What's Your Problem with the Dog Internet?

In this paper, we make an argument for using "the absurd" as a useful lens through which to critique modern developments in interactive technology. We argue that absurd positions are generative and engaging; they provide scope and direction for developing artefacts that people want to talk about and discuss. We argue for adopting absurd positions because; 1) as publicly funded academics, unbeholden to commercial interests, we can, 2) it's fun, and 3) doing so draws out, highlights, and plays with the often weird, fake, nonsense, bizarre, and surreal aspects of modern interactive technology artefacts - and the often weird situations that arise when interacting with those artefacts. In order to illustrate this argument, we present a number of case studies drawn from 10 years of our absurd research papers, many of which were published at previous iterations of this conference.