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Comment by hateful | Hacker News Reader

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.

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> 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.

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