
The Cosmetic Class - thisisit
https://zandercutt.com/2018/07/16/the-cosmetic-class/
======
afpx
Reading this kind of reminded me of old Christian Slater movies like Pump up
the Volume and Heathers, and other movies of the GenX era. (But, I’m sure
films of the 60s fit, as well)

Hopefully this is a sign that this generation is forming its identity and
ready to express it with some real cultural movements! I’ve been waiting
eagerly for their cultural identity to emerge and express itself with
authentic art, music, film, etc.

However, I also find the essay ironic. When the Internet first went
mainstream, one phenomenon was “the lurker” - the fact that most, the mass
majority, of internet users only “consumed content” (although, back then it
wasn’t called content). That’s because few of us felt confident enough to
claim enough expertise to share much. Therefore, most of us just “lurked”. We
let the experts speak, and we indulged in surfing on their knowledge.

In this “Instagram era”, though, everyone is expected to be a “content
creator”. (e.g. everyone has a github!) But, to be one, one unfortunately
misses out on a long history of prior work. One gets so bogged down by
creating new content and reading all of the new content created within the
previous few hours, that much of the past 108 years of knowledge and wisdom
isn’t fully accessible. And, although the author seems to try to escape that
vortex, they also seem to have ignored that they’re mostly reinventing ideas
that were created between McLuhan and 2010.

But, that is ok! I actually read the whole thing and enjoyed it (because it
also kinda reminded me of reading Zines). Yeah, as others have said, it could
use some editing, but at least it has paragraphs!

~~~
flanbiscuit
> I’ve been waiting eagerly for their cultural identity to emerge and express
> itself with authentic art, music, film, etc.

I think it's already happening/happened, it's just not as easy to see and
commodify because media is not being funneled through a few mediums. I don't
think we'll ever see these large generational "identities" like we did pre-
internet and especially pre-social-media. I predict that from now on the
defining identity trait is that there is no defining trait. You can choose one
identity from the many pre-existing ones or create your own, then find your
community online to make you feel good about your choice.

I also enjoyed the article. Not perfect but hey, it's fostering discussion.
I'm actually more interested in their authenticity article, which I will read
next

------
_bxg1
Sometimes I think the deepest, most absurdist corners of the internet are its
last bastion of humanity. Where the memes are fueled by people's desire to be
so incredibly nonsensical and inscrutable as to defy marketability. Of course,
if you look at recent trends in corporate Twitter accounts you can see
companies doing their very best to appropriate even that.

~~~
trophycase
Even commercials are tapping into absurdist themes. I can remember a few asian
ones I've seen but a recent one that comes to mind is the newest Sprite
commercial where the kid is running around the house yelling about how they
are out of sprite.

~~~
flanbiscuit
Haven't commercials been doing absurdism for a while? Speaking of Asian ones,
it's been known that Japanese commercials can be weird AF (to the western
mind) that it was made fun of in the Simpsons with the Me Sparkle episode back
in the early 90s. US has also been creating absurdist commercials pre-internet
for a while now as well

~~~
elboru
So they aren't weird for the Asian mind? I doubt it.

~~~
flanbiscuit
Oh, I put that caveat in there because I am not Asian so I did not want to
speak on behalf of Asians. Sorry if that wasn't clear. My assumption is that
it is weird for everybody but maybe there were some cultural things I could
have been missing.

------
grive
I really, really dislike this kind of medium-to-long form article that don't
bother to even expose some sort of context (topic introductory line). This is
incredibly disrespectful to the reader. You read the first half trying to put
the pieces together, while given that this is a proto-longform article (does
not have the length, but has the tone), there is fluff added here and there
for flavor. This is so frustrating to read.

> The truth, then, is this: our generation was raised with the understanding
> that the image we portrayed mattered more than who we actually were not out
> of some malevolent, externally imposed agenda, but because it was actually
> true. The result was that nothing we ever did felt organic; instead,
> everything felt like a checked box.

As every generation before? Why even speak about generation here? This seems
like an absurd reduction from the author, while this is the kind of thing you
learn to recognize as you age and you start seeing the word with your own
eyes. Most people becomes disillusioned as time goes on, seeing how much
public action is fake.

A much more interesting analysis would be to show how the new engaging
platforms distord this longstanding social behavior (signaling), amplifying it
or distording it. But to say that they are an "Instagram" generation is giving
far too much credit to Instagram. The world was not "disrupted" by Instagram,
it was only a lens and a way to capitalize on this behavior.

I could go on with the "lost authenticity", but I feel I'm just trying to
justify the time taken to read this empty piece.

~~~
V-2
_" I am 23 as I write this"_. I can't say I'm surprised, and the author is
clearly of the "I love the sound of my own voice" type. That's how the piece
reads at least. Narcissism isn't only about looks.

~~~
freetime2
My first thought when reading your comment was “wow that’s more sharply
critical than the author deserves”.

But on second thought it is a bit ironic that a piece so critical of
“signaling” and empty gestures (the author cites things like joining student
counsel) would be posted to the author’s personal blog. I think it would have
leant credibility to the article if the author had the self awareness to point
out the fact that blogs are a form of self promotion not too far removed from
Instagram.

~~~
V-2
It is of course ironic, but perhaps it is also to be expected.

It might be that we're more sensitive to - and insightful about - the social
phenomena that stem from personality traits not unlike our own (on some level
at least).

------
hypnotist
> Its business, after all, is driven by engagement, and because engagement is
> well-understood to be eroded by the presence of nuance and depth — two
> traits that are essential for a complete understanding of anything —
> Instagram promotes neither.

This must be the best description of fb/insta mechanics.

------
stealthmodeclan
Yes, it's absurd. I've my 20 able developer friends who weren't able to find
job despite being very good developers. They were always messing up
interviews.

Yes, they can solve whatever tricky questions you throw at them because
they've lots of experience working on low level stuff.

People's eyes are so used to Instagram people that they think less attractive
people are less healthy so they'll not be good at problem solving which takes
great genes. This is what most have concluded from Instagram photos of
bodybuilders/athletes/celebrities.

I am guilty of this myself, I've dated many beautiful ladies who i chased with
passion. They all had invested lot of money into their looks. They always
complained about not being well off like me but now you know why.This is what
attracted me to them. Face is the first thing i notice, i was young and naive
and got fooled by clever makeup. So why you can't do same as a man? Hack your
way to success.

If you are a good programmer and still not getting paid well or getting
promoted faster, then it's probably this.

Here comes the twist. We finally figured out it has to do with their
appearance. No one gives this as reason to you, they simply reject you period.

So we got a writer and analyst, to figure out what the market truly wants then
created a script and we gave it to the programmers to memorize.

Add some professional make-up artists, took some photographs at a studio with
many others (pretending to be at some event of great importance). This went
straight to their Instagram account.

And 16 out of 20 programmer friends showed up for interview and got a
successful placement.

But still 4 of them didn't find job yet.

What is this? This is new normal and this is what people who are interviewing
and recruiting want.

~~~
LandR
The fuck?

This is a joke right? I would have thought development would be the one sector
unaffected by look / image etc.

Unless you're interviewing for some hipster startup.

~~~
stealthmodeclan
> This is a joke right? I would have thought development would be the one
> sector unaffected by look / image etc.

I know this guy who used to screen models at a Hollywood studio. Now he works
as a recruiter in a tech company (he met a VP at stripclub who got him in),
what do you think he does?

They are still same people! They look for same signals. They give it weird
names like vibes / cultural fit or whatever.

~~~
V-2
They are still same people no doubt. It's quite typical for your IT recruiter
to have screened Hollywood models back in the day.

------
Ensorceled
There are several comments complaining about the lack of an introduction or
topic sentence. Maybe it’s me, but I knew what ride I was on from the large
clear title and subtitle:

“The Cosmetic Class”

“What happens when a society with a penchant for the cosmetic meets a medium
dominated by it?”

~~~
akvadrako
That says nothing about if it's worth reading the article.

I wish every article came with an abstract and conclusion like a scientific
paper. Generally that's enough and you don't even need to read the middle.

~~~
TeMPOraL
That was supposed to be gold standard. The "inverted pyramid"[0]. It's taught
to journalists as very important. It's also universally ignored everywhere.

I've seen _one_ news source do that, by putting a bullet-point summary at the
beginning of the article. Sadly, I don't remember which one was that (I don't
usually pay attention to _who_ is writing, when an article lands on HN). Most
others prefer to do the inverse - bait you with the headline, make the
beginning confusing, and only later on reveal the important details.

\--

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_\(journalism\))

------
kevin_thibedeau
One could just live in the real world where you don't know or care what a
finsta is.

~~~
cgoecknerwald
Eh. For many young people, this IS the "real world". These are their
experiences. It's not productive to discount so many other people's realities.

~~~
cirgue
Nope, it is plenty productive to call out corporate pseudo-cultural production
for what it is: fantasy.

~~~
TeMPOraL
This isn't the first generation to live in a "corporate pseudo-cultural
production" world.

Movies and movie conventions. Baseball cards and other popular collectibles.
Sport events. Music events. All those things are just "corporate pseudo-
cultural productions". Yet they're also the culture, because - for better or
worse - commerce is part of our lives too.

~~~
cirgue
> Yet they're also the culture, because - for better or worse - commerce is
> part of our lives too.

And I am saying it is enormously productive and beneficial to be skeptical of
those things.

------
_bxg1
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the movie Ingrid Goes West. It's
this article in the form of a brilliant dark-comedy.

------
scns
I do not like being so negative, but i feel like reading this article was a
waste of time.

------
dmschulman
I think it's worth noting that the author of this piece has a private
Instagram account.

------
carapace
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_sentence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_sentence)
!?

~~~
saagarjha
Are you asking why the author chose not to include one?

~~~
tranchms
The context would have helped immensely. Instead I had to read the first half
of the article again after I finished.

The author captures the essence of the vapid absurdism permeating social
media, and our culture more broadly.

