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Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

theguardian.com

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

#251

Post by jackgolding »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #124
RIMR wrote: post #79

I am always amazed by how many people get into this "Beat the system and make tons of money" mindset. If there's anything that has proven itself time and time again, it's that people who seek immediate wealth, and who fantasize about their "million dollar idea", are absolutely not the kinds of people who become successful and wealthy. The people who become devoted to a field or a technology - who make the business th…

Kind of tangential, but a self-sabotage concept I find fascinating is called "short term mood repair." That's a phrase that one of the top academics studying procrastination uses to describe one of the most common prompts for procrastination. (Tim Pychyl) In this concept, you have some tiny anxiety about upcoming work that probably never even reaches your conscious thoughts. And the absolute fastest way to make that…

very interesting, shame STMR seems to be very academic on this stage (searching only gives papers.)

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

#252

Post by Balgair »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #208
Balgair wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed this exact thing when Desperate Housewives became popular. Suddenly (it seemed), many of the people around me started to act like the characters on the show; tuning in for more information each Sunday night. I seriously kid you not, some even started to take their kids' Ritalin just like on the show. It was... bizarre . Many people really do take their cues about how to behave/act from the pseudo-Jungian ge…

This is interesting, do you think people do this because the people they see in Desperate Housewives and the examples in the parent comment have a sort of "clearly defined" identity and people watching this media look at how explicitly defined these characters are portrayed and contrast it against their own sense of self, find it lacking (either because it is, because they imagine it to be, or because something like…

That's a lot for one sentence. I think the people I know/knew whom are like that are doing it out of boredom mostly. Their lives are fairly comfortable, they have never really seen hunger nor war nor diseases. Most of their lives have been really nice. As such, to give meaning to those lives, they need strife, and the path that the media/gestalt provides is a 'safe' one to introduce struggle, so to speak. They tend to be somewhat religious as well. Having been to those congregations, the pastors/priests/padres stress that you have to really confess your sins a lot, because we all have a lot of sins, so struggle that way. Turns out, almost none of the flock has anything to confess, but 'sin' is at least something to struggle against. There is also an out-sized (though still very small) anti-vax/flat-earther/conspiracy element too, as that also provides some meaning to their otherwise safe and comfortable lives.

In essence, those that get their 'plan' from the TV/gestalt just need to volunteer more and travel.

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

#253

Post by tonystubblebine »

jackgolding wrote: post #251
tonystubblebine wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of tangential, but a self-sabotage concept I find fascinating is called "short term mood repair." That's a phrase that one of the top academics studying procrastination uses to describe one of the most common prompts for procrastination. (Tim Pychyl) In this concept, you have some tiny anxiety about upcoming work that probably never even reaches your conscious thoughts. And the absolute fastest way to make that…

very interesting, shame STMR seems to be very academic on this stage (searching only gives papers.)

I built a series of articles around Tim's work for Medium. The article he wrote to lead off is the most I've ever highlighted an article. https://medium.com/s/the-complete-guide-to-beating-procrasti...

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

#254

Post by burkaman »

gowld wrote: post #189
burkaman wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from Patrick Bateman committing gratuitous murders on screen, the major difference is that he hates his life and he never looks like he's having fun. Jordan Belfort might be doing terrible things (although not as bad as serial murder), but he looks and acts like he loves every minute of it. Bateman doesn't. You could also compare The Hangover and Leaving Las Vegas. One makes a drug-filled weekend in Vegas look…

This a great film genre: juxtaposed double-headers. Any other pairings to recommend?

Hard to think of good examples. Bad Lieutenant and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans are very different takes on the same theme.

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

#255

Post by upvotinglurker »

leetcrew wrote: post #201
savanaly wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That all sounds hard.

becoming a manager in retail is really not that hard. most of my friends that started working retail in high school are managers by now (unless they left for a better job).

Yup. One of my high school classmates was an assistant manager at the Burger King where we worked as soon as he graduated high school.

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

#256

Post by this2shallPass »

jstarfish wrote: post #206
bartread wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interesting realisation for me about Walter White came when I started watching the season through for a second time. But first... SPOILER ALERT! I mean the first time around I had some sympathy for the guy - he was a disappointed and somewhat embittered middle aged man still trying to do his best to support his family, and then he's given this crappy cancer diagnosis. I felt bad for him. Fair to say that by the t…

> Fair to say that by the time he just lets Jesse's girlfriend, Jane, choke to death on her own vomit whilst unconscious I'd entirely lost that and felt nothing but loathing for the character > But what I realised on revisiting the show a couple of years later is that Walter White didn't break bad. He was bad from the very beginning. Jesse's girlfriend got him hooked on heroin. Jesse was on a downward spiral and woul…

SPOILERS

It's a great show, and I agree with a lot of what you're saying.

> Jesse's girlfriend got him hooked on heroin. Jesse was on a downward spiral and would surely die thanks to her continued interference.

Jesse was on a downward spiral, yes, but the other two points are less clear. They might be true from Walt's perspective.

> Walter saw the toxicity of both the drugs and the relationship and did Jesse a cruel but necessary kindness by letting her asphyxiate. It wasn't ethical, it wasn't humane, but it served a greater purpose (even if it was so Walter wouldn't be without an assistant).

It's impossible to tell how much Walt's letting Jane die / killing Jane had to do with helping Jesse. I think it's clearer Walt killed Jane to keep control over Jesse and to protect himself. And that worked out pretty well, for a while. Jane didn't fear Walt, and she knew too much about him for Walt's comfort and safety. So he let her die / killed her.

> He did far worse deeds for less grounded reasons as the series went on; there are better examples to choose from to make a case of villainy.

This is true. For me, Jane's death caused a major nosedive in sympathy for Walt. Definitely previous things he did were villainous and later things even more so. But there was something about Jane's death. A big step down in his descent.

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

#257

Post by themagician »

mlindner wrote: post #185
themagician wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't just make money by trying really hard to be rich, unless, of course, your business model is funneling cash off of suckers with a predatory get-rich-quick scheme. More wealthy people make their money this way than you might realize. Rare indeed is the person who became wealthy by actually creating something of value. Much more common is the person who cheated someone (or many someones) out of something. Ma…

What a distorted way of looking at things. You don't make money by cheating people out of something. You make money by doing something people want you to do. (Or doing something they didn't know they wanted you to do.)

That's reality. Uber wouldn't be a billion company if they played fair and by the rules. They are a billion company because they found loopholes and exploited them.

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

#258

Post by evilmushroom »

dajohnson89 wrote: post #207
smacktoward wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

the problem lies deeper than film. america at its core is obsessed with wealth, and it's always been this way. the ethics of how the wealth is acquired and spent matters very little. we idolize drug dealers, mobsters, serial bank robbers, bookies, counterfeiters, etc.

Most of the countries I've lived or worked in (around Asia, Europe, South America ) are largely the same. I think it is a human quality.

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

#259

Post by Regardsyjc »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #239
daodedickinson wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original is Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther causing so many to emulate the titular character and commit suicide.

Monkey see, monkey do. I’m increasingly suspicious of the idea that humans are independent and rational, because so much humam behaviour can be explained as uncomplicated animal mimicry.

Have you heard of mimetic theory?

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

#260

Post by Regardsyjc »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #240
dajohnson89 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem lies deeper than film. america at its core is obsessed with wealth, and it's always been this way. the ethics of how the wealth is acquired and spent matters very little. we idolize drug dealers, mobsters, serial bank robbers, bookies, counterfeiters, etc.

America is obsessed with competitive narcissism. No one makes movies or TV shows about people who are heroically kind, empathic, or generous.

There are many movies and shows that promote those positive values. Marvel superhero movies, children movies, movies like Marshall. Films and documentaries that critique consumerism or society. TED talks, YouTube channels like The School of Life, even blogs like Brainpickings.
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