Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels • Hacker News Board

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#251

Post by intended » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:38 AM UTC

WorkerBee28474 wrote: post #82

deanCommie wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except they weren't really "support systems" i mean they were, if you got lucky. If you were neurotypical; if you bought in to the local religious sect's particular flavour and embraced it wholeheartedly; if you followed the other local cults of sports fandoms; if you were lucky enough to either have family without their own trauma that didn't take it out on you OR decided to repress it in exactly the same way that t…

> it's why there's now suddenly an influx of ADHD and Autism diagnosis - because in the past anyone outside of the norm who wasn't lucky to do one of the things above was simply ignored, beaten, or died. I think you're understating how well those people were incorporated into society. My grandfather was born in the 20s and was described as quite "high strung", was amazing with technology, would repair anything, and e…

Heck no. We have “it’s always the quiet ones who go first”, to remind us what it was like from that time.

Most people suffered, and made the ones around them suffer as well. On top of that, you are in no position to move to an “average” position on the behavior spectrum, because it’s fundamentally outside your biological operational parameters.

There are TONS of relations which were kept in place, because of society, keeping people who made each other worse, in permanent proximity.

Survivorship bias is real.

We’re the ones who inherited the world with more knowledge than past generations, it’s up to us to do better with it. This will include getting better at diagnosing.

For self diagnosing, I have no idea what to do.

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#252

Post by Retric » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:38 AM UTC

pxoe wrote: post #238

Retric wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normal is the full range of function not some specific set of behaviors. Deciding not to get a drivers license is fine, being unable to get one because you can’t leave your home is an issue.

Full range is a specific set. What does that range consist of? Also, seems odd to go from going on about "stretching a label past the point of meaning", but then put normal as some range that's just about vaguely everything. Can normal not be defined? Is it somehow more deserving of being afforded to be a vague spectrum or being under less specific definitions? Where is the point of meaning with "normal"?

By specific set I mean the behaviors actually exhibited, someone either grows a beard or doesn’t you can’t be doing both. Meanwhile either choice is normal.

The “full range” is anything that doesn’t cause you or another significant distress, major impairment, or prevent functioning in society. Eating hot sauce is uncomfortable, amputating a limb is several steps beyond uncomfortable.

> Can normal not be defined?

It’s defined by what it isn’t. There’s ~8 billion people in the world and the majority of them are functioning as should be obvious by our societies continuing to function.

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#253

Post by intended » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:39 AM UTC

typewithrhythm wrote: post #155

stevenAthompson wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What financial benefit would a diagnosis have?

Depending on the specific services in an area: everything from subsidised legal access to medications, to access to accommodations in schools seen as favorable (private environments to take tests, or extended deadlines). Some areas have specific assistance to parents of children with a diagnosis. Some have easier access to disability support services and payments.

What about diagnoses in countries which do not have any of these support systems?

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#254

Post by southernplaces7 » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:41 AM UTC

Speak for yourself, It's not impossible to uncaringly live your own life of your own choices, quirks and characteristics without agreeing that you're somehow "disordered", and pigeonhole yourself into idiotically cheap social media and pop culture labels of X or Y. Just refuse to participate in the herd-guiding on something so basic as personal tendencies and flaws.

It's a shame that too many young people do the opposite and have bought so widely into a therapy culture of tagging so much of the complex human world into little boxes of psychological disorder (founded on some very, very shaky evidence and clinical understanding) to cause further internal trauma. This itself has become a bizarre and sickly fad but not an inescapable one.

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#255

Post by narrator » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:41 AM UTC

PeterStuer wrote: post #241

“mental health challenges are an important part of my identity.” Because there's now a payoff for those. Those girls proudly display a whole slew of these on their 'bio' because the societal framework they live in 'scores' them on their 'oppression/victim' status.

I knew a gal who grew up in a perfect family with everything she could ever want so she had to invent a victim status and write a book about it magnifying non-problems into protected class level oppression status in order to fit into the woke crowd. Grievance entrepreneurship.

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#256

Post by lll-o-lll » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:41 AM UTC

Walf wrote: post #245

lll-o-lll wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but if you have it you need to compensate for it. It’s what calendars, reminders, todo’s etc etc are for. Speaking as one with a huge challenge in this space. No one is going to go “oh, you have ADHD, well, I guess you don’t need to fulfil that expectation…”

Which is why I use those tools extensively. I never said these people shouldn't try to compensate for any deficit, my point is that what people describe as "time blindness" is a real problem, and should not be so easily dismissed.

Yeah, but the parent is moaning about people shirking their responsibilities because of a self diagnosis.

That might be a projection; just a punctual person peeved off with the chronically late; but I was just adding the point that being challenged in this area isn’t an excuse.

I’m on-time for work stuff; I’ve figured out how to compensate. Personal life, ok, different story, but the responsibility has always rested with me.

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#257

Post by lodovic » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:41 AM UTC

Tokumei-no-hito wrote: post #244

socalgal2 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

70% of 100M is 70M. There are not 70m 18-30yr olds in the USA.

there's 28% gen z in the US. that's roughly 94M and 70M are on tiktok

You are pulling numbers out of thin air. First you claim 100m 18-30 year olds (the number is closer to 55m) and now you inflate gen Z numbers too (my count is less than 70M, and there is just no way that 100% of them are tiktok users). Here are some real sources https://media.market.us/gen-z-statistics/ https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/united-states-population-...

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#258

Post by AStonesThrow » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:42 AM UTC

bluefirebrand wrote: post #237

rahimnathwani wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Any idea whether or not their characterization of psychological diagnoses is mostly correct?

I am not an expert on neurology or anything but for ADHD at least there is definitely a biological difference, it's not just a diagnosis of a bundle of psychological symptoms It is treated with stimulants, but if you give those same stimulants to a non-ADHD person you will see very different results

[dead]

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#259

Post by osn9363739 » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:43 AM UTC

Walf wrote: post #249

osn9363739 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to do something about it though. You either come up with strategies to work with the condition or what? Just give up?

[flagged]

So you agree with nomdep? If you know you have time blindness it's a good opportunity to do something about it. I tend to choose the be really early option because that works for me. But it can be stressful for sure. And I probably don't get as much done as someone that can organise their time better. That's just the way it goes.

Re: Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

#260

Post by camillomiller » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 5:44 AM UTC

> We can’t talk about character either. There are no generous people anymore, only people-pleasers. There are no men or women who wear their hearts on their sleeves, only the anxiously attached, or the co-dependent.

While I agree about the over-labeling (which is a way to be sortable by algorithms that need to push or penalize our social media presence) I wouldn’t throw away the baby with the bathwater. There is a difference between being generous and being a people-pleaser, and it’s an important one to know for people with this trait. Years ago you would have never thought of this as a (mild) neurosis, but it can totally be. Being aware of it can help immensely in leading a more fulfilling life. This is true for all the other examples mentioned.

That said, the piece should just be: social media has polluted and ruined mental health awareness in the same exact way it has ruined and polluted so many other aspects of the public discourse.