Hannah Diamond’s pop track Hi could be dismissed as a silly teenage heartbreak song given it has all the trappings of a banal pop song. Highly produced artificial sounding vocals, the synthy instrumentation typical of bubblegum pop, and the literal lyrics make it feel like a parody of 2000s pop. But the song itself is genuine.

Hi is about longing for a deeper connection we don’t know how to make. The music video, like the rest of Hannah’s work, takes place in a world where she is a popstar a la Britney Spears. The video shows Hannah interacting with other people through one-way spaces: interviews, runway walks, photoshoots. She is separate from the rest of the world. She only gets to engage with others through the internet. This separation leaves her trying to find ways to prove that her connection with someone is authentic “Tell me a secret. Or something that only you know. I just need to know a little more. About you.” She’s questioning if the person is even real: “Feels like I miss you. But is it really the real you?.”

The repetition of the chorus “I don’t want to be alone in my bedroom,” leaves us hoping that the character will turn this new understanding of their feelings into some way to break free. Instead, we hear that she’s fallen back to where she was at the beginning. Hannah says “Hi! Oh my god, it’s so good to see you!” to the person on the other side, playing along in a pretend relationship.

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Is it surprising that this song came out in 2015? The feelings discussed in the song are common internet sentiment today. We can draw connections to the isolating nature of the internet, or the loss of certainty that the “person” on the other side of any interaction is actually a person.