That goes hand by hand with the "if you don't post it, then doesn't exist" philosophy. Some people is surprised when they know me IRL and they see I'm a person who loves parties and travels, just because I don't post it on social media. Do you really think you know a stranger just by looking at their virtual profile? 😶 Sometimes I've heard things like: "If you don't post it, then why do you do it?" Poor souls...
THIS!!! as a high school junior girl, I just feel so pressured to have to post all the time when i really don’t care about social media... when I took a picture of myself in front of one of my “friends”, she got so surprised and said “You take pictures?” And ig she was surprised because I literally don’t post anything on Instagram because i just don’t feel like it.
The need to post anything and everything is what mainly drove me off from social media, in 2022 I deleted all my accounts expect for my instagram where I only post artworks. I hate that whenever I go out with someone it has to be this trendy new place so they can post pics about it, it's like people don't go out to have fun anymore they just want to make a reel highlights of them going out.
Right, I've been weightlifting for a while and my arms and abs are quite muscular now but I never showed it to anyone, when one of my friends saw me in a tank top she told me it's a waste of effort if I never show it off. Maybe I'm doing it for myself and not for earning social points?
My husband and I deleted our Facebook more than a year ago. Recently I had a friend reach out through text asking how we’re doing. I made sure and sent her pictures as confirmation that all is well 🤣 She let me know about a mutual friend that was asking how I was doing. Literally the next day I happened to run into the mutual friend. I was with my family she looked at me as if she seen a ghost 🤣🤣🤣 I made sure and let her know that everything is fine and she was able to see with her own eyes that we’re all doing well. Social media has caused some division
I've always thought of the internet as its own culture,with its own set of celebrities,values,and in-jokes, as well as sub-sections of the internet/bubbles (eg:clothing,tv shows groups on the internet vs car groups/soccer people in real life); its why a lot of in-jokes don't work irl, the same way slang/memes from the UK about UK won't work in the USA, And certain things get spread around to broader parts of the internet while some stay in a smaller niche (eg:certain meme formats), kind of like how things irl can spread globablly or just a state
@@sarafernandez4920 i never said i did lul; its also why different cultures' jokes don't work in other cultures usually when it does work is when said media becomes viral/everyone uses it/knows about it
I also think this. I always consider internet “culture” as an integral part of my own culture, since I was online from an incredibly young age (around 7-8).
This reminds me of when the humour in my friend group would come hugely from references to vines and memes. I never had vine and therefore would miss out on a lot of the jokes and feel a little alienated. This is interesting because it creates a disconnect even between friend groups of the same demographic. It still happens to me now occasionally but I don't let it bother me anymore
Yeah, totally! But i think it's important to see that if you're interests (here memes and vines) don't match with the interests of people around you, you are not the same demographic anymore. Kind of, not literally. Am I making sense? What I mean is that the Internet is not the cause of this issue, it's that nowadays we have more subjects to be interested in because information spreads faster and this is what causes many various micro-demographics.
Yeah, Same! Tbh It's not so fun talking to my friends anymore bc they only talk in a weird TikTok language and I don't have enough space to install it.
It's funny when I'd see my younger siblings quotes vine memes randomly with no context and imagining how confused my parents would be and how they're probably thinking, "I don't get it. How is 'Can I get a waffle? Can I please get a waffle?' funny? These kids...".
Even before social media, we spoke in SpongeBob and bad girls club etc. Even in highschool everyone spoke in meme and vines. I’m pretty sure in 1800s there was that elitism / divide with literary texts and fans of different writers like shakespeare or bronte having their own inside understanding. It’s popular culture and bonding over interests. I think with social media it almost does the opposite though, like there aren’t that many defined niches that people are happy to thrive in and enjoy. The priority is popularity. That’s why everyone has the same way of presenting themselves because they assume it to be formulaic.
@@meimeilei (there was a revival of Bronte and others but that's besides the point) their point is still valid. Language can go through trends and change then come back again. Thank god I only need to read old English for my job, but there are hints of it in trends today that get brought back up and used regularly. But their point is that social media is just the place where we see it documented. SM is not "making us speak in code," it is just the place where coded language is expressed. like finna. it is Southern US and inherently Black. it was picked up by southerners and other whites from seeing it on the internet
@@meimeilei a subculture of people still enjoyed Shakespeare literature at that time. Usually educated and upperclass. They spoke in reference to it, possibly referring to people in their daily lives as some of the characters in his plays. Shakespeare gained even more popularity after his death my point still stands. Though I know some Shakespeare, put me in a room with Shakespeare fanatics it’s like they’re speaking a different language.
I think you’re undermining the difference between generations. There wasn’t nearly as much content as there is now, so everyone mostly saw and spoke about the same things. Pre-internet, we used to have celebrities, tv shows, and songs that we ALL knew. Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Madonna, the Beatles, Whitney Houston. Now everyone is sort of diverging into their own little corners of the internet. It’s not a stretch to think that language would evolve because of that.
@@fluidsings7870 that's such a lie and honestly simplification of the past. there were ALWAYS niches and weird subcultures that existed with their own 'language' in society. and there's celebrities and media now that is inescapable if you don't live under a rock; I'm sure everyone has heard of justin bieber, jk rowling, elon musk, ariana grande, one direction ? if you've ever watched a mafia movie you'll notice the people usually use a similar 'code' of language with each other, so it's not hard to imagine subcultures have always existed who did not care for the mainstream culture. even bird watchers have their own slang.
I remember when my friend was annoyed with me because she kept showing me “the funniest” TikToks but I didn’t understand them. She kept asking me, “What do you mean you don’t understand?” The humor in them seemed to be from a certain niche of comedy only found on tiktok. They probably were really funny, but because I don’t use the app, they just made no sense to me. So your first point is spot on, unless you use the app or have friends to tell you about it, you likely won’t even grasp the concepts of it.
I remember feeling this way when I was 19 and my then crush started sharing memes with me that also seemed very niche (I think they were 4chan memes). I was like, "Uh...cool."
As someone who joined tiktok about a year ago it's kinda hard to get to know their humor, their clothing style etc it's so weird when so many influencers get millions of likes on their "alt" clothing style while I barely see anyone irl wear them. Also don't download tiktok they're very mean
@@Myspace.com6 I used tt for 2 years, used it as a platform to post my cosplay content. I got some followers but honestly I did not like how it reduced my attention span so I uninstalled it...
I feel like this also applies to idols (like kpop) in which their lives and personalities almost feel like a simulation or hyperrealism. In a way every picture of them, every interview, every live even is manufactured to portray a persona that is too perfect. They look very attractive almost perfect and seem to always be in the best mood and ready to keep working. It is an illusion that can capture you so easily and completely absorb your time. And when they break out of that illusion or simluation people attack them viciously, like if they prefer the illusion to the real human. It´s bizarre but so interesting.
I hope foreigners realize that most Koreans (excludes netizens) do not take kpop idols or any celebrity seriously. It’s a widespread fact that 99% celebrities put on a persona when cameras are rolling. They are literally manufactured personas/looks and strive for the industry’s version of “perfection”. This also applies to non-Korean celebrities and people need to take famous figures less seriously. It is called the entertainment industry for a reason.
I went to a kpop concert, I didn’t know what that was at the time, but when I saw the band, they were really cool looking so I googled them later on. I was shocked by how picture perfect and glamorized their management made them look. That industry was really nuts to me, they looked almost fake. So you’re exactly right, they looked like a simulation when I looked at their pictures and music videos.
@@Introvertedpoet I agree with you. But we should realize that all celebrities, not just Korean, go through the intense "comeback." There is a cultural difference between east-asian and western cultures to talk about one's diet. Although western celebrities are also dieting and heavily training/practicing before new releases, they simply don’t talk about it and focus on promoting the result. Whereas in kpop, the making and process behind the “comeback” are also part of the idol product. The kpop industry incorporated the behind-the-scenes of a product into the final product itself. I am not saying this is ok, since this strategy breaches the privacy of idols. The higher-ups in the industry treat idols like dolls/products, and the idol-industry is regarded as disturbing and dark by most Koreans, just as us Americans agree that Hollywood is deeply flawed and dark. This is why many parents are against their children becoming idols, because we all know there is darkness behind the shine. It's great that you stopped stanning and still support your favorite groups. I'm also the same :)
I feel like these concepts could also be applied to the type of content people post on instagram. There was a tiktok that explained it better than I did but basically, the popularity of posting photo dumps and ‘casual’ photos on Instagram as a response to the amount of overly edited or staged photos. Basically trying to simulate reality rather than coming off as arranged and superficial. But it could be argued that more effort goes into creating these ‘casual’ photos, making it seem genuine or coming off as authentic (but still flattering or appealing enough to share) that it shifts into sort of a hyperreal thing. (also the very nature of Instagram involves curating certain photos, so it can be argued that it’ll never be a representation of reality).. People also talk about how casual photo dumps remind them of the original days on instagram when everything wasn’t so manicured.. this could be tied into the first 3 stages (at least I think, I’ve only read the wikipedia article lmaooo) great video tho it’s a very interesting topic! x
think you're talking about this: "god i hate how aesthetic-obsessed we have become. i'm not talking about cottagecore or dark academia or any of the other -cores, i'm talking about everything being so glossy and pretty and perfect and smooth and one-liner hot takes and feel-good own-the-conservatives progressivism and Top 10 Company Tweets We Laughed At and ring lights and young vloggers with pastel-perfect colour-corrected lives and carefully curated messy title cards and perfect montages being called "photo dumps" and bookstagrams or booktoks or bookblrs who buy every book they read, not a library edition in sight and "that girl" and this is how you age when you're unproblematic and glow ups and "clean" "inclusive" beauty and earth tones and minimalism and filming random people without their consent and definition of the self through consumption of goods and ggrgehwrgehrgehrgehrgehrrerg"
I've noticed this in the porn industry as well. As a sex worker, I think OF has completely changed the industry. The standard used to be high production, perfect looking fake girls. Men now want porn of "real girls". But they don't really want "real girls". They want girls who simulate being real. Like pics need to be edited, but they can't look edited. Girls need to look good with "no makeup" but it's light makeup. I think it's interesting cuz I'm seeing this trend on every platform really
This. I've seen tiktoks on how to create a casual feed, how to make perfectly photos "blurry," how to mimic other people's poses...these frustrated me so much I had to block them.
I have seen an scenario of this portrayed twice, but only now I am really thinking of it and the parallel it portrays. The first time, it was in the Netflix show The Politician, where one of the characters (an stereotypical rich high school girl) takes an staged selfie in her bed after much decoration and perfecting, pretending she just woke up. The second, on Bo Burnham's Eight Grade, where an average middle class eight grader girl takes the same kind of picture with the caption "Woke up like this" and in reality being shown to have put much effort into her makeup and accessories. It shows a frightening parallel of the surreality of social media, where the perfection of one's image surpasses class and age. Furthermore, it raises the expectations for everybody to act this way, in a disingenuous act of self-flattering. If this is the case, then, social media will only ever serve as a gallery of an non-existent reality of overly perfected pictures and people, and the only question left to be asked is: Who benefits from it?
Algorithms make us too pampered, impatient and ignorant. We get used to the idea that everything our eyes see is something we're already familiar with, it meets our expectations and is thus easy to digest. We're not encouraged to learn about anything new - let alone anything that makes us even slightly uncomfortable - which i see as a real threat to our modern global society. Because, many of the things in the world that are both hard to understand and/or make you feel very uncomfortable, are those people should absolutely be aware of.
This was really eye opening. Recently I fell into a TH-cam hole of watching people criticize teenagers who are allegedly faking mental illnesses on TikTok. You helped me realize that that problem literally only exists online. While this content can definitely influence the way people look at certain disorders in real life, those are not the people I commonly associate with. Thank you for this discussion. I love your academic but also personal approach. Keep it up!
Faking mental illnesses has definitely spread into 'real life' as well. High school students are now all "anxious and depressed" even though they clearly are not. It's a way to get attention and in that age teenagers are dependent on it.
i think the main problem lies in the fact that, with this growing divide between communities of interests, not only are we not able to get to know other people's views, but we are convinced, mostly in a passive way, that what we think is real and everyone else's ideology is similar to our own and everyone else's morality is like that of our own. this breeds ignorance and division and is based on the enrichment of corporations. therefore it is dangerous in many ways: it makes it harder for people to understand each other's point of view, it creates entitlement because everyone else on your sphere of interest is going to agree with you, so you are brought to believe your own as the objective truth even if its uninformed, and lastly it keeps people sedated in regards to the issues of the real world, because this feeling of immediate satisfaction you get from virtual interaction is going to make you less interested in changing the status of things as they are if you feel like they don't immediately affect your wellbeing making you more likely to accept your own condition while keeping money in the pocket of those who govern the status quo and making them stronger.
Yes! I was going to post a comment similar to this, I fear for especially younger tiktok users that they won't differentiate the issues discussed on tiktok and basically the whole world portrayed on tik tok as different from real life because tik tok makes this very 'black and white' version of reality where only some opinions and ideologies are good and you cant get along or accept some one with different opinions. Someone can post a 15 second shot of something and people will shun them without any context to the video whatsoever. Plus different types of people are stereotyped and everyone has to fit in one aesthetic or another.
This could explain why every Trump supporter I know can't fathom the idea that there were actual people who voted for Biden, because they truly think that most people in the US love Trump just like them, because that's what it seems like in their own bubble, hence why they believed Trump when he said that the election was rigged. You could even say the same for Hillary's supporters in 2016 when Hillary lost that time as well (though I'll be fair, even for them, they didn't go as far as the Trump supporters did in 2021). It's so dangerous, especially when politics come into play, regardless of the group's views.
@@mynameisreallycool1 Absolutely, that happens to all political ideologies. I think that's why it's so important to talk with people different to us, in all aspects. We all have biases, so the only way to be next to objective reality is complementing my biases with your information, and vice-versa.
@@PuripuriDrawings I agree. I admit that it's more comfortable to be around people who agree with you, but it is necessary to go outside your comfort zone and hear other people out to understand what everyone wants. Division has always been an issue, but in the real world, it's a lot harder to avoid people with different views, so we're at least somewhat forced to hear what other people have to say. With the internet, people are so used to staying in their own bubbles that they were put in because of the algorithm, that they aren't nearly as used to hearing other people disagree with them. It's gotten so bad that whenever people get recommended a video that doesn't align with their own views, they accuse TH-cam or whatever social media company of "promoting a left/right wing agenda" and act like companies are conspiring against them specifically (even if they can't think of a reason how or why it would benefit them in any way). Because God forbid the algorithm accidentally allows TH-cam to recommend something that challenges your beliefs and disrupts your echo chamber! That's so wrong!
As an indipendent artist I've been struggling with the use of social media, and now that I'm outside of that bubble I feel stranger to a world I don't know anymore. I feel like I don't even exist only because I don't use instagram or tiktok.. Now that I keep my head up it's so weird to me watching the others costantly watching their phones, even when they walk by the street. I'm not judging, I was like this too. I'm happy that people are realizing the danger of this poison. (btw loved this video
oh sht. so maybe the algorithms are making our worlds so personalized to us that it makes us even more isolated from each other. i keep thinking about how you can tell a lot from a person' if you know their youtube watch history and a "agree/disagree/indifferent towards video" data input from them, and i was thinking how i'd love to meet someone who had the exact recommended feed as me :(
“maybe the algorithms are making our worlds so personalised to us that it makes us even more isolated from each other” that’s a line i never want to forget
That's obvious. I guess you guys are very young, but yes, algorithms makes that: they show you content similar to you, creating a echo chamber. That's why real world interactions are so important: you will no find real disagreement online, the algorithm want you happy and confortable, and in case something scapes to him, you can block that content. But we can't block frustration or pain IRL, and if you're been permanently comfy the last 15-20 years, first punch of reality (even being the slightest thing) will be really hard for you.
I can agree. Recently when I login to Instagram, it’ll feel empty like no one’s texting no one’s reacting to anything it’s all just liking pictures and pretending you’re too popular. It’ll feel like I’m the only one on the app and if I’m not mistaken I think that the way they want it for everybody else. It’s gotten to the point where everybody’s anti-social ON social media.
It's true that a lot of people live in a sort of fake reality online where, because of their lack of real experiences in certain parts of the real world, they think that whoever they see or listen to online are just like the people in the real world, especially now that many people are still staying at home during the pandemic. I hear so many people my age who think that preteens and teens "don't look like actual middle/high schoolers anymore" and think they all look stylish and perfect compared to how they themselves look at their age, when in reality, they're only looking at the few kids who they hear about or see online on TikTok or TH-cam. They don't see the kids who still look just as awkward and average as we did when we were kids. They look at the kids with filters and trendy outfits on social media, but not these kids in person or even just normal kids with less popular social media accounts where they still post the same childish stuff we did in the 2000s and 2010s. So naturally they think that the kids from those popular TikTok accounts are a perfect and accurate representation of what all regular kids look like today. We do the same with people our own age as well (young adults I mean) where we look at our friends who post the best versions of themselves or the highlights of their lives, thinking at all of our friends are prettier, more hardworking, smarter, or more well accomplished than we are. Though in reality, we all feel that way about each other one way or another.
@@Marina-fg5ei I guess maybe if you live in a more affluent area where kids have more access to better clothes, hair supplies, and makeup, or they have more time to do their hair or makeup (I find that in the school district in my area, the nicer schools tend to have students who have better clothes and hair). I live with three siblings who are in 6th, 8th, and 11th grade, and I sometimes see other teenagers whenever I go out, and they still just look like regular kids with the crappy makeup, basketball shorts, hoodies, cringy looking clothes, etc, at least from what I've seen. Literally how me and my peers used to dress in middle school, just with slightly different styles because of the time period (though it's only like a 10 year difference).
When I was little, I never really care about social media standards at all cause I was too busy crushing on my childhood cartoon shows. Even anime. But speaking about how the kids act now, it makes no sense just to look like "adults" and "matured" even though your body still needs to grow. I was forced to be an adult, with emotions and feelings like them (I was born in a dysfunctional family, I remember that being annoying and talkative is non-existent in my environment household) Yeah. Looking at the kids and children acting like them, I feel disgusted and creeped out. I am forced to be one, I never feel happy and I was getting humiliated for beauty standards since I'm obese. I know obesity is bad, but the environment I'm living in is stressing me out and going insane. Smh those people (not only kids and children) are letting social media rule their lives without realizing it (I don't specifically go to Tumblr all the time, I only post my anime stuff or interesting pictures that I have in my album)
you know how we have symbols on our phones/in the apps we use that are supposed to emulate the real world? like the contact book app icon, or the green button with a phone shape on it? i, being gen-z, have never used a physical contact book in my life! suddenly, the second definition of “contacts” is the only definition, whereas the first one has become obsolete. i had this thought earlier, but your video has taught me that this is in fact a similacra!
omg hi, I'm currently in grad school studying digital sociology and first of all I just want to say thank you for making this video because I think it could be really eye opening for people!! I quit social media over a year ago basically *because* of a lot of things in this video. There's this quote I love from Dave Malloy (who wrote this musical called Octet about an internet addiction support group, highly highly recommend) that's "when they say 'in real life' this is a lie to protect us. it is all real. it is all real life" and I feel like that is definitely true in one sense, but it's also definitely true that the internet has turned into its own separate world. Like, yes, everything that happens on the internet has become very much "real" or even "real life" for people, but it's still this entirely separate sphere. We all have an online life and an offline life now, an online persona and offline persona, and it's really odd
Could you imagine what would happen if a sizably large mass plasma ejection from the Sun wiped out 80-90% of our satellite coverage & telecommunications? Scientists are often worried about it at times, but hypothetically here... How would an entire generation or two of children, now adults, who grew up with all eyes and ears on them via social media, behave if they all suddenly lost their "world" they'd always grown up with. Suddenly, its just silence and static. All servers off and no way to have millions of clicks & shares to remind you that you're loved or that you exist. It's this kind of nearly inseperable fixation on tech (and the way it enables us to constantly have instant "rewards" and gradifications) that makes me wonder if a large portion of people would even be able to cope without people constantly rating and validating what they say, especially for have the majority of their lives play out online like social influencers do. Crazy thing to think about.
Omfg digital sociology sounds like my dream masters, what are you learning??? I'm doing an undergrad in sociology and communications right now. Plz tell me more haha!!!
This was a really interesting video on a complicated subject! I'm on the very end of the millennial generation and have a lot of criticism of social media and have stayed away from most of it for a lot of my life. It's hard because I feel like I'm in a bubble that is the "real" world trying to connect with people that are in a completely separate bubble through social media and it seems almost impossible to bridge the gap. I had an Instagram for a little while at the end of college and it was so much easier to feel connected to people and make friends when I was participating in the same reality that they were, but when i deleted my account because it felt like a toxic environment, I tried to maintain some of those friendships but I pretty much failed and haven't heard from anyone since. It's confusing because when you're inside and participating in social media world, there a lot of things that can cause you to be unhappy, like seeing other people's "perfect" lives, bodies, etc. and being exposed to a lot of content you don't want to see. But then when you leave it behind, there are a whole different set of issues you deal with, like losing a lot of your social connections and feeling isolated, not being able to relate to people (like you said, it's almost like each group has its own language. I've noticed more and more conversations in like face to face settings about things that exist on social media that I can't really participate in because i have no clue what anyone's talking about lol), and feeling like you don't exist because if people are spending a majority of their free time on social media, and you're not there, you really don't exist in a sense because you aren't present in that reality. Really long comment, but this subject has so much content you can get into, it's just really interesting to think about how something that may be a simulation in a sense is the reality most people are participating in, which makes the world outside seem like it doesn't exist. This was my first time hearing about baudrillard, you did a good job explaining!!
Wow, thanks for sharing these thoughts! I’m just grateful someone appreciates this much digging into what probably feels like a super meta concept 😅 I’m at that age too (between millenial/gen z) so I wrestle w that as well, but im learning slowly to form those friendships outside of social media, too. Finding different ppl who don’t spend as much time on it has helped a lot!
This was written so well. I’m also millennial/gen z and had to delete Facebook for toxic reasons but I had so much internal conflict when I actually did it. I was literally shaky (kinda sad I know) but I felt like I was going to lose a bunch of ‘important’ things cause I had a profile for about 2-3 years. I lost nearly all my friends but not in a negative way. Only 2 reached out to me and complained they couldn’t tag me in things haha. That’s when I realised ‘oh so those are my real friends’ But I’ve gained more friends over the years and I didn’t gain them through any social media. I got Facebook back but only accept people who I actually interact with in real life so I won’t even accept acquaintances. And 2 of my friends aren’t connected with me on social media simply because I see them every week in person.
I'm so glad you chose to cover this topic! As a writer who is really into romanticism I've found myself drawing a blank when thinking of how to portray social media in a way that doesn't seem eerie or suffocating. I also find it interesting how a lot of films nowadays depict movements that occur on social media as actual physical assemblies in tangible spaces. It seems like we collectively don't know how to address social media in a way that keeps its phenomena virtual.
I understand the awkward thing with trying to explain memes. There are some times when we say something and a friend will say "oh that reminds me of a meme I saw where this this happens" And then we all do a little laugh of "oh yeah I know that" or "oh I don't know that meme" so they proceed to show us said meme. But the joke is pretty dead by then because it had to be explained. It's weird 😅
I do want to say that it's very refreshing to see someone with their eyes open to what's going on. The youth is one big social experiment to tech companies and government.
As a person who doesn't have almost any social network i more often realize that younger people seems to be struggling to bring good sense of humor or basic social skills to real life. And that's depressing them a lot, and i just want to say: you're a human, don't purposely alienate yourself to the sterile world of masks of social networks
this video is so good, right up my alley, I love focusing on linguists of the internet and you aren't alone in not being able to verbalize memes and trends.
this video just made my brain implode. I’ve been mentally exploring the idea of social media hyper reality for these past two weeks and now watching how you explained it even more in depth is getting too much for my brain to handle ngl. quietly sitting on my couch dissociating rn 😁
I keep telling people I live on the internet. Especially with the pandemic, the internet has become even more of the main space of my life's events. It's total immersion. And there's so many different uses for it. No matter if you want to have a laugh or learn something. And it can easily get so problematic. For example I find it fascinating and dangerous for people to match their looks surgically and re: fillers, with what they want to look like online at priority. It's less important if it looks messed up irl. As long as our pictures look like our idols' pictures. I'm not against beauty surgery etc in general. But I feel like it's wrong to rely on an online image
TH-cam has been pushing these weird videos where you have to watch it like 10 times so you’d get bigger eyes, smaller nose, clear skin etc. I watch commentary videos and cartoons I’ve never watched “beauty” content yet it always shows up on my recommendations. No matter how many times I tell TH-cam I’m not interested it still sends me these videos. Also I have a lot of friends that are addicted to SM and they all have the same style, sense of humor etc. you can literally just steal a joke from the internet and tell them and you’re the funniest person in their eyes. It’s almost like they live in another planet, it’s very weird how SM changes people.
Oh how I can relate to the latter half of your comment! I've noticed this in some of my friends too. It's so strange. The humour, the fashion, the phrases they use. I've never been one to cry about the "loss of originality and personality, blah blah" but it's seriously concerning how much people are influenced by SM.
oh my god this was so good!! i've really been trying a better way to describe the feeling of "fomo" while i try to healthily distance myself from the internet when its so difficult as all my friends/generation are in on a new joke every week that i will completely miss, and u did it so well! like it makes so much sense bcuz rather than calling it a new joke every week, thats just a constant different reality, thanks so much!
To a large extent, the replacement of "reality" by "simulacra" and "hyperreality" is caused by cultural and economic factors, and mediated by accompanying cultural changes. The commodification of everything that used to have intrinsic worth in human social life could be driven by the same consumerist and neoliberal policies that are responsible for growing wealth inequalities. Since social media are both a reflection of society, and also constitute a profitable marketplace of ideas, they are rife with commodified memes - mere simulacra of real life issues and concerns. Matt McManus has discussed this in a piece that he wrote for Quillette (that later grew into a book) titled: The Emergence and Rise of Postmodern Conservatism. In this short essay, he points out that both left-wing postmordern thinkers (who may better viewed - as is the case for Baudrillard - as critics of the "postmodern condition") and their conservative critics lament the dissolution of the values and practices that used to give real meaning to the lives of individuals within traditional communities. The main difference between the left-wing and the conservative critics of the postmodern condition is that the former are more concerned with the fate of the oppressed minorities while the latter deplore the destitution of the previously dominant groups as well as the erosion of their values. George Packer wrote an essay in The Atlantic titled "How America Fractured into Four Parts". Packer's essay provides further insight into the social forces that are driving the current culture war between the so-called "wokes" and the "anti-wokes". In the currently highly polarized American political landscape, Packer identifies four main ideological camps which he labels "Smart America" (academic elites, high-tech gurus, scientists, etc.), "Just America" (SJW, BLM, feminists, LGBTQ+ activists, etc.), "Free America" (Libertarian politicians, Tea-party activists, corporate lobbyists, etc.), and "Real America" (Trump supporters, Christian evangelicals, rural communities, etc.). The former two groups are mostly composed of Democrats and the latter two are mostly composed of Republicans. Although they belong to opposite political parties, the members of Smart America and of Free America are mostly at peace with each other. They live in the same gated communities and they send their children to the same colleges. They only wage war covertly, and by proxy, by pitting their respective subordinated classes - the members of Just America and of Real America - against each other. This enables them to reap the fruits of an economy that favors people at the top, and to maintain their privileges and powerful positions, by deflecting any blame coming from their low-wage employees or constituents. Hence, the ideologues for Smart America (and their establishment Democrat allies) say to the social justice warriors (and other "wokes") that they must blame the Real Americans (and other Trump supporters) for their woes and oppression while the ideologues for Free America (and their establishment Republican allies) say to their "Real American" supporters that it is the "wokes", and the immigrants, who are to blame for their economic destitution and the loss of their sense of value.
Real America were the ones who are actively trying to revoke gay marriage rights and suppress voters. I think they have just as much of a hand in it too
Oh and real America are the ones trying to make anti abortion laws as well. They have just as much of a hand in bringing down the quality of life for just America
I don't know how, but you made Baudrillard interesting rather than a snooze-fest. I've been trying to wrap my head around his work for a while and I keep falling asleep! But I think I've got a really good basis now, thank you so much!
OMG I'm so happy this video popped on on my recs because I have literally been thinking about this so much and that's the reason why I took a break from social media I'm so happy to see that are other people who feel the same way, thank you for this!!!!!
One of my favorite professors introduced me to Baudrillard’s writings and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them since! I’m also so glad someone is finally talking about his work in connection to social media and the effects it’s having on us right now. So well done!!
Super interesting concept! I actually wasn’t allowed to watch Disney films as a kid... and while I enjoyed Disneyland, I have always been mystified by my peers’ obsession with it, lol. This video essay really made me think about a lot of things!
It is so interesting this was recommended to me. I am currently writing my university thesis on Baudrillard's theories of Simulacra and Simulation as well as Edward Said's Orientalism with a focus on analyzing the novels of Don DeLillo and the role media plays in creating distorted reality and why these ideas remain vital for people to understand in the present day. And this video is exactly what I intend on discussing - it's amazing how relevant the work of Baudrillard is today.
I also noticed that social media world keeps us from having our own opinions. Being against popular or trending beliefs or ideas would end people being canceled... Therefore There is no individuality since our generation fall for the same trends ( music, fashion ...). It's pretty depressing.
It's not just limited to social media tho, like i started playing Genshin Impact a few weeks ago and i believe the same principle applies to this and other in game worlds
I would think that, like the video has said, the interest that people center themselves around affects their reality. Be it video games, books, comics, literally any type of art form.
Isn't TH-cam a social media that also creates a "fake reality" though?? I mean most youtubers post their highlights or their downfalls, edited, with colours, music etc. I don't have tik tok so I feel TH-cam is another fake reality for me sometimes
The difference between some media and others is the source of the poster’s content. For instance, one could try and argue that this video is a representation of a hyper reality since it’s based on another form of media. However, this video is trying to apply someone’s ideas which are based on real-life observations. In simulation, media is based on idealized representations of reality, or copies of copies. I guess you could say this video is based on an incomplete representation of reality as well, but perhaps not to the extent and effect of aesthetically-focused Instagram feeds. I’m not an expert on Baudrillard though, so take this comment with a grain of salt.
it depends. yes there are people who vlog and live a fake life (ahem, ACE family) but the VAST majority of content on youtube is so diverse. on tiktok, with the limited video length, they cannot explore it that well. on top of that, youtube makes you choose your next video so you shape the algorithm easily. tiktok chooses it FOR you based on your likes, so content falls into 4-5 general niches.
@@coagulatedsalts4711 I don't have tik tok so I cant talk from experience about it. But TH-cam I feel like shaped a lot of my opinions growing up and some of them were really toxic (videos that make fun of girly girls or social justice warriors etc). Or there was content I consumed in which pretty thin girls were having such a great colorful aesthetic life with their perfect boyfriend and friendgroup and I don't think thats their life all the time, but when I was in junior high school I thought my life is miserable compared to them. I still do sometimes, now that I think about it. So yeah when I say that "TH-cam is a social media, that shows the best parts of someone" this is what I mean. Instagram makes me feel this way too. But with TH-cam you don't only see a pretty person posing for a picture. You hear them talk, you see how they dress and who they hang out with. So you compare not only one image but the "whole" person with yourself and your opinions, clothes, friends, hometown, talents etc. It's not really the whole person though, is the parts of their life that they chose to film. This is how I see it of course not everyone thinks like this.
@@eugeniam.4230 I agree with you. I'm 18 so quite young, but I didn't have a phone until freshman year of high school. So it's only been 4 years but it has changed me a lot. I remember in middle school when I didn't have any access to any unmonitored social media, including TH-cam, it was a lot easier for me to dress how I wanted to and not care about others. I would wear only bell bottom jeans with sparkly back pockets, sneakers, and a random shirt. I would wear a lot of clothes from the child's sections instead of clothes from the juniors sections that my peers wore, but I had ab easier time ignoring them. I had an old foundation that my mom had passed on to me which was very low coverage. Once I got my phone I started not spending much time on social media still but I watched a lot of TH-cam and lifestyle TH-camrs, people who would do clothing hauls. While none of the people I watched were inherently trying to show very fake versions of themselves, they still made me focus more on how I looked. Now, I buy clothes I like but I definitely think a lot more about whether or not other people will like me in them. Most recently, I became a KPop fan and a lot of that content is on TH-cam, which has only heightened my focus on how I look. I want to dress as stylish as the idols, I want to have perfect hair and sparkly make-up all the time. But I have to step back and tell myself that that's not practical and that I should care less about those things. Today I took a pretty big step for myself, I went to school wearing shorts without having shaved my legs and I actually felt so liberated to wear the clothes I wanted without having to follow those guidelines shown by TH-cam and other platforms that show lifestyle content where everyone looks put together all the time.
This also goes really well with the metaverse, web 3, crypto art...It's kinda like this is going to be soon the biggest simulation of real life which is kind of sad
While watching the video I thought you were moving towards the point that Baudrillard's description of the relation disneyland has with the real world applies even more now to social media and the real world. Disneyland is a place we can go to and feel reassured that it is not actually "real" that the buildings are just facades and the characters are just actors but it makes us realize that everywhere else in America is just like Disneyland; high property prices are driven up by speculative bubbles based on unproven technology and politicians are able to flagrantly lie to their constituents without any consequence. This is the phenomenon of hyperreality. The advent of social media makes this phenomenon of hyperreality even more clear. We browse social media all while being aware that everything we see is trying to sell us something or manipulate our opinion by selectively presenting us with information. But looking at the "real world" outside of social media, we realize it really isn't so different. Knowing this, we then come to realize that social media is the place where our present reality and condition of existence is at its most "real".
“Is social media creating an alternative reality?” Of course, look at the Metaverse. Soon we will all be living like we’re in the movies “Ready Player One”
As an anthropology major obsessed with human behavior, your videos SPEAK TO ME! I quit social media both personally and for my business and havent felt this free since i was a child. Keep questioning and calling out the madness 🤍
wow. i came expecting the usual youtuber video essay with half baked points to listen to while i kill half an hour. instead what i got felt like a mini college course of insightful and illuminating concepts that i feel like i should have paid to hear. well done.
I'll never look at the word simulation the same way again. What a cool philosophical analysis and very relevant to today's issues. I'll definitely have to rewatch for everything I've missed.
this video is so interesting especially the first bits of analysis you give. takes a bit of thinking to conceptualize but its worthwhile food for thought!
I am trying to avoid using instagram these days as an excuse of studying but it feels so good ❤️.real fact is that Insta is colorful while life is not all colourful
I talk about funny tik toks and memes with my family and partner all the time , because we actually enjoy watching and looking at what each other has sent because we understand each other’s humor
I find this subject very interesting. I don't have any friends really, but I have my boyfriend who is not on social media at all. I have recently showed him ASMR, but if I didn't introduce that to him, he would have gone his entire life not knowing what it is. I don't have TikTok or Facebook, but I have Instagram, and I really want to get rid of it, because I compare myself to others way too much. However, I don't want to feel alienated from the world. Like, what will I do without social media and who will see my pictures? Pretty weird to think about that even 200 years ago, people didn't have pictures to look back on of their lives.
I really love the way you talk about people being mindful of each others callings. I feel like getting angry at someone for not making the world a better place in the way you specifically want them to is kinda missing the point.
I enjoyed this brain explosion. lol. I've had some thoughts on this before, and how Instagram creates mini echo chambers for you if you aren't careful. It's like the algorithm is designed to make them. I think I should look into how this algorithm works... Ahaha
This is so interesting because as an older gen z, me and my friends bring up memes and videos in conversations in person alll the time, i wonder if it’s related to how many developmental years you spent in the internet/social media. I noticed that young millennials are less likely to get the reference if I quote a meme in conversation than friends my age
Especially after the pandemic, 99% of all my social interactions come from some kind of social media. No I’m not proud of that fact, it’s actually petty depressing.
Your retelling of Baudrillard took me right back to my immense confusion trying to unpack a lot of those writings in my rhetoric undergrad. They were exciting! But DENSE
You put so much of what Ive thought about, but didnt know how to articulate, into words! You have big lumpy brain energy. Your channel is going to blow tf up
This was a really well done video! I fully agree that social media is a simulacra; I wonder if a simulacra is only considered a simulacra if enough people are fooled? But regardless, thank you for introducing this topic to us in a digestible, lighthearted manner :)
I think a very important point is thatJean believed there are blurred lines between what is “real” and what is simulated . To him there is no distinction in between those two concepts and questions the idea of what is “real”. His critique of the matrix- entirely inspired by simulacra and simulation- is that it had a distinction between the real world and the simulated world which is represented in the pills and the back and fourth. To him there is no “real”, it died out and in to the effect of this states that no one would want the real.
how tf are memes not exactly what he described?? so happy i found this video, my masters thesis are memes as art of our generation + how it shaped internet communication vs real life communication
I downloaded twitch some time ago to watch the (german) streams of a close friend of mine. Sociolectically speaking, I felt pretty left out sometimes and like I lived on the moon or something. Although I am German, I spend a lot of time in the English sphere of youtube, and pretty much don't use social media apart from that, so being rained on in "Twitch slang" as well as the German variety of internet slang that I'm totally not accustomed to... whoof I'm still learning stuff everyday, it feels. They treat me like an old person sometimes lol
As someone who plays alot of metaverse like games like Second Life(For 15 years) I get exactly what you're talking about. The types of subcultures and memes created throughout the years are almost impossible to explain irl without them being there. However I think that even before social media there were different memes that groups of people, subcultures, or even prime cultures that would do similar things and if you weren't around in that time or place you wouldn't get. I think its just more centralized on social media so it feels suffocating.
Great the video, I really loved the creepy intro haha you just gained another subscriber :) btw you're videos were getting recommended to me a lot past two days, that means they are probably being recommended to other people from this "side" of youtube, so prepare yourself for an influx of subscribers hopefully 💪🏻good luck
Social media makes me hyper-fixate on how I am being perceived. When I post I am constantly thinking about how the post makes me and my life look to other people. Will people think this post is edgy and cool or will they think it's cringey and that am I trying too hard? It has also affected the way I talk. The speaking in code part is so true. Instead of communicating my thoughts and feelings with clear, well thought of, and grammatically correct words and sentences, I'm using random/weird phrases from memes and aave.
Your comment literally speaks the truth... I recently started to be more active on IG... When I post my stories I have the same thoughts you said... *do I have a good impression on people...do I look I'm doing too much * In fact I noticed that a picture can have different interpretation. So, what we assume about it can be the total opposite. Therefore I'm trying to quite social frf. It's depressing and toxic ( ticktock and instagram). I also noticed that social media world keeps us from having our own opinions. Being against popular or trending beliefs or ideas would end people being canceled... Therefore There is no individuality since our generation fall for the same trends ( music, fashion ...)
This video is so fascinating. I always talk about how culture is incredibly splintered because the average person creates their own day to day reality. Monoculture doesn’t really exist anymore, even for things that are huge like Euphoria or K-Pop. Like I sometimes watch sports with my boyfriend (I’m not a sport person at all) and even the insurance and car commercials on live tv are geared towards sports. I would never see these commercials otherwise. This is just so interesting.
im 13. some days i let it pass by me just how much social media has shaped our lives, even my own. but, others, i actually space out and listen to my classmates or even my own friends speaking and it's like... what? sometimes i remember how negatively people reacted to me saying that no, i didn't have tiktok. no, i didn't have insta, etc. (this was a couple years back) like as if missing out automatically deems you as weird or odd. there is so much stuff that has been normalized but to me they just seem so bizarre sometimes. i genuinely have no idea what's going on around me sometimes. all this has definitely impacted me negatively because i realize just how much has been popularized when really- it shouldn't even be a thing at all. i feel like it's really hard to find anybody that's fully genuine and understanding nowadays when it comes to my age group... nobody truly feels connected to one another. there's always something that feels so off about it all like we're all completely different people online!!
crazy world we live in 🥲 i remember 13 and having similar insecurities but with just the beginning of social media making an impact. just seeing the differences between one generation is amazing (and sad)!
An important thing to note, here, is that this is how human memory functions. You don't remember an event, you remember the last time you remembered it. Which is why, over time, you might forget which friend or sibling was present during an event, and might replace them with another person. You're usually not aware of this, unless you have another person around to set you straight. All of this to say, there is no objective truth, because there is not objective memory.
im a male, and it's funny to see the stark difference between men and women's experiences and use for social media, my feed on instagram looks nothing like what you showed haha and i never struggle with seeing other people live better lives or look happier than they might really be
As a woman, I always get bombarded with advertisements for stupid superficial bullshit like makeup and botox. It's so annoying. Women are constantly implicitly told via social media that the only thing that matters is looking good. And god forbid our room/houses look less than photo-worthy. Girls on social media and in porn all look like fake dolls. It's all depressing garbage.
I'm a lot on Twitch. And Twitch culture definitely affected the way I speak and make jokes. There are so many inside jokes which you can probably only keep up with if you watch the streams regularly. Plus BTTV (emotes used on Twitch) is sooooo expressive, I started using it in my texts.
It's kind of like how certain people buy very high end handbags and I'll be at an event with them and have no idea they are carrying a "status symbol." The only people who know that they have this expensive bag are others who have it or want it. It's not like a car, where everyone knows what a fancy car is....so basically they're just impressing other people who are into it but in their head, everyone knows their bag is important lol.
I love how every comment in this video seems to be thoughtful. They all are at least 3 lines long. I'd like to add something: a person can use different social medias for different types of content. Same principle with profiles, although this would make it more rational.
That goes hand by hand with the "if you don't post it, then doesn't exist" philosophy. Some people is surprised when they know me IRL and they see I'm a person who loves parties and travels, just because I don't post it on social media. Do you really think you know a stranger just by looking at their virtual profile? 😶 Sometimes I've heard things like: "If you don't post it, then why do you do it?" Poor souls...
THIS!!! as a high school junior girl, I just feel so pressured to have to post all the time when i really don’t care about social media... when I took a picture of myself in front of one of my “friends”, she got so surprised and said “You take pictures?” And ig she was surprised because I literally don’t post anything on Instagram because i just don’t feel like it.
@@lnnttr Same happened with me,just because we don't post on Instagram, doesn't mean we can't take a pic
The need to post anything and everything is what mainly drove me off from social media, in 2022 I deleted all my accounts expect for my instagram where I only post artworks. I hate that whenever I go out with someone it has to be this trendy new place so they can post pics about it, it's like people don't go out to have fun anymore they just want to make a reel highlights of them going out.
Right, I've been weightlifting for a while and my arms and abs are quite muscular now but I never showed it to anyone, when one of my friends saw me in a tank top she told me it's a waste of effort if I never show it off. Maybe I'm doing it for myself and not for earning social points?
My husband and I deleted our Facebook more than a year ago. Recently I had a friend reach out through text asking how we’re doing. I made sure and sent her pictures as confirmation that all is well 🤣
She let me know about a mutual friend that was asking how I was doing. Literally the next day I happened to run into the mutual friend. I was with my family she looked at me as if she seen a ghost 🤣🤣🤣 I made sure and let her know that everything is fine and she was able to see with her own eyes that we’re all doing well.
Social media has caused some division
I've always thought of the internet as its own culture,with its own set of celebrities,values,and in-jokes, as well as sub-sections of the internet/bubbles (eg:clothing,tv shows groups on the internet vs car groups/soccer people in real life); its why a lot of in-jokes don't work irl, the same way slang/memes from the UK about UK won't work in the USA, And certain things get spread around to broader parts of the internet while some stay in a smaller niche (eg:certain meme formats), kind of like how things irl can spread globablly or just a state
yep! everything im realizing the more i get sucked into this reality 🙃
Why would you want It to work irl anyways
@@sarafernandez4920 i never said i did lul; its also why different cultures' jokes don't work in other cultures
usually when it does work is when said media becomes viral/everyone uses it/knows about it
I also think this. I always consider internet “culture” as an integral part of my own culture, since I was online from an incredibly young age (around 7-8).
Absolutely. Moved from 3d to 4d. The internet is their own reality for sure
This reminds me of when the humour in my friend group would come hugely from references to vines and memes. I never had vine and therefore would miss out on a lot of the jokes and feel a little alienated. This is interesting because it creates a disconnect even between friend groups of the same demographic. It still happens to me now occasionally but I don't let it bother me anymore
Yeah, totally! But i think it's important to see that if you're interests (here memes and vines) don't match with the interests of people around you, you are not the same demographic anymore. Kind of, not literally. Am I making sense? What I mean is that the Internet is not the cause of this issue, it's that nowadays we have more subjects to be interested in because information spreads faster and this is what causes many various micro-demographics.
Yeah, Same! Tbh It's not so fun talking to my friends anymore bc they only talk in a weird TikTok language and I don't have enough space to install it.
@@the-doubting-thomas62 that's a great way to put it. "No space to install it," i love it
@@nathy0308 Don't they use the term "storage space"in English too? I need to stop translating terms from my mother tongue lol ☠️
It's funny when I'd see my younger siblings quotes vine memes randomly with no context and imagining how confused my parents would be and how they're probably thinking, "I don't get it. How is 'Can I get a waffle? Can I please get a waffle?' funny? These kids...".
Even before social media, we spoke in SpongeBob and bad girls club etc. Even in highschool everyone spoke in meme and vines. I’m pretty sure in 1800s there was that elitism / divide with literary texts and fans of different writers like shakespeare or bronte having their own inside understanding. It’s popular culture and bonding over interests. I think with social media it almost does the opposite though, like there aren’t that many defined niches that people are happy to thrive in and enjoy. The priority is popularity. That’s why everyone has the same way of presenting themselves because they assume it to be formulaic.
Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616...
@@meimeilei (there was a revival of Bronte and others but that's besides the point) their point is still valid. Language can go through trends and change then come back again. Thank god I only need to read old English for my job, but there are hints of it in trends today that get brought back up and used regularly. But their point is that social media is just the place where we see it documented. SM is not "making us speak in code," it is just the place where coded language is expressed. like finna. it is Southern US and inherently Black. it was picked up by southerners and other whites from seeing it on the internet
@@meimeilei a subculture of people still enjoyed Shakespeare literature at that time. Usually educated and upperclass. They spoke in reference to it, possibly referring to people in their daily lives as some of the characters in his plays. Shakespeare gained even more popularity after his death my point still stands. Though I know some Shakespeare, put me in a room with Shakespeare fanatics it’s like they’re speaking a different language.
I think you’re undermining the difference between generations. There wasn’t nearly as much content as there is now, so everyone mostly saw and spoke about the same things. Pre-internet, we used to have celebrities, tv shows, and songs that we ALL knew. Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Madonna, the Beatles, Whitney Houston. Now everyone is sort of diverging into their own little corners of the internet. It’s not a stretch to think that language would evolve because of that.
@@fluidsings7870 that's such a lie and honestly simplification of the past. there were ALWAYS niches and weird subcultures that existed with their own 'language' in society. and there's celebrities and media now that is inescapable if you don't live under a rock; I'm sure everyone has heard of justin bieber, jk rowling, elon musk, ariana grande, one direction ? if you've ever watched a mafia movie you'll notice the people usually use a similar 'code' of language with each other, so it's not hard to imagine subcultures have always existed who did not care for the mainstream culture. even bird watchers have their own slang.
I remember when my friend was annoyed with me because she kept showing me “the funniest” TikToks but I didn’t understand them. She kept asking me, “What do you mean you don’t understand?” The humor in them seemed to be from a certain niche of comedy only found on tiktok. They probably were really funny, but because I don’t use the app, they just made no sense to me. So your first point is spot on, unless you use the app or have friends to tell you about it, you likely won’t even grasp the concepts of it.
I remember feeling this way when I was 19 and my then crush started sharing memes with me that also seemed very niche (I think they were 4chan memes). I was like, "Uh...cool."
As someone who joined tiktok about a year ago it's kinda hard to get to know their humor, their clothing style etc it's so weird when so many influencers get millions of likes on their "alt" clothing style while I barely see anyone irl wear them.
Also don't download tiktok they're very mean
@@Myspace.com6 right, iwish trump deleted the app in 2020
This is me with my husband and kids. They show me stuff and im just…lost 🤣
@@Myspace.com6 I used tt for 2 years, used it as a platform to post my cosplay content. I got some followers but honestly I did not like how it reduced my attention span so I uninstalled it...
I feel like this also applies to idols (like kpop) in which their lives and personalities almost feel like a simulation or hyperrealism. In a way every picture of them, every interview, every live even is manufactured to portray a persona that is too perfect. They look very attractive almost perfect and seem to always be in the best mood and ready to keep working. It is an illusion that can capture you so easily and completely absorb your time. And when they break out of that illusion or simluation people attack them viciously, like if they prefer the illusion to the real human. It´s bizarre but so interesting.
I hope foreigners realize that most Koreans (excludes netizens) do not take kpop idols or any celebrity seriously. It’s a widespread fact that 99% celebrities put on a persona when cameras are rolling. They are literally manufactured personas/looks and strive for the industry’s version of “perfection”. This also applies to non-Korean celebrities and people need to take famous figures less seriously. It is called the entertainment industry for a reason.
I went to a kpop concert, I didn’t know what that was at the time, but when I saw the band, they were really cool looking so I googled them later on. I was shocked by how picture perfect and glamorized their management made them look. That industry was really nuts to me, they looked almost fake. So you’re exactly right, they looked like a simulation when I looked at their pictures and music videos.
@@Introvertedpoet I agree with you. But we should realize that all celebrities, not just Korean, go through the intense "comeback." There is a cultural difference between east-asian and western cultures to talk about one's diet. Although western celebrities are also dieting and heavily training/practicing before new releases, they simply don’t talk about it and focus on promoting the result. Whereas in kpop, the making and process behind the “comeback” are also part of the idol product. The kpop industry incorporated the behind-the-scenes of a product into the final product itself. I am not saying this is ok, since this strategy breaches the privacy of idols. The higher-ups in the industry treat idols like dolls/products, and the idol-industry is regarded as disturbing and dark by most Koreans, just as us Americans agree that Hollywood is deeply flawed and dark. This is why many parents are against their children becoming idols, because we all know there is darkness behind the shine. It's great that you stopped stanning and still support your favorite groups. I'm also the same :)
While I was listening to this, I subconsciously immediately thought of kpop idols
So beautifully said
I feel like these concepts could also be applied to the type of content people post on instagram. There was a tiktok that explained it better than I did but basically, the popularity of posting photo dumps and ‘casual’ photos on Instagram as a response to the amount of overly edited or staged photos. Basically trying to simulate reality rather than coming off as arranged and superficial. But it could be argued that more effort goes into creating these ‘casual’ photos, making it seem genuine or coming off as authentic (but still flattering or appealing enough to share) that it shifts into sort of a hyperreal thing. (also the very nature of Instagram involves curating certain photos, so it can be argued that it’ll never be a representation of reality)..
People also talk about how casual photo dumps remind them of the original days on instagram when everything wasn’t so manicured.. this could be tied into the first 3 stages (at least I think, I’ve only read the wikipedia article lmaooo)
great video tho it’s a very interesting topic! x
think you're talking about this:
"god i hate how aesthetic-obsessed we have become. i'm not talking about cottagecore or dark academia or any of the other -cores, i'm talking about everything being so glossy and pretty and perfect and smooth and one-liner hot takes and feel-good own-the-conservatives progressivism and Top 10 Company Tweets We Laughed At and ring lights and young vloggers with pastel-perfect colour-corrected lives and carefully curated messy title cards and perfect montages being called "photo dumps" and bookstagrams or booktoks or bookblrs who buy every book they read, not a library edition in sight and "that girl" and this is how you age when you're unproblematic and glow ups and "clean" "inclusive" beauty and earth tones and minimalism and filming random people without their consent and definition of the self through consumption of goods and ggrgehwrgehrgehrgehrgehrrerg"
@@helenvane too accurate
I've noticed this in the porn industry as well. As a sex worker, I think OF has completely changed the industry. The standard used to be high production, perfect looking fake girls. Men now want porn of "real girls". But they don't really want "real girls". They want girls who simulate being real. Like pics need to be edited, but they can't look edited. Girls need to look good with "no makeup" but it's light makeup. I think it's interesting cuz I'm seeing this trend on every platform really
This. I've seen tiktoks on how to create a casual feed, how to make perfectly photos "blurry," how to mimic other people's poses...these frustrated me so much I had to block them.
I have seen an scenario of this portrayed twice, but only now I am really thinking of it and the parallel it portrays. The first time, it was in the Netflix show The Politician, where one of the characters (an stereotypical rich high school girl) takes an staged selfie in her bed after much decoration and perfecting, pretending she just woke up. The second, on Bo Burnham's Eight Grade, where an average middle class eight grader girl takes the same kind of picture with the caption "Woke up like this" and in reality being shown to have put much effort into her makeup and accessories. It shows a frightening parallel of the surreality of social media, where the perfection of one's image surpasses class and age. Furthermore, it raises the expectations for everybody to act this way, in a disingenuous act of self-flattering. If this is the case, then, social media will only ever serve as a gallery of an non-existent reality of overly perfected pictures and people, and the only question left to be asked is: Who benefits from it?
Algorithms make us too pampered, impatient and ignorant. We get used to the idea that everything our eyes see is something we're already familiar with, it meets our expectations and is thus easy to digest. We're not encouraged to learn about anything new - let alone anything that makes us even slightly uncomfortable - which i see as a real threat to our modern global society. Because, many of the things in the world that are both hard to understand and/or make you feel very uncomfortable, are those people should absolutely be aware of.
This was really eye opening. Recently I fell into a TH-cam hole of watching people criticize teenagers who are allegedly faking mental illnesses on TikTok. You helped me realize that that problem literally only exists online.
While this content can definitely influence the way people look at certain disorders in real life, those are not the people I commonly associate with. Thank you for this discussion. I love your academic but also personal approach. Keep it up!
Omg I just went through that YT hole! Like real life is so different than social media😂
Girllll no you haven’t hung around the ‘right’ people irl. I experienced this irl with people I went to school with😂😂
Nah I’ve seen them irl. Maybe it’s not a problem where you live but those people really present that way IRL. It’s just like emos.
Faking mental illnesses has definitely spread into 'real life' as well. High school students are now all "anxious and depressed" even though they clearly are not. It's a way to get attention and in that age teenagers are dependent on it.
“Allegedly” faking?
i think the main problem lies in the fact that, with this growing divide between communities of interests, not only are we not able to get to know other people's views, but we are convinced, mostly in a passive way, that what we think is real and everyone else's ideology is similar to our own and everyone else's morality is like that of our own. this breeds ignorance and division and is based on the enrichment of corporations. therefore it is dangerous in many ways: it makes it harder for people to understand each other's point of view, it creates entitlement because everyone else on your sphere of interest is going to agree with you, so you are brought to believe your own as the objective truth even if its uninformed, and lastly it keeps people sedated in regards to the issues of the real world, because this feeling of immediate satisfaction you get from virtual interaction is going to make you less interested in changing the status of things as they are if you feel like they don't immediately affect your wellbeing making you more likely to accept your own condition while keeping money in the pocket of those who govern the status quo and making them stronger.
Yes! I was going to post a comment similar to this, I fear for especially younger tiktok users that they won't differentiate the issues discussed on tiktok and basically the whole world portrayed on tik tok as different from real life because tik tok makes this very 'black and white' version of reality where only some opinions and ideologies are good and you cant get along or accept some one with different opinions. Someone can post a 15 second shot of something and people will shun them without any context to the video whatsoever. Plus different types of people are stereotyped and everyone has to fit in one aesthetic or another.
This could explain why every Trump supporter I know can't fathom the idea that there were actual people who voted for Biden, because they truly think that most people in the US love Trump just like them, because that's what it seems like in their own bubble, hence why they believed Trump when he said that the election was rigged. You could even say the same for Hillary's supporters in 2016 when Hillary lost that time as well (though I'll be fair, even for them, they didn't go as far as the Trump supporters did in 2021). It's so dangerous, especially when politics come into play, regardless of the group's views.
@@mynameisreallycool1 wow, definitely. eye opening point!
@@mynameisreallycool1 Absolutely, that happens to all political ideologies. I think that's why it's so important to talk with people different to us, in all aspects. We all have biases, so the only way to be next to objective reality is complementing my biases with your information, and vice-versa.
@@PuripuriDrawings I agree. I admit that it's more comfortable to be around people who agree with you, but it is necessary to go outside your comfort zone and hear other people out to understand what everyone wants. Division has always been an issue, but in the real world, it's a lot harder to avoid people with different views, so we're at least somewhat forced to hear what other people have to say. With the internet, people are so used to staying in their own bubbles that they were put in because of the algorithm, that they aren't nearly as used to hearing other people disagree with them.
It's gotten so bad that whenever people get recommended a video that doesn't align with their own views, they accuse TH-cam or whatever social media company of "promoting a left/right wing agenda" and act like companies are conspiring against them specifically (even if they can't think of a reason how or why it would benefit them in any way). Because God forbid the algorithm accidentally allows TH-cam to recommend something that challenges your beliefs and disrupts your echo chamber! That's so wrong!
As an indipendent artist I've been struggling with the use of social media, and now that I'm outside of that bubble I feel stranger to a world I don't know anymore. I feel like I don't even exist only because I don't use instagram or tiktok.. Now that I keep my head up it's so weird to me watching the others costantly watching their phones, even when they walk by the street. I'm not judging, I was like this too. I'm happy that people are realizing the danger of this poison. (btw loved this video
oh sht. so maybe the algorithms are making our worlds so personalized to us that it makes us even more isolated from each other. i keep thinking about how you can tell a lot from a person' if you know their youtube watch history and a "agree/disagree/indifferent towards video" data input from them, and i was thinking how i'd love to meet someone who had the exact recommended feed as me :(
“maybe the algorithms are making our worlds so personalised to us that it makes us even more isolated from each other” that’s a line i never want to forget
wow i never thought about it like this but i think you have a solid point
That's obvious. I guess you guys are very young, but yes, algorithms makes that: they show you content similar to you, creating a echo chamber. That's why real world interactions are so important: you will no find real disagreement online, the algorithm want you happy and confortable, and in case something scapes to him, you can block that content. But we can't block frustration or pain IRL, and if you're been permanently comfy the last 15-20 years, first punch of reality (even being the slightest thing) will be really hard for you.
I can agree. Recently when I login to Instagram, it’ll feel empty like no one’s texting no one’s reacting to anything it’s all just liking pictures and pretending you’re too popular. It’ll feel like I’m the only one on the app and if I’m not mistaken I think that the way they want it for everybody else. It’s gotten to the point where everybody’s anti-social ON social media.
yeah wow that first line
It's true that a lot of people live in a sort of fake reality online where, because of their lack of real experiences in certain parts of the real world, they think that whoever they see or listen to online are just like the people in the real world, especially now that many people are still staying at home during the pandemic.
I hear so many people my age who think that preteens and teens "don't look like actual middle/high schoolers anymore" and think they all look stylish and perfect compared to how they themselves look at their age, when in reality, they're only looking at the few kids who they hear about or see online on TikTok or TH-cam. They don't see the kids who still look just as awkward and average as we did when we were kids. They look at the kids with filters and trendy outfits on social media, but not these kids in person or even just normal kids with less popular social media accounts where they still post the same childish stuff we did in the 2000s and 2010s. So naturally they think that the kids from those popular TikTok accounts are a perfect and accurate representation of what all regular kids look like today.
We do the same with people our own age as well (young adults I mean) where we look at our friends who post the best versions of themselves or the highlights of their lives, thinking at all of our friends are prettier, more hardworking, smarter, or more well accomplished than we are. Though in reality, we all feel that way about each other one way or another.
I live right next to a high school, and I can tell you the kids don't look as average or awkward as we did (especially not girls).
@@Marina-fg5ei I guess maybe if you live in a more affluent area where kids have more access to better clothes, hair supplies, and makeup, or they have more time to do their hair or makeup (I find that in the school district in my area, the nicer schools tend to have students who have better clothes and hair). I live with three siblings who are in 6th, 8th, and 11th grade, and I sometimes see other teenagers whenever I go out, and they still just look like regular kids with the crappy makeup, basketball shorts, hoodies, cringy looking clothes, etc, at least from what I've seen. Literally how me and my peers used to dress in middle school, just with slightly different styles because of the time period (though it's only like a 10 year difference).
When I was little, I never really care about social media standards at all cause I was too busy crushing on my childhood cartoon shows. Even anime. But speaking about how the kids act now, it makes no sense just to look like "adults" and "matured" even though your body still needs to grow. I was forced to be an adult, with emotions and feelings like them
(I was born in a dysfunctional family, I remember that being annoying and talkative is non-existent in my environment household)
Yeah. Looking at the kids and children acting like them, I feel disgusted and creeped out. I am forced to be one, I never feel happy and I was getting humiliated for beauty standards since I'm obese. I know obesity is bad, but the environment I'm living in is stressing me out and going insane.
Smh those people (not only kids and children) are letting social media rule their lives without realizing it (I don't specifically go to Tumblr all the time, I only post my anime stuff or interesting pictures that I have in my album)
we make these problems bigger than they need to be because we believe the simulated online problems are the real.
It’s beyond the memes and jokes. It’s the facade everyone puts up.
you know how we have symbols on our phones/in the apps we use that are supposed to emulate the real world? like the contact book app icon, or the green button with a phone shape on it? i, being gen-z, have never used a physical contact book in my life! suddenly, the second definition of “contacts” is the only definition, whereas the first one has become obsolete. i had this thought earlier, but your video has taught me that this is in fact a similacra!
i never thought of that! i guess i did live in that mid gen-z/millennial cusp enough to take those for granted 😅
Loved the “creepy” into 😂
HAHA thanks 😂
omg hi, I'm currently in grad school studying digital sociology and first of all I just want to say thank you for making this video because I think it could be really eye opening for people!! I quit social media over a year ago basically *because* of a lot of things in this video. There's this quote I love from Dave Malloy (who wrote this musical called Octet about an internet addiction support group, highly highly recommend) that's "when they say 'in real life' this is a lie to protect us. it is all real. it is all real life" and I feel like that is definitely true in one sense, but it's also definitely true that the internet has turned into its own separate world. Like, yes, everything that happens on the internet has become very much "real" or even "real life" for people, but it's still this entirely separate sphere. We all have an online life and an offline life now, an online persona and offline persona, and it's really odd
I’ve been thinking of quitting social media for the same reasons.
Could you imagine what would happen if a sizably large mass plasma ejection from the Sun wiped out 80-90% of our satellite coverage & telecommunications? Scientists are often worried about it at times, but hypothetically here...
How would an entire generation or two of children, now adults, who grew up with all eyes and ears on them via social media, behave if they all suddenly lost their "world" they'd always grown up with. Suddenly, its just silence and static. All servers off and no way to have millions of clicks & shares to remind you that you're loved or that you exist. It's this kind of nearly inseperable fixation on tech (and the way it enables us to constantly have instant "rewards" and gradifications) that makes me wonder if a large portion of people would even be able to cope without people constantly rating and validating what they say, especially for have the majority of their lives play out online like social influencers do.
Crazy thing to think about.
I love musicals, have never heard of that one, and am an internet addict. Totally need to check it out.
Omfg digital sociology sounds like my dream masters, what are you learning??? I'm doing an undergrad in sociology and communications right now. Plz tell me more haha!!!
This was a really interesting video on a complicated subject! I'm on the very end of the millennial generation and have a lot of criticism of social media and have stayed away from most of it for a lot of my life. It's hard because I feel like I'm in a bubble that is the "real" world trying to connect with people that are in a completely separate bubble through social media and it seems almost impossible to bridge the gap.
I had an Instagram for a little while at the end of college and it was so much easier to feel connected to people and make friends when I was participating in the same reality that they were, but when i deleted my account because it felt like a toxic environment, I tried to maintain some of those friendships but I pretty much failed and haven't heard from anyone since. It's confusing because when you're inside and participating in social media world, there a lot of things that can cause you to be unhappy, like seeing other people's "perfect" lives, bodies, etc. and being exposed to a lot of content you don't want to see. But then when you leave it behind, there are a whole different set of issues you deal with, like losing a lot of your social connections and feeling isolated, not being able to relate to people (like you said, it's almost like each group has its own language. I've noticed more and more conversations in like face to face settings about things that exist on social media that I can't really participate in because i have no clue what anyone's talking about lol), and feeling like you don't exist because if people are spending a majority of their free time on social media, and you're not there, you really don't exist in a sense because you aren't present in that reality.
Really long comment, but this subject has so much content you can get into, it's just really interesting to think about how something that may be a simulation in a sense is the reality most people are participating in, which makes the world outside seem like it doesn't exist. This was my first time hearing about baudrillard, you did a good job explaining!!
Wow, thanks for sharing these thoughts! I’m just grateful someone appreciates this much digging into what probably feels like a super meta concept 😅 I’m at that age too (between millenial/gen z) so I wrestle w that as well, but im learning slowly to form those friendships outside of social media, too. Finding different ppl who don’t spend as much time on it has helped a lot!
Wow, you truly put into words what i've been feeling for the past 3 years. Its like a shock
This was written so well. I’m also millennial/gen z and had to delete Facebook for toxic reasons but I had so much internal conflict when I actually did it. I was literally shaky (kinda sad I know) but I felt like I was going to lose a bunch of ‘important’ things cause I had a profile for about 2-3 years. I lost nearly all my friends but not in a negative way. Only 2 reached out to me and complained they couldn’t tag me in things haha. That’s when I realised ‘oh so those are my real friends’ But I’ve gained more friends over the years and I didn’t gain them through any social media. I got Facebook back but only accept people who I actually interact with in real
life so I won’t even accept acquaintances. And 2 of my friends aren’t connected with me on social media simply because I see them every week in person.
I'm so glad you chose to cover this topic! As a writer who is really into romanticism I've found myself drawing a blank when thinking of how to portray social media in a way that doesn't seem eerie or suffocating. I also find it interesting how a lot of films nowadays depict movements that occur on social media as actual physical assemblies in tangible spaces. It seems like we collectively don't know how to address social media in a way that keeps its phenomena virtual.
I understand the awkward thing with trying to explain memes. There are some times when we say something and a friend will say "oh that reminds me of a meme I saw where this this happens" And then we all do a little laugh of "oh yeah I know that" or "oh I don't know that meme" so they proceed to show us said meme. But the joke is pretty dead by then because it had to be explained. It's weird 😅
I do want to say that it's very refreshing to see someone with their eyes open to what's going on. The youth is one big social experiment to tech companies and government.
As a person who doesn't have almost any social network i more often realize that younger people seems to be struggling to bring good sense of humor or basic social skills to real life. And that's depressing them a lot, and i just want to say: you're a human, don't purposely alienate yourself to the sterile world of masks of social networks
Your videos are really well made, I’m surprised you haven’t blown up yet. Just a matter of time imo
Ahh thank you 🥰❤️
Agree!
sis has 6k subs
for real though
this video is so good, right up my alley, I love focusing on linguists of the internet and you aren't alone in not being able to verbalize memes and trends.
this video just made my brain implode. I’ve been mentally exploring the idea of social media hyper reality for these past two weeks and now watching how you explained it even more in depth is getting too much for my brain to handle ngl. quietly sitting on my couch dissociating rn 😁
this is an incredible & accessible explanation of simulacra in modern society. love it!
OMGG PIERRE I LOVE UR CONTENT!
I keep telling people I live on the internet. Especially with the pandemic, the internet has become even more of the main space of my life's events. It's total immersion. And there's so many different uses for it. No matter if you want to have a laugh or learn something.
And it can easily get so problematic.
For example I find it fascinating and dangerous for people to match their looks surgically and re: fillers, with what they want to look like online at priority. It's less important if it looks messed up irl. As long as our pictures look like our idols' pictures.
I'm not against beauty surgery etc in general. But I feel like it's wrong to rely on an online image
TH-cam has been pushing these weird videos where you have to watch it like 10 times so you’d get bigger eyes, smaller nose, clear skin etc. I watch commentary videos and cartoons I’ve never watched “beauty” content yet it always shows up on my recommendations. No matter how many times I tell TH-cam I’m not interested it still sends me these videos.
Also I have a lot of friends that are addicted to SM and they all have the same style, sense of humor etc. you can literally just steal a joke from the internet and tell them and you’re the funniest person in their eyes.
It’s almost like they live in another planet, it’s very weird how SM changes people.
Oh how I can relate to the latter half of your comment!
I've noticed this in some of my friends too. It's so strange. The humour, the fashion, the phrases they use. I've never been one to cry about the "loss of originality and personality, blah blah" but it's seriously concerning how much people are influenced by SM.
@@koi66m i think they mean social media! that’s just my guess though
Are you talking about subliminal audios? like the vids I post on my channel?
@@koi66m social media
@@BVLV yeah
oh my god this was so good!! i've really been trying a better way to describe the feeling of "fomo" while i try to healthily distance myself from the internet when its so difficult as all my friends/generation are in on a new joke every week that i will completely miss, and u did it so well! like it makes so much sense bcuz rather than calling it a new joke every week, thats just a constant different reality, thanks so much!
i saw a tiktok that said some thing along the lines of “when i’m dying and my life flashes before my eyes it won’t be memories it’ll be memes”
To a large extent, the replacement of "reality" by "simulacra" and "hyperreality" is caused by cultural and economic factors, and mediated by accompanying cultural changes. The commodification of everything that used to have intrinsic worth in human social life could be driven by the same consumerist and neoliberal policies that are responsible for growing wealth inequalities. Since social media are both a reflection of society, and also constitute a profitable marketplace of ideas, they are rife with commodified memes - mere simulacra of real life issues and concerns.
Matt McManus has discussed this in a piece that he wrote for Quillette (that later grew into a book) titled: The Emergence and Rise of Postmodern Conservatism. In this short essay, he points out that both left-wing postmordern thinkers (who may better viewed - as is the case for Baudrillard - as critics of the "postmodern condition") and their conservative critics lament the dissolution of the values and practices that used to give real meaning to the lives of individuals within traditional communities. The main difference between the left-wing and the conservative critics of the postmodern condition is that the former are more concerned with the fate of the oppressed minorities while the latter deplore the destitution of the previously dominant groups as well as the erosion of their values.
George Packer wrote an essay in The Atlantic titled "How America Fractured into Four Parts". Packer's essay provides further insight into the social forces that are driving the current culture war between the so-called "wokes" and the "anti-wokes". In the currently highly polarized American political landscape, Packer identifies four main ideological camps which he labels "Smart America" (academic elites, high-tech gurus, scientists, etc.), "Just America" (SJW, BLM, feminists, LGBTQ+ activists, etc.), "Free America" (Libertarian politicians, Tea-party activists, corporate lobbyists, etc.), and "Real America" (Trump supporters, Christian evangelicals, rural communities, etc.). The former two groups are mostly composed of Democrats and the latter two are mostly composed of Republicans.
Although they belong to opposite political parties, the members of Smart America and of Free America are mostly at peace with each other. They live in the same gated communities and they send their children to the same colleges. They only wage war covertly, and by proxy, by pitting their respective subordinated classes - the members of Just America and of Real America - against each other. This enables them to reap the fruits of an economy that favors people at the top, and to maintain their privileges and powerful positions, by deflecting any blame coming from their low-wage employees or constituents. Hence, the ideologues for Smart America (and their establishment Democrat allies) say to the social justice warriors (and other "wokes") that they must blame the Real Americans (and other Trump supporters) for their woes and oppression while the ideologues for Free America (and their establishment Republican allies) say to their "Real American" supporters that it is the "wokes", and the immigrants, who are to blame for their economic destitution and the loss of their sense of value.
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this!
this makes a lotta sense, tysm for sharing
Real America were the ones who are actively trying to revoke gay marriage rights and suppress voters. I think they have just as much of a hand in it too
Oh and real America are the ones trying to make anti abortion laws as well. They have just as much of a hand in bringing down the quality of life for just America
Thank you so much for sharing!!!
I don't know how, but you made Baudrillard interesting rather than a snooze-fest. I've been trying to wrap my head around his work for a while and I keep falling asleep! But I think I've got a really good basis now, thank you so much!
OMG I'm so happy this video popped on on my recs because I have literally been thinking about this so much and that's the reason why I took a break from social media I'm so happy to see that are other people who feel the same way, thank you for this!!!!!
One of my favorite professors introduced me to Baudrillard’s writings and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them since! I’m also so glad someone is finally talking about his work in connection to social media and the effects it’s having on us right now. So well done!!
Super interesting concept! I actually wasn’t allowed to watch Disney films as a kid... and while I enjoyed Disneyland, I have always been mystified by my peers’ obsession with it, lol. This video essay really made me think about a lot of things!
It is so interesting this was recommended to me. I am currently writing my university thesis on Baudrillard's theories of Simulacra and Simulation as well as Edward Said's Orientalism with a focus on analyzing the novels of Don DeLillo and the role media plays in creating distorted reality and why these ideas remain vital for people to understand in the present day. And this video is exactly what I intend on discussing - it's amazing how relevant the work of Baudrillard is today.
I also noticed that social media world keeps us from having our own opinions. Being against popular or trending beliefs or ideas would end people being canceled...
Therefore There is no individuality since our generation fall for the same trends ( music, fashion ...). It's pretty depressing.
It's not just limited to social media tho, like i started playing Genshin Impact a few weeks ago and i believe the same principle applies to this and other in game worlds
books too!! harry potter and lotr are most notable
I would think that, like the video has said, the interest that people center themselves around affects their reality. Be it video games, books, comics, literally any type of art form.
I've tried to understand Baudrillard before and you did a great job making his ideas accessible.
i felt obliged from within the crevasse to leave my mark here. thank you, soeun, for the explosion.
Isn't TH-cam a social media that also creates a "fake reality" though?? I mean most youtubers post their highlights or their downfalls, edited, with colours, music etc. I don't have tik tok so I feel TH-cam is another fake reality for me sometimes
The difference between some media and others is the source of the poster’s content. For instance, one could try and argue that this video is a representation of a hyper reality since it’s based on another form of media. However, this video is trying to apply someone’s ideas which are based on real-life observations. In simulation, media is based on idealized representations of reality, or copies of copies. I guess you could say this video is based on an incomplete representation of reality as well, but perhaps not to the extent and effect of aesthetically-focused Instagram feeds. I’m not an expert on Baudrillard though, so take this comment with a grain of salt.
it depends. yes there are people who vlog and live a fake life (ahem, ACE family) but the VAST majority of content on youtube is so diverse. on tiktok, with the limited video length, they cannot explore it that well. on top of that, youtube makes you choose your next video so you shape the algorithm easily. tiktok chooses it FOR you based on your likes, so content falls into 4-5 general niches.
@@coagulatedsalts4711 I don't have tik tok so I cant talk from experience about it. But TH-cam I feel like shaped a lot of my opinions growing up and some of them were really toxic (videos that make fun of girly girls or social justice warriors etc). Or there was content I consumed in which pretty thin girls were having such a great colorful aesthetic life with their perfect boyfriend and friendgroup and I don't think thats their life all the time, but when I was in junior high school I thought my life is miserable compared to them. I still do sometimes, now that I think about it. So yeah when I say that "TH-cam is a social media, that shows the best parts of someone" this is what I mean. Instagram makes me feel this way too. But with TH-cam you don't only see a pretty person posing for a picture. You hear them talk, you see how they dress and who they hang out with. So you compare not only one image but the "whole" person with yourself and your opinions, clothes, friends, hometown, talents etc. It's not really the whole person though, is the parts of their life that they chose to film. This is how I see it of course not everyone thinks like this.
@@eugeniam.4230 I agree with you. I'm 18 so quite young, but I didn't have a phone until freshman year of high school. So it's only been 4 years but it has changed me a lot. I remember in middle school when I didn't have any access to any unmonitored social media, including TH-cam, it was a lot easier for me to dress how I wanted to and not care about others. I would wear only bell bottom jeans with sparkly back pockets, sneakers, and a random shirt. I would wear a lot of clothes from the child's sections instead of clothes from the juniors sections that my peers wore, but I had ab easier time ignoring them. I had an old foundation that my mom had passed on to me which was very low coverage. Once I got my phone I started not spending much time on social media still but I watched a lot of TH-cam and lifestyle TH-camrs, people who would do clothing hauls. While none of the people I watched were inherently trying to show very fake versions of themselves, they still made me focus more on how I looked. Now, I buy clothes I like but I definitely think a lot more about whether or not other people will like me in them. Most recently, I became a KPop fan and a lot of that content is on TH-cam, which has only heightened my focus on how I look. I want to dress as stylish as the idols, I want to have perfect hair and sparkly make-up all the time. But I have to step back and tell myself that that's not practical and that I should care less about those things. Today I took a pretty big step for myself, I went to school wearing shorts without having shaved my legs and I actually felt so liberated to wear the clothes I wanted without having to follow those guidelines shown by TH-cam and other platforms that show lifestyle content where everyone looks put together all the time.
@@crazyowlgirlcncowner I love your comment
Fantastic video lady, definitely want more metaphysical discussion on here
HAHA yesss 🙌🏻
This also goes really well with the metaverse, web 3, crypto art...It's kinda like this is going to be soon the biggest simulation of real life which is kind of sad
While watching the video I thought you were moving towards the point that Baudrillard's description of the relation disneyland has with the real world applies even more now to social media and the real world.
Disneyland is a place we can go to and feel reassured that it is not actually "real" that the buildings are just facades and the characters are just actors but it makes us realize that everywhere else in America is just like Disneyland; high property prices are driven up by speculative bubbles based on unproven technology and politicians are able to flagrantly lie to their constituents without any consequence. This is the phenomenon of hyperreality.
The advent of social media makes this phenomenon of hyperreality even more clear. We browse social media all while being aware that everything we see is trying to sell us something or manipulate our opinion by selectively presenting us with information. But looking at the "real world" outside of social media, we realize it really isn't so different. Knowing this, we then come to realize that social media is the place where our present reality and condition of existence is at its most "real".
deleting tiktok was the best decision in my life I swear
everything about this video is absolutely amazing ❤️ you verbalized everything i’ve been thinking about social media for a while now
“Is social media creating an alternative reality?” Of course, look at the Metaverse. Soon we will all be living like we’re in the movies “Ready Player One”
As an anthropology major obsessed with human behavior, your videos SPEAK TO ME! I quit social media both personally and for my business and havent felt this free since i was a child. Keep questioning and calling out the madness 🤍
wow. i came expecting the usual youtuber video essay with half baked points to listen to while i kill half an hour. instead what i got felt like a mini college course of insightful and illuminating concepts that i feel like i should have paid to hear. well done.
I'll never look at the word simulation the same way again. What a cool philosophical analysis and very relevant to today's issues. I'll definitely have to rewatch for everything I've missed.
Your content is amazing!! I definitely recommend putting in "chapters" if possible in your video for easy navigation.
yes i learned the helpfulness of chapters 😅🥲
this video is so interesting especially the first bits of analysis you give. takes a bit of thinking to conceptualize but its worthwhile food for thought!
I am trying to avoid using instagram these days as an excuse of studying but it feels so good ❤️.real fact is that Insta is colorful while life is not all colourful
I talk about funny tik toks and memes with my family and partner all the time , because we actually enjoy watching and looking at what each other has sent because we understand each other’s humor
I find this subject very interesting. I don't have any friends really, but I have my boyfriend who is not on social media at all. I have recently showed him ASMR, but if I didn't introduce that to him, he would have gone his entire life not knowing what it is. I don't have TikTok or Facebook, but I have Instagram, and I really want to get rid of it, because I compare myself to others way too much. However, I don't want to feel alienated from the world. Like, what will I do without social media and who will see my pictures? Pretty weird to think about that even 200 years ago, people didn't have pictures to look back on of their lives.
I really love the way you talk about people being mindful of each others callings. I feel like getting angry at someone for not making the world a better place in the way you specifically want them to is kinda missing the point.
This will be the first video in months that’s grabbed my full attention , Thankyou. I’m gonna take that step back from the bubble
Yay!!
Omgggg I love itttt! Structuralism and Pos modenism is beeing more talked about and popularized !!!
I enjoyed this brain explosion. lol. I've had some thoughts on this before, and how Instagram creates mini echo chambers for you if you aren't careful. It's like the algorithm is designed to make them. I think I should look into how this algorithm works... Ahaha
i still know nothing about it 😂
@@soeuninseoul 🤣
This is so interesting because as an older gen z, me and my friends bring up memes and videos in conversations in person alll the time, i wonder if it’s related to how many developmental years you spent in the internet/social media. I noticed that young millennials are less likely to get the reference if I quote a meme in conversation than friends my age
I love all of this. People please watch til the end because everything she says makes sense. Especially at the end 💖
11:15 you put it so perfectly this can be applied to so many situations!
Love these kinds of videos bc I think about this often
The commentary channels are giving us so much lately 💗💗💗 go sis
I in no way mean to diminish the eloquence and intellect that you exhibited in this video, but I have to say: Girl, I am OBSESSED with your top!! 😍
HAHA thank you 😂❤️ always appreciate when ppl notice the fashion
I am so glad the algorithm brought your channel to me! And grateful for your content. Thank you :)
Especially after the pandemic, 99% of all my social interactions come from some kind of social media. No I’m not proud of that fact, it’s actually petty depressing.
loving the jackie kennedy look, also good vid esp as a gen z who doesnt go on social media, its alienating
HAHA ty! and i respect the choice 👏🏻 i hope you’re able to find community outside of it!
Your retelling of Baudrillard took me right back to my immense confusion trying to unpack a lot of those writings in my rhetoric undergrad. They were exciting! But DENSE
unpacking is the best 🙌🏻 i miss it a lot
Man this is by far one of BEST TH-cam channels ever
I love how you explain things and break them down it honestly helped me so much
ahh thank you! i’m so glad it was helpful 😊
this is a really well-made video, it described everything i ever felt about social media and everything else surrounding it and its culture ~
You put so much of what Ive thought about, but didnt know how to articulate, into words! You have big lumpy brain energy. Your channel is going to blow tf up
This was a really well done video! I fully agree that social media is a simulacra; I wonder if a simulacra is only considered a simulacra if enough people are fooled? But regardless, thank you for introducing this topic to us in a digestible, lighthearted manner :)
I think a very important point is thatJean believed there are blurred lines between what is “real” and what is simulated . To him there is no distinction in between those two concepts and questions the idea of what is “real”. His critique of the matrix- entirely inspired by simulacra and simulation- is that it had a distinction between the real world and the simulated world which is represented in the pills and the back and fourth. To him there is no “real”, it died out and in to the effect of this states that no one would want the real.
how tf are memes not exactly what he described?? so happy i found this video, my masters thesis are memes as art of our generation + how it shaped internet communication vs real life communication
I downloaded twitch some time ago to watch the (german) streams of a close friend of mine.
Sociolectically speaking, I felt pretty left out sometimes and like I lived on the moon or something. Although I am German, I spend a lot of time in the English sphere of youtube, and pretty much don't use social media apart from that, so being rained on in "Twitch slang" as well as the German variety of internet slang that I'm totally not accustomed to... whoof I'm still learning stuff everyday, it feels. They treat me like an old person sometimes lol
As someone who plays alot of metaverse like games like Second Life(For 15 years) I get exactly what you're talking about. The types of subcultures and memes created throughout the years are almost impossible to explain irl without them being there. However I think that even before social media there were different memes that groups of people, subcultures, or even prime cultures that would do similar things and if you weren't around in that time or place you wouldn't get. I think its just more centralized on social media so it feels suffocating.
Great the video, I really loved the creepy intro haha you just gained another subscriber :) btw you're videos were getting recommended to me a lot past two days, that means they are probably being recommended to other people from this "side" of youtube, so prepare yourself for an influx of subscribers hopefully 💪🏻good luck
Social media makes me hyper-fixate on how I am being perceived. When I post I am constantly thinking about how the post makes me and my life look to other people. Will people think this post is edgy and cool or will they think it's cringey and that am I trying too hard? It has also affected the way I talk. The speaking in code part is so true. Instead of communicating my thoughts and feelings with clear, well thought of, and grammatically correct words and sentences, I'm using random/weird phrases from memes and aave.
Your comment literally speaks the truth... I recently started to be more active on IG... When I post my stories I have the same thoughts you said... *do I have a good impression on people...do I look I'm doing too much * In fact I noticed that a picture can have different interpretation. So, what we assume about it can be the total opposite. Therefore I'm trying to quite social frf. It's depressing and toxic ( ticktock and instagram).
I also noticed that social media world keeps us from having our own opinions. Being against popular or trending beliefs or ideas would end people being canceled...
Therefore There is no individuality since our generation fall for the same trends ( music, fashion ...)
This video just popped up on my suggested and may I just say… WHAT A FUCKIN INTRO. GET THIS WOMAN AN OSCAR
AHHHH that means so much, ty 😭🥺
@@soeuninseoul no thank YOU!! I’m watching and realizing that FUCK oculus or meta!!! we ALREADY LIVE IN VIRTUAL REALITY! WHY HASN’T THIS CLICKED???!!!
the Intro is everythinggggggg omg you’re a genius
you’re so well spoken
This is very interesting but also scaring me and making me want to delete tiktok and twitter 😭
do it dude-- I've been social media-free for a year & I feel like my mind is my own again
LITERALLY was thinking about this the other day. this needs more views HELP
im obsessed with your content, i love a video essay with actually clearly stated sources and theory!!
Just found your channel through this video, even just a few minutes in already love how well the editing fits 😅
This video is so fascinating. I always talk about how culture is incredibly splintered because the average person creates their own day to day reality. Monoculture doesn’t really exist anymore, even for things that are huge like Euphoria or K-Pop. Like I sometimes watch sports with my boyfriend (I’m not a sport person at all) and even the insurance and car commercials on live tv are geared towards sports. I would never see these commercials otherwise. This is just so interesting.
This is why i believe we are cyborgs. We re already in a metaverse, our consciousness and ‘virtual life’ online.
Damn girl nice job on explaining Baudrillard
im 13. some days i let it pass by me just how much social media has shaped our lives, even my own. but, others, i actually space out and listen to my classmates or even my own friends speaking and it's like... what?
sometimes i remember how negatively people reacted to me saying that no, i didn't have tiktok. no, i didn't have insta, etc. (this was a couple years back) like as if missing out automatically deems you as weird or odd.
there is so much stuff that has been normalized but to me they just seem so bizarre sometimes. i genuinely have no idea what's going on around me sometimes.
all this has definitely impacted me negatively because i realize just how much has been popularized when really- it shouldn't even be a thing at all. i feel like it's really hard to find anybody that's fully genuine and understanding nowadays when it comes to my age group... nobody truly feels connected to one another. there's always something that feels so off about it all
like we're all completely different people online!!
crazy world we live in 🥲 i remember 13 and having similar insecurities but with just the beginning of social media making an impact. just seeing the differences between one generation is amazing (and sad)!
An important thing to note, here, is that this is how human memory functions. You don't remember an event, you remember the last time you remembered it. Which is why, over time, you might forget which friend or sibling was present during an event, and might replace them with another person. You're usually not aware of this, unless you have another person around to set you straight.
All of this to say, there is no objective truth, because there is not objective memory.
im a male, and it's funny to see the stark difference between men and women's experiences and use for social media, my feed on instagram looks nothing like what you showed haha and i never struggle with seeing other people live better lives or look happier than they might really be
As a woman, I always get bombarded with advertisements for stupid superficial bullshit like makeup and botox. It's so annoying. Women are constantly implicitly told via social media that the only thing that matters is looking good. And god forbid our room/houses look less than photo-worthy. Girls on social media and in porn all look like fake dolls. It's all depressing garbage.
I'm a lot on Twitch. And Twitch culture definitely affected the way I speak and make jokes. There are so many inside jokes which you can probably only keep up with if you watch the streams regularly. Plus BTTV (emotes used on Twitch) is sooooo expressive, I started using it in my texts.
When you want to like the video mid through but then notice that you already did.. Great Video!
And if you don't watch the Simpsons, you don't know that Soeun is wearing marge's channel suit
Yes! I have always thought about all of this and you just summed it all up in a video! thanks for the author reference!
It's kind of like how certain people buy very high end handbags and I'll be at an event with them and have no idea they are carrying a "status symbol." The only people who know that they have this expensive bag are others who have it or want it. It's not like a car, where everyone knows what a fancy car is....so basically they're just impressing other people who are into it but in their head, everyone knows their bag is important lol.
I love how every comment in this video seems to be thoughtful. They all are at least 3 lines long.
I'd like to add something: a person can use different social medias for different types of content. Same principle with profiles, although this would make it more rational.