Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram • Hacker News Board

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#41

Post by dudul » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:56 PM UTC

neaden wrote: post #4

One thing I've been struck by with movies and films like the Wolf of Wall Street, the film Wall Street, Fight Club, or even the Great Gatsby is how many people end up coming away with the exact opposite message of the movie. They end up idolizing the vapid, shallow lifestyle that the movie is critiquing, because even though the film is critiquing that it can't help but also make it glamorous. Michael Douglas has said…

This also applies to almost every single gangster movie. "Scarface" being really the case study.

I believe it is mostly due to the last scene of these movies where the hero dies in some crazy action scene. Lot of adrenaline, and it looks so "cool" on screen that you can't help thinking "wow this guy was awesome!".

One movie that dealt with that really well was "Goodfellas". During the 2nd part of the movie, the downfall is filmed in a very slow, almost boring manner. And the end is boring as f*ck, specifically to avoid this pitfall of glorifying the "hero".

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#42

Post by ObeyTheGuts » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

gowld wrote: post #5

neaden wrote: post #4

One thing I've been struck by with movies and films like the Wolf of Wall Street, the film Wall Street, Fight Club, or even the Great Gatsby is how many people end up coming away with the exact opposite message of the movie. They end up idolizing the vapid, shallow lifestyle that the movie is critiquing, because even though the film is critiquing that it can't help but also make it glamorous. Michael Douglas has said…

Fight Club gets a lot of retroactive flak now that people know how they were "supposed" to read it. The book was a dramatization of the way young men feel about life. If the author and book had any valid insight, then of course young men would identify with the "bad" lifestyle in the movie, and not suddenly turn into old men while watching the movie. The movie is entirely showing the fantasy from the "vapid" perspect…

da fuck its about crazy consumerism and getting real, and real works. Its exagerated, but nothing of what u say.

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#43

Post by giarc » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:58 PM UTC

TaylorGood wrote: post #6

I know of a guy who “pivoted” from exotic car rental operator in Florida to Forex and Drop Shipping coach via Instagram. His Lamborghini, chartered jets and 30k followers really shine but I also know he still buys fake shoes. Wouldn’t trust him with $1. Gary Vaynerchuk is spot on in that there are too many experts and not enough practicioners. Showing others how to make it is how these guys are trying to make it.

I suspect many of these people touting their nearly purchased Lamborghini and the like are actually just renting them.

There was a reddit post where a similar "influencer" described the process of faking the purchase. He would go to a showroom and ask to sit in the vehicle and film it. Most of the time, if the salesperson isn't busy they will let you do this. Sometimes even let you start it if they are nice. This influencer would just then record a conversation in another car about buying and taking delivery etc and dub over the video of him in a show room. Pretty straight forward.

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#44

Post by smacktoward » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:58 PM UTC

neaden wrote: post #4

One thing I've been struck by with movies and films like the Wolf of Wall Street, the film Wall Street, Fight Club, or even the Great Gatsby is how many people end up coming away with the exact opposite message of the movie. They end up idolizing the vapid, shallow lifestyle that the movie is critiquing, because even though the film is critiquing that it can't help but also make it glamorous. Michael Douglas has said…

It's because film is a visual medium, and in these movies the protagonist always looks cool. He may be doing terrible things, but he's wearing hip clothes and driving a gorgeous car while he does them. The visual language is all screaming "this guy's great!", and it ends up overwhelming the message the story is trying to tell.

If you want to know what most people will think of a character in a movie, watch the movie with the sound off.

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#45

Post by _carl_jung » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:58 PM UTC

Bucephalus355 wrote: post #34

>”I’m never going to work for someone,” Oyefeso says in one of his videos, in a somewhat cartoonish, nasal voice, while he drives his Rolls dressed in a bathrobe.” What’s with this obsession of not working for someone else? American/British managers in particular are some of the most democratic and “least power distance” bosses out there, especially compared to other countries where there is still a very hierarchical…

> What’s with this obsession of not working for someone else?

> someone selling a particular product.

You answered your own question.

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#46

Post by vwcx » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:58 PM UTC

I was hoping, based on the title, that this was going to address the exploding popularity of people starting IG accounts for their huskies and then claiming the animals are part-wolf. This is a real phenomenon with (albeit smaller) consequences.

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#47

Post by DisruptiveDave » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:59 PM UTC

neaden wrote: post #4

One thing I've been struck by with movies and films like the Wolf of Wall Street, the film Wall Street, Fight Club, or even the Great Gatsby is how many people end up coming away with the exact opposite message of the movie. They end up idolizing the vapid, shallow lifestyle that the movie is critiquing, because even though the film is critiquing that it can't help but also make it glamorous. Michael Douglas has said…

Because excitement, notoriety, achieving exceptional status - regardless of the specific around it - is wildly different than the average, mediocre, mundane life (relatively speaking).

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#48

Post by watwut » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:02 PM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #38

neaden wrote: post #4

One thing I've been struck by with movies and films like the Wolf of Wall Street, the film Wall Street, Fight Club, or even the Great Gatsby is how many people end up coming away with the exact opposite message of the movie. They end up idolizing the vapid, shallow lifestyle that the movie is critiquing, because even though the film is critiquing that it can't help but also make it glamorous. Michael Douglas has said…

This always perplexed me. With Mad Men and Breaking Bad too, people idolized the main characters, which is interesting not only because they are bad people but because they are deeply unhappy, too. There's something extremely surface-level about people's takeaways from film characters. They want a certain level of panache that the characters can muster, but they ignore that even the characters themselves are miserabl…

That might have also to do with how movies are made usually. If you really think about it, most detectives in detective stories abuse power and do things that cops really really should not. But, we are supposed to suspend reality and root for them.

Same with action movies - main character does a lot of damage to everyone around, steal cars, hurt innocent people and we are supposed to ignore that. Happy end involves massive fight in the middle of city that would displace thousands of families. And so on and so forth.

People take the usual expected reading of movies and apply them to these too.

It is possible to make movies differently. I have seen movies that made me feel bad about violence and events and that made it clear that "this is not a cool thing". But the movies mentioned here are not like that - they sort of criticise it but are still made so that we feel happy about them. They show events from the point of view of perpetrator, but not much from point of view of their victims.

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#49

Post by clojurestan » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

neaden wrote: post #4

One thing I've been struck by with movies and films like the Wolf of Wall Street, the film Wall Street, Fight Club, or even the Great Gatsby is how many people end up coming away with the exact opposite message of the movie. They end up idolizing the vapid, shallow lifestyle that the movie is critiquing, because even though the film is critiquing that it can't help but also make it glamorous. Michael Douglas has said…

These films are meant to depict a certain type of person, one who is drawn to the appeal of wealth and particularly the excess and display present in certain communities. I can imagine how someone who had this type of predisposition would feel inspired if they were exposed to that lifestyle by one of these movies and develop an aspiration for the specific position where previously it was a more amorphous longing for wealth and privilege.

Re: Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

#50

Post by gowld » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:05 PM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #38

neaden wrote: post #4

One thing I've been struck by with movies and films like the Wolf of Wall Street, the film Wall Street, Fight Club, or even the Great Gatsby is how many people end up coming away with the exact opposite message of the movie. They end up idolizing the vapid, shallow lifestyle that the movie is critiquing, because even though the film is critiquing that it can't help but also make it glamorous. Michael Douglas has said…

This always perplexed me. With Mad Men and Breaking Bad too, people idolized the main characters, which is interesting not only because they are bad people but because they are deeply unhappy, too. There's something extremely surface-level about people's takeaways from film characters. They want a certain level of panache that the characters can muster, but they ignore that even the characters themselves are miserabl…

Were Draper and White unhappy because of their actions in the shows, or where they already unhappy and their actions in the show were them making the best of it? They both had a tragic backstory (child abuse, cancer) before the show started. Maybe other hurting people identify: Better to be a drug kingpin than just waste away into nothingness.