It may all seem mundane and regular to many of us. It may all look like normal, everyday life. But once we take an outside perspective, we can see how bizarre, fantastic, and strange human interaction is nowadays among young Americans. We can see how constructed, closed, and strange this society has become. It saddens me to see how they have now become robotic zombies addicted to modern corporate technology.
I hear the same canned conversations over and over again among young Americans. In many other foreign countries, human interaction is spontaneous and open, rather than tediously repetitive as it is in the States. In Latin America, it is common to hear people tell original jokes and laugh uncontrollably. But on my college campus, I feel as if I have heard nearly all of the conversations in either some form or another.
The "What's up? I'm good. Yeah yeah, I've got a midterm on Friday. See you tomorrow" ones.
The "Yeah I was up late last night. OMG, did you see his Facebook status? Yeah I did" ones.
The "I'm so tired from work today. Cool, you've got a job interview tomorrow?" ones.
The "What clubs are you in? What are you majoring in? What are you going to do after college?" ones.
The "That's awesome. He seems like a pretty chill guy. We should all hang out sometime" ones.
The "I'm so hungry. Plus my car just broke down. I think I'm gonna text him for a ride" ones.
The "My boyfriend's coming over. We're gonna hang out tonight at downtown. You should come" ones.
The "I was so drunk last night and said some crazy stuff. Yeah we all got wasted" ones.
The "Did you see that new movie? Yeah, there's that rock concert coming up this Saturday" ones.
It's all about work. It's all about having to categorize someone. It's all about the latest fashions and gizmos. It's all about their fatiguing schedules. It's all about proving yourself as a socially able individual within an excruciatingly confusing network of insulated cliques. Is that all they care to talk about?
All pronounced with the same predictable rhythm and intonation. All with completely identical responses. All meant to show the world that you're a normal, "cool" person not out of place.
The conversations are so scripted, artificial, and meant to bow to conformity. The dialogues all seem to come straight out of some Facebook chat or text message exchange.
A Guatemalan friend of mine said that when he first arrived in the US, he found it strange how Americans would ask each other "How are you?" and then just walk away immediately. Americans ask each other how they are but don't mean it from their heart. Everyone should have a nice day, but somewhere else.
Human interaction is limited to closed groups. A club, a church fellowship, a non-profit organization, an old group of friends. Outside these groups, it is "common-sense" etiquette to keep to yourself. The cliches "getting out more", "having a social life", and "hanging out" all mean that one has to enroll in a closed group insulated from all other outsiders. Breaking outside of a tightly knit social circle will cause anxiety, awkwardness, and confusion.
White cords, black cords, and pink cords dangle out of at least half of everyone's ear canals. The music does not seem to them happy; rather, the music makes them look frighteningly bored and zombie-like. Try to greet them, they'll say "What's that?" and you'll have to repeat yourself. Then they'll put the earbuds back on as if mass-produced pop music is more comforting to their ears than the sounds of strangers' voices. Say something else again, and repeat the whole earbud removal scenario over again. People walk around with portable music players everywhere they go. Why not enjoy the beautiful natural sounds of footsteps, bird songs, and rustling leaves? No one seems to be aware of these sounds anymore.
Phone addiction is rife. Young people do not want to walk around with their hands comfortably swinging by their sides. Instead, they have to be on some sort of a touchscreen gadget. Thumbs have to be typing on QWERTY pads. Index fingers have to be sliding horizontally and vertically for the latest trivial updates from so-called "friends." Both palms have to be grabbing the phones tightly as if that were the only object making their monotonous lives more interesting and meaningful.
The widespread addiction to portable music and portable Internet all point to a constant fear of loneliness. All around the clock, they are surrounded by their favorite music and favorite friends' conversations. Yet young Americans are more depressed than ever. After all, their "cool" selves are only outer shells concealing their hollow souls crying of constant fatigue, disconnectedness, and loneliness. They need the constantly ongoing pop music and text messaging in order to drown out the undercurrents of depression and confusion that plague their inner minds.
People of opposite sexes place each other in "friend zones" all the time. Attempting any sort of romance will result in intense awkwardness. The reason this awkwardness can even exist is because Americans have so many unspoken boundaries for where friendships can go, and so many unspoken limits for social interaction. The awkwardness often comes from a fear of intimacy, a feeling so common in modern America. But with foreign-born Asian girls, I can be friends with them at first, yet start to become romantic with them without intense awkwardness. With women in Latin America, girls flirt easily, and do not constantly place men in strict "friend zones" with plenty of implied boundaries.
The shopping malls are full of pedestrians. The roads are full of cars. But the parks are all empty. The sidewalks are devoid of pedestrians. The only reason people would be in the park would be to walk their dogs in monotonous loops. The only reason people would be on the sidewalk would be to jog with their ear canals plugged up.
Is this all normal? Is this what society used to be like? How do you think these young Americans' great-great-grandparents would have reacted? America has entered a strange new age of social disconnectedness. Sadly, most young Americans do not even know they are in it, since they have never experienced anything else.
The bizarreness of America's social environment
The bizarreness of America's social environment
Last edited by Falcon on January 30th, 2012, 3:35 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Meet Loads of Foreign Women in Person! Join Our Happier Abroad ROMANCE TOURS to Many Overseas Countries!
Meet Foreign Women Now! Post your FREE profile on Happier Abroad Personals and start receiving messages from gorgeous Foreign Women today!
Recently, I watched "The Codes of Gender" by Dr. Sut Jhally, a Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts. He pointed out that portrayals of men and women in advertising and mass media are highly artificial and not "normal," which is something that most Americans never realize (including me, up until now). Rather, they look bizarre only from an outside perspective. When men pose in the women's positions, we start to realize that the ways women are posed in mass media, are in fact quite bizarre and unnatural.
This film encouraged me to question the so-called normal.
This film encouraged me to question the so-called normal.
I've made it much more straightforward.Have you watched "The Century of the Self"? It's a BBC award winning documentary.
It's about Edward Bernays, father of modern public relations and the media spin machine and how the ideas of Freud (who was Bernay's uncle) and crowd pyschology were used to manipulate and control people.
Highly recommended viewing.
Read Bernay's works "Propaganda" and "Engineering Consent".
"The Engineering of Consent" is an essay by Edward Bernays first published in 1947.[1] He defines "engineering consent" as the art of manipulating people; specifically, the American public, who are described as "fundamentally irrational people... who could not be trusted."[citation needed] It maintained that entire populations, which were undisciplined or lacking in intellectual or definite moral principles, were vulnerable to unconscious influence and thus susceptible to want things that they do not need. This was achieved by linking those products and ideas to their unconscious desires. Ernest Dichter, who is widely considered to be the "father of motivational research," referred to this as "the secret-self of the American consumer."[citation needed]
In other words, consumer psychologists have already made the choice for people before they buy a certain product. This is achieved by manipulating desires on an unconscious level.
The central idea behind the engineering of consent is that the public or people should not be aware of the manipulation taking place.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. [...] In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons [...] who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
It's about Edward Bernays, father of modern public relations and the media spin machine and how the ideas of Freud (who was Bernay's uncle) and crowd pyschology were used to manipulate and control people.
Highly recommended viewing.
Read Bernay's works "Propaganda" and "Engineering Consent".
"The Engineering of Consent" is an essay by Edward Bernays first published in 1947.[1] He defines "engineering consent" as the art of manipulating people; specifically, the American public, who are described as "fundamentally irrational people... who could not be trusted."[citation needed] It maintained that entire populations, which were undisciplined or lacking in intellectual or definite moral principles, were vulnerable to unconscious influence and thus susceptible to want things that they do not need. This was achieved by linking those products and ideas to their unconscious desires. Ernest Dichter, who is widely considered to be the "father of motivational research," referred to this as "the secret-self of the American consumer."[citation needed]
In other words, consumer psychologists have already made the choice for people before they buy a certain product. This is achieved by manipulating desires on an unconscious level.
The central idea behind the engineering of consent is that the public or people should not be aware of the manipulation taking place.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. [...] In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons [...] who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
-
GuitarGuy996
- Freshman Poster
- Posts: 103
- Joined: January 19th, 2012, 6:02 am
Falcon - I want you to know I really enjoyed this post! You really illustrated the youth culture very well.
What you said about texting, facebook, and pop music is ALL true; it's all hiding the misery that is deep down. What I find very sad is that people can't just admit it; showing that weakness would be too damning to their fragile self image.
It's been 2 months since I kicked the facebook habit. It IS certainly more lonely, no doubt about it, but it's inspiring me to start moving toward a REAL social life.
I'm considering making trip to Mexico soon.
Was it difficult to learn Spanish? How fast did you pick it up?
What you said about texting, facebook, and pop music is ALL true; it's all hiding the misery that is deep down. What I find very sad is that people can't just admit it; showing that weakness would be too damning to their fragile self image.
It's been 2 months since I kicked the facebook habit. It IS certainly more lonely, no doubt about it, but it's inspiring me to start moving toward a REAL social life.
I'm considering making trip to Mexico soon.
Was it difficult to learn Spanish? How fast did you pick it up?
-
NorthAmericanguy
- Veteran Poster
- Posts: 2215
- Joined: October 31st, 2010, 8:16 pm
Re: The bizarreness of America's social environment
Falcon, your post is 100% correct and it's depressing to read.Falcon wrote:It may all seem mundane and regular to many of us. It may all look like normal, everyday life. But once we take an outside perspective, we can see how bizarre, fantastic, and strange human interaction is nowadays among young Americans. We can see how constructed, closed, and strange this society has become. It saddens me to see how they have now become robotic zombies addicted to modern corporate technology.
I hear the same canned conversations over and over again among young Americans. In many other foreign countries, human interaction is spontaneous and open, rather than tediously repetitive as it is in the States. In Latin America, it is common to hear people tell original jokes and laugh uncontrollably. But on my college campus, I feel as if I have heard nearly all of the conversations in either some form or another.
The "What's up? I'm good. Yeah yeah, I've got a midterm on Friday. See you tomorrow" ones.
The "Yeah I was up late last night. OMG, did you see his Facebook status? Yeah I did" ones.
The "I'm so tired from work today. Cool, you've got a job interview tomorrow?" ones.
The "What clubs are you in? What are you majoring in? What are you going to do after college?" ones.
The "That's awesome. He seems like a pretty chill guy. We should all hang out sometime" ones.
The "I'm so hungry. Plus my car just broke down. I think I'm gonna text him for a ride" ones.
The "My boyfriend's coming over. We're gonna hang out tonight at downtown. You should come" ones.
The "I was so drunk last night and said some crazy stuff. Yeah we all got wasted" ones.
The "Did you see that new movie? Yeah, there's that rock concert coming up this Saturday" ones.
It's all about work. It's all about having to categorize someone. It's all about the latest fashions and gizmos. It's all about their fatiguing schedules. It's all about proving yourself as a socially able individual within an excruciatingly confusing network of insulated cliques. Is that all they care to talk about?
All pronounced with the same predictable rhythm and intonation. All with completely identical responses. All meant to show the world that you're a normal, "cool" person not out of place.
The conversations are so scripted, artificial, and meant to bow to conformity. The dialogues all seem to come straight out of some Facebook chat or text message exchange.
A Guatemalan friend of mine said that when he first arrived in the US, he found it strange how Americans would ask each other "How are you?" and then just walk away immediately. Americans ask each other how they are but don't mean it from their heart. Everyone should have a nice day, but somewhere else.
Human interaction is limited to closed groups. A club, a church fellowship, a non-profit organization, an old group of friends. Outside these groups, it is "common-sense" etiquette to keep to yourself. The cliches "getting out more", "having a social life", and "hanging out" all mean that one has to enroll in a closed group insulated from all other outsiders. Breaking outside of a tightly knit social circle will cause anxiety, awkwardness, and confusion.
White cords, black cords, and pink cords dangle out of at least half of everyone's ear canals. The music does not seem to them happy; rather, the music makes them look frighteningly bored and zombie-like. Try to greet them, they'll say "What's that?" and you'll have to repeat yourself. Then they'll put the earbuds back on as if mass-produced pop music is more comforting to their ears than the sounds of strangers' voices. Say something else again, and repeat the whole earbud removal scenario over again. People walk around with portable music players everywhere they go. Why not enjoy the beautiful natural sounds of footsteps, bird songs, and rustling leaves? No one seems to be aware of these sounds anymore.
Phone addiction is rife. Young people do not want to walk around with their hands comfortably swinging by their sides. Instead, they have to be on some sort of a touchscreen gadget. Thumbs have to be typing on QWERTY pads. Index fingers have to be sliding horizontally and vertically for the latest trivial updates from so-called "friends." Both palms have to be grabbing the phones tightly as if that were the only object making their monotonous lives more interesting and meaningful.
The widespread addiction to portable music and portable Internet all point to a constant fear of loneliness. All around the clock, they are surrounded by their favorite music and favorite friends' conversations. Yet young Americans are more depressed than ever. After all, their "cool" selves are only outer shells concealing their hollow souls crying of constant fatigue, disconnectedness, and loneliness. They need the constantly ongoing pop music and text messaging in order to drown out the undercurrents of depression and confusion that plague their inner minds.
People of opposite sexes place each other in "friend zones" all the time. Attempting any sort of romance will result in intense awkwardness. The reason this awkwardness can even exist is because Americans have so many unspoken boundaries for where friendships can go, and so many unspoken limits for social interaction. The awkwardness often comes from a fear of intimacy, a feeling so common in modern America. But with foreign-born Asian girls, I can be friends with them at first, yet start to become romantic with them without intense awkwardness. With women in Latin America, girls flirt easily, and do not constantly place men in strict "friend zones" with plenty of implied boundaries.
The shopping malls are full of pedestrians. The roads are full of cars. But the parks are all empty. The sidewalks are devoid of pedestrians. The only reason people would be in the park would be to walk their dogs in monotonous loops. The only reason people would be on the sidewalk would be to jog with their ear canals plugged up.
Is this all normal? Is this what society used to be like? How do you think these young Americans' great-great-grandparents would have reacted? America has entered a strange new age of social disconnectedness. Sadly, most young Americans do not even know they are in it, since they have never experienced anything else.
Re: American social environment: "normal" or not?
Falcon wrote:It may all seem mundane and regular to many of us. It may all look like normal, everyday life. But once we take an outside perspective, we can see how fantastic and strange human interaction is nowadays among young Americans. We can see how constructed, closed, and strange this society has become. It saddens me to see how they have now become robotic zombies addicted to modern corporate technology.
I hear the same canned conversations over and over again among young Americans. In many other foreign countries, human interaction is spontaneous and open, rather than tediously repetitive as it is in the States. In Latin America, it is common to hear people tell original jokes and laugh uncontrollably. But on my college campus, I feel as if I have heard nearly all of the conversations in either some form or another.
The "What's up? I'm good. Yeah yeah, I've got a midterm on Friday. See you tomorrow" ones.
The "Yeah I was up late last night. OMG, did you see his Facebook status? Yeah I did" ones.
The "I'm so tired from work today. Cool, you've got a job interview tomorrow?" ones.
The "What clubs are you in? What are you majoring in? What are you going to do after college?" ones.
The "That's awesome. He seems like a pretty chill guy. We should all hang out sometime" ones.
The "I'm so hungry. Plus my car just broke down. I think I'm gonna text him for a ride" ones.
The "My boyfriend's coming over. We're gonna hang out tonight at downtown. You should come" ones.
The "I was so drunk last night and said some crazy stuff. Yeah we all got wasted" ones.
The "Did you see that new movie? Yeah, there's that rock concert coming up this Saturday" ones.
It's all about work. It's all about having to categorize someone. It's all about the latest fashions and gizmos. It's all about their fatiguing schedules. It's all about proving yourself as a socially able individual within an excruciatingly confusing network of insulated cliques. Is that all they care to talk about?
All pronounced with the same predictable rhythm and intonation. All with completely identical responses. All meant to show the world that you're a normal, "cool" person not out of place.
The conversations are so scripted, artificial, and meant to bow to conformity. The dialogues all seem to come straight out of some Facebook chat or text message exchange.
A Guatemalan friend of mine said that when he first arrived in the US, he found it strange how Americans would ask each other "How are you?" and then just walk away immediately. Americans ask each other how they are but don't mean it from their heart. Everyone should have a nice day, but somewhere else.
Human interaction is limited to closed groups. A club, a church fellowship, a non-profit organization, an old group of friends. Outside these groups, it is "common-sense" etiquette to keep to yourself. The cliches "getting out more", "having a social life", and "hanging out" all mean that one has to enroll in a closed group insulated from all other outsiders. Breaking outside of a tightly knit social circle will cause anxiety, awkwardness, and confusion.
White cords, black cords, and pink cords dangle out of at least half of everyone's ear canals. The music does not seem to them happy; rather, the music makes them look frighteningly bored and zombie-like. Try to greet them, they'll say "What's that?" and you'll have to repeat yourself. Then they'll put the earbuds back on as if mass-produced pop music is more comforting to their ears than the sounds of strangers' voices. Say something else again, and repeat the whole earbud removal scenario over again. People walk around with portable music players everywhere they go. Why not enjoy the beautiful natural sounds of footsteps, bird songs, and rustling leaves? No one seems to be aware of these sounds anymore.
Phone addiction is rife. Young people do not want to walk around with their hands comfortably swinging by their sides. Instead, they have to be on some sort of a touchscreen gadget. Thumbs have to be typing on QWERTY pads. Index fingers have to be sliding horizontally and vertically for the latest trivial updates from so-called "friends." Both palms have to be grabbing the phones tightly as if that were the only object making their monotonous lives more interesting and meaningful.
The widespread addiction to portable music and portable Internet all point to a constant fear of loneliness. All around the clock, they are surrounded by their favorite music and favorite friends' conversations. Yet young Americans are more depressed than ever. After all, their "cool" selves are only outer shells concealing their hollow souls crying of constant fatigue, disconnectedness, and loneliness. They need the constantly ongoing pop music and text messaging in order to drown out the undercurrents of depression and confusion that plague their inner minds.
People of opposite sexes place each other in "friend zones" all the time. Attempting any sort of romance will result in intense awkwardness. The reason this awkwardness can even exist is because Americans have so many unspoken boundaries for where friendships can go, and so many unspoken limits for social interaction. The awkwardness often comes from a fear of intimacy, a feeling so common in modern America. But with foreign-born Asian girls, I can be friends with them at first, yet start to become romantic with them without intense awkwardness. With women in Latin America, girls flirt easily, and do not constantly place men in strict "friend zones" with plenty of implied boundaries.
The shopping malls are full of pedestrians. The roads are full of cars. But the parks are all empty. The sidewalks are devoid of pedestrians. The only reason people would be in the park would be to walk their dogs in monotonous loops. The only reason people would be on the sidewalk would be to jog with their ear canals plugged up.
Is this all normal? Is this what society used to be like? How do you think these young Americans' great-great-grandparents would have reacted? America has entered a strange new age of social disconnectedness. Sadly, most young Americans do not even know they are in it, since they have never experienced anything else.
Dead or vacant souls are becoming just the norm in many places in the states (Though it crops up in some other places). It might bring some basic
assumptions about the "Common human experience" into question. What are we to make of millions of people who seem destined to languish as
essentially skin covered vegetables? Broccoli with skin....
I would add though, that much of Western Europe faces the same danger. Just listen in the right places for older Europeans talking about similar things...its out there.
And so it is...sad, sad and sad etc. Then what? I guess you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Becoming more like Western Europe is
a fools errand, soon to be made more obvious as the consequences of demographic collapse play out. At one time America was a rural land based society.
As it became an industrial/technology oriented urban culture, many of those land based values were lost. An intelligent discussion of it is beyond the scope of this forum.
Outwest
Guardian article about Edward Bernays.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/200 ... reducation
The Century Of The Self - Full Length Documentary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/200 ... reducation
The Century Of The Self - Full Length Documentary
-
gsjackson
- Elite Upper Class Poster
- Posts: 3761
- Joined: June 12th, 2010, 7:08 am
- Location: New Orleans, LA USA
- Contact:
I'm trying to recall if Sut Jholy appeared in Century of the Self. Both were staples of the Introduction to Mass Communication course at the Univ. of Wisconsin when I was a TA for it. Both highly recommended. Century of the Self can be found more or less in its entirety on youtube. There's nothing you can watch on video that is more useful in explaining the kinds of problems that arise in a narcisisstic consumer soceity like the US.
While I don't want to veer off into an anti-semitic rant, it's probably worth pointing out that Bernays, Freud's nephew, was on the Creel Commitee with Walter Lippmann, who was also Jewish and probably America's leading public intellectual circa 1920 to 1968. The Creel Committee was the amazingly successful propaganda arm of the US government during WWI. Lippmann coined the term "engineering of consent," believing that democracy didn't really work and that the masses had to be led by an enlightened elite that manufactured their consent through the media of mass communication. He famously debated John Dewey about this for 30 years.
This enlightened elite manipulating the masses through the media tend to be Jewish. Most influential in recent years (though he died in 1973) has been Leo Strauss, patron saint of the neocons, who believed it was necessary to keep the US in a hair-trigger state of war readiness, in order to protect, he claimed, the interests of "the West." I think, though, that Strauss's main concern, and that of the neocons, has been protecting Israel's interests.
While I don't want to veer off into an anti-semitic rant, it's probably worth pointing out that Bernays, Freud's nephew, was on the Creel Commitee with Walter Lippmann, who was also Jewish and probably America's leading public intellectual circa 1920 to 1968. The Creel Committee was the amazingly successful propaganda arm of the US government during WWI. Lippmann coined the term "engineering of consent," believing that democracy didn't really work and that the masses had to be led by an enlightened elite that manufactured their consent through the media of mass communication. He famously debated John Dewey about this for 30 years.
This enlightened elite manipulating the masses through the media tend to be Jewish. Most influential in recent years (though he died in 1973) has been Leo Strauss, patron saint of the neocons, who believed it was necessary to keep the US in a hair-trigger state of war readiness, in order to protect, he claimed, the interests of "the West." I think, though, that Strauss's main concern, and that of the neocons, has been protecting Israel's interests.
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post