Has The World Really Become This Vain?

[JohnsonDDG]

As the years go by it seems we're all becoming so much more vain.

At first I thought it was a good thing. It seemed nice that people were going to the gym, wearing jeans that were fitted, and sprucing themselves up like never before. It generally seemed like people were trying more and that it could only be a positive.

But how wrong I was.

Even today there was a news story about a woman killing herself when her boob job didn't turn out the way she expected it to. But it doesn't end there: eating disorders are on the up, steroid abuse is on the up, plastic surgery is on the up, children with anxiety is on the up, teens and adults too. Everyone is seemingly becoming sicker and sicker and yet there is nothing being done about it.

Has advertisements really done this to us? Have we all been driven to actual insanity by advertising?

Its crazy and I imagine us folk who are losing our locks know this more than anyone.

Honestly, what the f*** is happening?

I swear someday I'm going to set up a commune in a forest and ban all mirrors and beauty products.

 

[Patrick_Bateman]

As the years go by it seems we're all becoming so much more vain.

At first I thought it was a good thing. It seemed nice that people were going to the gym, wearing jeans that were fitted, and sprucing themselves up like never before. It generally seemed like people were trying more and that it could only be a positive.

But how wrong I was.

Even today there was a news story about a woman killing herself when her boob job didn't turn out the way she expected it to. But it doesn't end there: eating disorders are on the up, steroid abuse is on the up, plastic surgery is on the up, children with anxiety is on the up, teens and adults too. Everyone is seemingly becoming sicker and sicker and yet there is nothing being done about it.

Has advertisements really done this to us? Have we all been driven to actual insanity by advertising?

Its crazy and I imagine us folk who are losing our locks know this more than anyone.

Honestly, what the f*** is happening?

I swear someday I'm going to set up a commune in a forest and ban all mirrors and beauty products.

Advertisement has been around for a long time. What's new is social media. Now people are comparing themselves to photoshopped pictures of people in the best part of their lives.
No one puts up facebook statuses of anything negative, it's only exaggerated positive stuff. And most people don't seem to realize it.

 

[FootyStar]

I swear someday I'm going to set up a commune in a forest and ban all mirrors and beauty products.

Count me in!

Advertisement has been around for a long time. What's new is social media. Now people are comparing themselves to photoshopped pictures of people in the best part of their lives.
No one puts up facebook statuses of anything negative, it's only exaggerated positive stuff. And most people don't seem to realize it.

I agree, social media is definitely the major culprit.

Additionally, I think most marketplaces are so overly saturated nowadays that businesses have to create more and more new markets filled with products that we don't need. They then sell these products to us by feeding off our insecurities (which is only exacerbated by the validation competition that is social media). Some of these products we buy are new forms of media (eg smartphones) through which even more advertisements can be pushed through for even more products. Our lives are literally being filled up with ads; everywhere we look there is always something reminding us of what we are lacking.

It's no surprise people are being driven insane by this.

 

[EvilLocks]

Even today there was a news story about a woman killing herself when her boob job didn't turn out the way she expected it to.

I wonder how fast she would have killed herself had she gone bald.

 

[Eren]

I wonder how fast she would have killed herself had she gone bald.

Just curious. What age did your hair loss start and is it female pattern hair loss (thinning all over the head including sides and back) or diffuse on top only?

 

[EvilLocks]

Just curious. What age did your hair loss start and is it female pattern hair loss (thinning all over the head including sides and back) or diffuse on top only?

Age 20 - yes it's fphl and it's diffuse all over.

 

[barfacan]

This is mostly just a first world big-city problem. Go to smaller towns and while there is definitely usage of social media and some advertisement penetration, it's alot less prevalent. Alot of it has to do with there just being too many damn people (and not enough resources) so the sense of competition is increasing at a fast rate, because everybody wants to live in a modern megacity. Go to a place with a lesser concentration of people and you'll finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Big city life is completely "unnatural" (not enough exercise, lack of sunlight in alot of cities, too much stress, bumping into WAY too many people on a daily basis etc) therefore it starts to bring out the worst in people, manifesting in weird symptoms like BDD, depression, anxiety, whatever else.

People aren't meant to commute to work 1 hour, sit at a desk for 8 more hours, commute back another hour, sit on the couch and watch tv, rinse and repeat...you're basically sitting for 12+ hours a day (then sleeping for another 8 if you're lucky), and for what? A chance to slave away at an uninteresting job in order to fulfill your materialistic desires which have been artificially pumped into you from a young age via the same adverts that you are now consciously aware are causing you great distress?

Once you break through and have that moment of clarity, it can be a heavy heavy stress shock for alot of people; after all it's hard to reinvent yourself when you're 40+ years of age... That's when you really freak out and just start abusing recreational/prescription drugs in order to cope. Then you'll likely just switch off and go into full blown zombie mode, blindly supporting the same system which you now need in order to stay alive....congratulations you're now institutionalized. You are now fully adapted to a creepy inhuman way of life, full of misery and dull ache at this point.


The further you deviate from "natural" life, the worse it'll get... But what can you do, the big cities are where all the jobs are at, after all.

 

[resu]

In the past you only would compare yourself to the people in your surroundings, now it's the whole world and so do others.

 

[JohnsonDDG]

Jim had it right all along:

I just need to figure out how to get all my kicks

 

[Rudiger]

Advertisement has been around for a long time. What's new is social media. Now people are comparing themselves to photoshopped pictures of people in the best part of their lives.
No one puts up facebook statuses of anything negative, it's only exaggerated positive stuff. And most people don't seem to realize it.

Indeed, the television convinced us we need to be certain things, social media convinced us we can pretend to be.

A Facebook or Instagram page is the closest people get to being a celebrity, they can filter their lives to appear better than they actually are. In the early days of Myspace etc. people would have a laughing fit at the pretentious poses and short videos you'd get on social media now, but at some point narcissism has become completely normal.

 

[JohnsonDDG]

Indeed, the television convinced us we need to be certain things, social media convinced us we can pretend to be.

A Facebook or Instagram page is the closest people get to being a celebrity, they can filter their lives to appear better than they actually are. In the early days of Myspace etc. people would have a laughing fit at the pretentious poses and short videos you'd get on social media now, but at some point narcissism has become completely normal.

It makes wankers of us all - it really does.

I once described myself on twitter as an educator, thinker, and globe trotter.

Why does it make such wankers of us?

 

[Rudiger]

It makes wankers of us all - it really does.

I once described myself on twitter as an educator, thinker, and globe trotter.

Why does it make such wankers of us?

I've not fallen into the traps of it, but to be honest most people would probably seem "weird" if they aren't on social media. For the most part I feel like I seem popular enough to get away with not being on it, like being too good for it, and I understand why the majority of people have to conform or otherwise possibly break social ties.

So I want to tell you "Just follow me to the nirvana of being social media free - it's easy!" but realistically that could probably be bad advice for you and your social life.

 

[Xander94]

As the years go by it seems we're all becoming so much more vain.

At first I thought it was a good thing. It seemed nice that people were going to the gym, wearing jeans that were fitted, and sprucing themselves up like never before. It generally seemed like people were trying more and that it could only be a positive.

But how wrong I was.

Even today there was a news story about a woman killing herself when her boob job didn't turn out the way she expected it to. But it doesn't end there: eating disorders are on the up, steroid abuse is on the up, plastic surgery is on the up, children with anxiety is on the up, teens and adults too. Everyone is seemingly becoming sicker and sicker and yet there is nothing being done about it.

Has advertisements really done this to us? Have we all been driven to actual insanity by advertising?

Its crazy and I imagine us folk who are losing our locks know this more than anyone.

Honestly, what the f*** is happening?

I swear someday I'm going to set up a commune in a forest and ban all mirrors and beauty products.

Not advertising it's social media fault IMO

 

[That Guy]

Q: Has the world really become this vain?

A: Yes.

 

[Rudiger]

Not advertising it's social media fault IMO

Both surely. Advertising got us up to an awfully vain point from the 70's, 80's on wards, social media was the steroids that kicked it all into overdrive at just the optimal moment.

 

[JohnsonDDG]

I've not fallen into the traps of it, but to be honest most people would probably seem "weird" if they aren't on social media. For the most part I feel like I seem popular enough to get away with not being on it, like being too good for it, and I understand why the majority of people have to conform or otherwise possibly break social ties.

So I want to tell you "Just follow me to the nirvana of being social media free - it's easy!" but realistically that could probably be bad advice for you and your social life.

I sort of need facebook because that's how most of my international friends contact me. Plus, when I go back to Vietnam for work I manage to see what my family is doing through facebook.

Its just a shame that its subtly sending me towards insanity.

 

[Rudiger]

No one puts up facebook statuses of anything negative, it's only exaggerated positive stuff. And most people don't seem to realize it.

I forgot to mention this reminds me a lot of the Black Mirror episode from the latest season called "Nosedive", where society is built upon a social media rating system and as you go throughout your day you literally rate people 1-5 based on your brief experience of them. It encourages people to create this pristine image of their lives, stemming from how they appear online and that growing into the real world. It means acting completely positive and false 100% of the time or risk your social status (an example of having low social status- not allowed to hire out a decent quality car, instead being forced to use a beat up 10th hand car).

It's a pretty sh*t episode but the premise I've described was fantastic, and as always with that show a chillingly close realisation of what we're becoming.

 

[Eren]

Definitely more vain than ever. Take a look at these threads in the impact session that are over a decade old. Those threads are relatively more optimistic and less intense than the threads started last year for example. Having hair has become more important than ever.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...male-pattern-baldness-bang-older-chicks.9534/

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/im-24-and-my-dating-life-is-already-over.15752/

 

[Rudiger]

Definitely more vain than ever. Take a look at these threads in the impact session that are over a decade old. Those threads are relatively more optimistic and less intense than the threads started last year for example. Having hair has become more important than ever.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...male-pattern-baldness-bang-older-chicks.9534/

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/im-24-and-my-dating-life-is-already-over.15752/

We still get these from time to time, I doubt it was any different then.

First OP- 510 messages, second OP - 97 messages.

They never belonged here.

 

[That Guy]

and it is only going to get worse