Also over the decades: “We need to watch out for X encouraging us to over consume and feel bad about ourselves.” With X being keeping up with the Joneses/our neighbors > Photoshopped fashion and lifestyle magazines > then Pinterest > then broader social media.

Also, we keep going in a cycle of enjoying our various types of celebrities as an escape from reality and a way to enjoy a magical dream (in this phase we don’t want them to talk about major world events) to getting fed up with how unattainable the dream they are showing is (in this phase we criticize them for not talking about major world events). And, the audience is often somewhere in flux between these two phases, so it’s hard to please everyone.

As someone who grew up in the last heydays of fashion magazines reigning supreme, I appreciate the lessons I have been given of try to recognize what I am attempting to fill my heart with each day, recognize when I’m feeling temptation and FOMO, enjoy celebrities as entertainment, and enjoy crafting my own life outside of trends. Still hard, though, when I’m having a difficult time in life and I crave the feeling of control that choosing and buying an item gives me, albeit for a short time.