Culture Studies
The greater the systemic problem, the greater the individual’s responsibility to somehow fix it themselves. This hyper-individualism then also pushes people into the greedy arms of the capitalist consumer culture and its $6.8 trillion wellness market, which has — surprise, surprise — grown in parallel with declining well-being.
Who Gets To Be Happy in an Individualistic, Capitalist Economy?
In my experience, the aesthetic trends that gain the most traction are often rooted in broader cultural shifts.
TREND REPORT DECODER: PINTEREST PREDICTS 2026
In a world where care can feel like a sparse resource, the dream of finding “the one” evokes a fantastical reverie, in which one is promised lightness and ease. If only, the right person could arrive, and we can relax into fully being seen, held, and resourced for the rest of our days.
This mindset is one I have been grappling with for much of my... See more
This mindset is one I have been grappling with for much of my... See more
Romance: a function of privatization in Domination culture
“More and more, I am recognizing that how we culturally see romance is imbued with subtle forms of ownership, entitlement to resources, and the disintegration of village life.”
What would a society look like if it achieved enough wealth to free everyone from scarcity.
In short: The first half of the twentieth century was about mastering the physical world, the first half of the twenty-first has been about escaping it.
This shift has moral as well as economic consequences. When a society pushes its citizens to take only financial risks, it hollows out the virtues that once made collective life possible: trust,... See more
This shift has moral as well as economic consequences. When a society pushes its citizens to take only financial risks, it hollows out the virtues that once made collective life possible: trust,... See more
Derek Thompson • The Monks in the Casino
The decline of deviance is mainly a good thing. Our lives have gotten longer, safer, healthier, and richer. But the rise of mass prosperity and disappearance of everyday dangers has also made trivial risks seem terrifying. So as we tame every frontier of human life, we have to find a way to keep the good kinds of weirdness alive. We need new... See more
Adam Mastroianni • The Decline of Deviance
Our super-safe environments may fundamentally shift our psychology. When you’re born into a land of milk and honey, it makes sense to adopt what ecologists refer to as a “slow life history strategy”—instead of driving drunk and having unprotected sex, you go to Pilates and worry about your 401(k). People who are playing life on slow mode care a lot... See more
Adam Mastroianni • The Decline of Deviance
in the past, our social lives were primarily dictated by rules, duty, obligation, and commitment. And in the other parts of the world, it still is. That is how social living is organized. You don’t go to see your grandparents because you feel like it. You go because you have to, because it’s what you do. We have replaced commitments with feeling,... See more