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Comment by jl6 | Hacker News Reader

> It seems as though they are looking, hard, for identity, for validation…

I think the word the author is searching for is anomie. Kids used to develop their personalities via the strictures of a dominant culture, or in opposition to one. Now, there’s no dominant culture. There are a thousand, or a million, little cultures. There’s no big overarching societal goal/narrative to hook yourself to (or to oppose).

A sibling comment quotes Abe Simpson on being with it. I prefer a different Simpsons quote, from the ants on the space shuttle:

“Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!”

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I think that maybe the author is projecting here. I would argue that that search for validation from the previous generations was in some ways invented by the advertising industry - and now it's not working anymore - but the author is still feeling the sway of it.

The author was given a faux need that the people she's projecting on don't even consider at all in the framework of their lives.

> some ways invented by the advertising industry - and now it's not working anymore

There’s an entire occupation of “influencer” that basically exists for GenZ and younger.

The idea that advertising is not working anymore when if anything advertising is more insidious than ever before and is targeting kids at increasingly earlier ages is clearly false.

It's the preferred occupation even for Gen Z and younger. Get paid to go on vacations, get products for free and have thousands (millions) of people desperately want your life as you talk about it endlessly. The perfect job in the teenage mind.

You're right, of course, about "influencers" and advertising and how they work now. But so was the poster to whom you responded, in that those do not create a shared mono-culture.

What you see here is that the forces are in effect as they have been for a while, if anything moreso than ever as you say, but they are not on a metaphorical frequency the author can pick up on anymore.

yes - it was easier to create themes in impressionable folk (mods, rockers, punks, hippies, etc) - artificial creations that somewhat assuaged a feeling and sell a lot of product.

That’s not really how it works. Sell a lot of product happens when capitalism takes hold after the fact to capture profit. See capitalist realism.

It seems to me that the author is observing that in the past you would have sub-cultures based on lived experiences (preppy…New England prep school, goth…alienated teenagers, etc) that would develop an aesthetic, whereas today the aesthetic exists without any underlying sub culture.

The author is using this observation as a jumping off point to notice that as far as they can tell there just aren’t any lives sub cultures anymore.

It’s the lack of these sub cultures that kids can participate in that the author is bemoaning.

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