but theyâre found through fun and playful prose.
While the chapbook looks at the large-scale ways our obsession is silly or sad, itâs a personal journey more than a cultural critique. Fenton isnât trying to create the ultimate social-media analysis. She simply wants to snap herself out of casual acceptance and hopefully, in the process, snap others out of it tooâif only for a moment.
âI feel sorry for all users and long to free them from the walls,â she writes. âLetâs eat pie, I think. Letâs stare at the back of each otherâs hands. Letâs talk about the weather. Letâs make out. I want to smell you! I look outside. Orange with thwacks of blue. Itâs easy to put my shoes on, to open the door.â