In a broader sense, show and superficiality are the norms for everything today. Social media popularity, celebrity worship, non-existent educational standards, credentialism, participation trophies, self esteem based on external approval, spending/renting to project affluent image, DEI/conformity masquerading as diversity, and especially LGBTQ as normal. Everything revolves around external approval, not genuine achievement or accomplishment. Remember the vaxx and mask virtue signaling and how never before had it been so easy and effortless to be a hero.
This is at the heart of much of the mental illness epidemic today, especially in the younger generation. Everyone wants the magic pill for depression, anxiety, obesity, etc., but they don't want to do the work that is needed to truly fix it.
In a broader sense, show and superficiality are the norms for everything today. Social media popularity, celebrity worship, non-existent educational standards, credentialism, participation trophies, self esteem based on external approval, spending/renting to project affluent image, DEI/conformity masquerading as diversity, and especially LGBTQ as normal. Everything revolves around external approval, not genuine achievement or accomplishment. Remember the vaxx and mask virtue signaling and how never before had it been so easy and effortless to be a hero.
This is at the heart of much of the mental illness epidemic today, especially in the younger generation. Everyone wants the magic pill for depression, anxiety, obesity, etc., but they don't want to do the work that is needed to truly fix it.