all 8 comments

[–]SeasideLimbs 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There are a couple of things that have changed recently that likely contribute to these trends you mentioned.

First, technology and how much it has connected humanity. Consider a woman living in a small tribe or village. If she is slightly above average in attractivity, the men living close to her will notice and value her for it. Now, thanks to the internet, every man can easily seek out and find the most conventionally pretty women on earth and spend all day binging on their looks in one way or another (e.g. porn.) When you're used to such incredible beauty, why care about that woman anymore? The baseline of what constitutes "attractive" has changed. On top of that, there are way more women just as pretty as her to be found. In other words, connectivity has increased competition. Attractivity is just one example of many. With basically the entire world to compete with, people seek more and more outrageous ways to stand out.

Second, thanks to the rising standards of our quality of life and the absolutely unprecedented amounts of media at our disposal, consumption has become ever more important in our lives. Before the internet and its Facebook timelines and Reddit frontpages and Tumblr dashboards, before Netflix and TV channels and radio, people would feel bored a lot more often than they do now. That boredom was often the reason why people would start doing things that would have interesting results, like learning mathematics or reading about history or learning an instrument. Like anything that's interesting, these things take some effort. And why put effort into anything when you could just consume, as usual? So now we have a lot of people who all compete with incredible numbers of other people, but would prefer to do so in ways that take little effort. That's likely one of the reasons why branding and identity have become so important today. It's no longer about what you achieve (something that takes effort, after all) and merely about what you are (something that takes no effort at all.)

[–]magnora7 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Actually, I would say people are more obsessed with being "normal" than they've ever been.

But at the same time what is defined as "normal" is becoming increasingly warped, and I think this is deliberate.

[–]quipu 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The other day I was driving and noticed all the trucks and vans filled with ladders, pipes, tools. These people have jobs, they work hard, and they all do things that are important for society to keep functioning. They are the "normal" people and there are tons of them, but you'll never see them unless you're out in the world and looking for them.

Wannabe "influencers" who spend all day on social media are not "normal". They are either in school, unemployed, have bullshit desk jobs, or they work a slow retail job and stare at their phones all day. There are many of them, but not as many as it seems.

I guess what I'm saying is take heart, social media is not representative of reality.

[–]nonamez 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

theres nothing wrong with wanting to be famous. i don't judge the ambitions of those that seek fame, i rather judge the parents for failing to raise their children properly.

[–]Sand313man 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

A doctor could easily be youtube sensation too.

It all depends.

The issue with social media is censorship and the fact that people are all on different information streams (also a blessing somewhat as media is no longer centralised - but there is also a cost).

But it’s the way things are. We can protest censorship... we should.. but the rest? There’s no real solution. People will want to express themselves and other people want to watch what is interesting to them.

It sure beats the Hollywood brainwashing these days.

[–]jet199Instigatrix 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There's a weird sub on reddit which is sort of a rad fem beauty sub. Basically admit looks get you special treatment in today's society and use that to your advantage even if you don't agree with it.

The thing is these are mostly young women with little life experience just starting out and they all want to look like plastic Instagram models. But a big part of the reasoning of the sub is that looking good gets you an advantage in lots of different areas of life, like jobs etc. If you turned up to an interview for a high paying job looking like a Kardashian no one would take you seriously and you'd be laughed out of the room.

The trouble is most young people simply don't know what attractive looks like (even though subconsciously we all know from birth). They can't recognise it either in themselves or others so go with what's fashionable instead. Then when they get to 30 they look back at pics of themselves and say "but I was stunning, why didn't I see it, and what am I wearing?"

[–]whistlepig 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm going to argue that although the platform and medium has changed, this isn't really that different from any other age that I've seen in my life (last 4 decades). Just take a look at Madona and tell me that people like her are any different than the type of people you're describing.

All in all I'm going to agree more with magnora7's take on this.

[–]md_saidit 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

"nobody" = "nobody sane"