No One is Talking About This

No One Is Talking About This opens with the unnamed female protagonist (hereafter referred to as “protagonist”) detailing her life in “the portal,” an online world that incorporates social media, blogs, media sources, and threads. The protagonist logs into the portal each morning and views funny videos and news. She observes the uncanny way the opinions of large groups of people depend upon a shared culture of approval, hatred, and judgment. The trends the protagonist engages with include class consciousness, absurdist politics, and developing news stories. The protagonist’s attention is mostly given to the portal. She notices her husband, brother, and mother only when they interrupt her focus on the portal.

The portal is described as omniscient and pervasive. It is suggested that the portal is a relatively new technological advancement: “The amount of eavesdropping that was going on was enormous, and the implications not yet known” (7). The protagonist has access to diaries, cameras, and conversations that are not explicitly consensual. While the protagonist participates in threads and posts her own material, suggesting that some platforms are consensual, her comment about “eavesdropping” implies that many people do not know they are being observed and uploaded to the portal.