FRONTLINE: the pbs documentary series not the flea medicine

Generation Like is totally bananas

Did anyone else watch it? I feel the need to double-down on my already rabid distaste for having things sold to me at every turn, but it also verified that this is definitely a generational thing. I think I took "I don't want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything" super duper seriously when I was 14 and never let go. No so for kids today, that's for sure! I didn't feel old so much as I felt right. Seeing the guy who handles celebrity social media made me sick, he was gross. And that poor Hunger Games girl. I had a student who was like that for Reba McEntire, of all people. Anyway, I recommend this one for a lighter Frontline.

Also I had no idea who Tyler Oakley was before seeing this. Oh and the little girl with braces broke my heart.

There are only 2 ilx posts about Tyler Oakley (one of them is mine) and they both say "I have no idea who this guy is."

I can't stop thinking about this tbh. The whole notion that i should aggressively advertise every aspect of my preferences, opinions, activities, face/body, etc and cultivate a group of people who pay attention to me is so antithetical to the way I've thought for my entire life that it's not exactly surprising that I'm so horrified. Still, maybe this just means that I'm overly modest and old fashioned at best and paranoid about my privacy at worst. Either way, the worldview shown in this doc is powerfully repellent to me atm.

kids who like ian somerhalder like junk food and makeup, whod of thunk it

I'm sad I missed that one!! Is it going to show again?

You can prob watch it online -- all their movies stream on the website, at least most of em do.

the worst part of this was def this kid -https://twitter.com/Babyscummy

the rest - eh

You can want Frontline online, and you have been able to for a long time now! I used to watch it a lot around the time of the Second Iraq War. Here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/generation-like/

The whole notion that i should aggressively advertise every aspect of my preferences, opinions, activities, face/body, etc and cultivate a group of people who pay attention to me is so antithetical to the way I've thought for my entire life that it's not exactly surprising that I'm so horrified.

OK Cupid makes me really conflicted for this reason, since it necessitates some degree of capitulation to this way of thinking, and encourages you to consider others this way too. Going to watch this as soon as I get the time!

er, watch, as well as want.

A few things that stood out to me about Generation Like
-every time you 'like' something, you're making somebody money.
-the notion that this generation has no idea that they are doing the advertising for companies, that companies plan this in such as way that kids never see that it wasn't their idea. I guess this isn't anything new, but it seems different to me.
-no one understood what selling out could mean.

I loved the sellout thing. I feel like the only period in human history when children (not adults) were invested in the idea of selling out was the 90s. Even in the 90s there were plenty of kids willing to commodify their tastes. The narrative of Little Scumbag neglects to mention that he is part of a tradition of skateboard video clowns. Tyler Oakley could have been on the Mickey Mouse Club. Was it really better when children were being used ... the old fashioned way?

Watching this now (thanks, Roku!) and realizing this generation of kids is pretty much incomprehensible to me.

The girl with braces and the baby scumbag parts were definitely the creepiest for me. Way to celebrate the sexualization of children, Internet.

I dunno...they seem comprehensible to me? Kids want attention and lack the wisdom to choose self-restraint. That's always been the case.

Yeah nothing was shocking to me, just showed me how little involved I am with the internet. I guess it surprises me that people actually become famous by way of youtube, because I've never taken it seriously, I don't think I've ever watched a viral video. I hardly ever use youtube for anything other than occasional music videos. Same with Facebook, which is mostly photos of my daughter. Which is what concerns me about how things are progressing. This will be the world my daughter will grow up involved in, where ads aren't even thought of as ads. I mostly hate ads, companies trying to sell me stuff. I would pay for cable if it had no commercials. I would even pay a lot more for internet service with no ads, that would be a perfect world for me.

that repulsion with advertising/being sold something is the most lingering part of the feeling in the air where/when i grew up. my mom told me in 7th gr that people wear brand names on the outside of their clothing because they're insecure and i have pretty much believed that my entire life. to see brands and brand loyalty (and even personal branding, if i'm going there) become so dominant -- it's just repellent to me, i have no other way to describe my reaction to it.

nah sometimes the shirts look good!

Bumper stickers bother me, particularly the "My child made 17th place at Bumblebee Elementary School" ilk. But I accept certain kinds of commercialization as inevitable, and it's impossible to draw a line. Clothes with brand names on the outside are repellent but Polo or Dior insignias aren't? If he can wear it well, I tend to give him a pass.

polo and dior are repellant tbf

jacob you can install adblocker on almost any web browser, its simple, fast, and free

Ha, I don't use adblocker because I get a perverse thrill out of seeing who advertisers think I am and how absurdly wrong they are.

i can understand that instinct but i get an even bigger thrill out of watching youtube videos whenever i want without waiting 5 seconds to click the "skip" button

that's a really good point
i would like to get rid of that
maybe i don't need that particular annoying pleasure in my life anymore -- it's not like they'll ever get it right anyway

i am the same way with terrible people who mysteriously became my facebook friends! i wont ever hide/de-friend them no matter how terrible their posting is

oh yeah, facebook is the best place for investment-free people watching.

Yeesh that Mini Jackass kid is the monster that this whole "like" economy creates. But at the same time, that kind of sponsorship has been the central goal of skaters/snowboarders/surfers hell, just athletes since the beginning. Plus corporations have been sponsoring (and thus controlling) content since corporations and content first existed so I don't really see this as some kind of new horrible thing (just the same old horrible thing).

Except for the part where huge multi-million dollar corporations are exploiting teens for free labor. That is grosser than gross. Hopefully people will realize eventually that they can't pay off student loans with "sparks" (whatever they are) and things will shift again.

I think the biggest emotion this doc made me feel is relief that I don't give a shit about creating an identity or branding myself and also that I deleted my Facebook page when I did.

I also assume that there is an anti-branding/marketing/liking counter culture out there, plus while there was some ethnic diversity among the kids profiled, it definitely focused on a limited socioeconomic sample. I guess I see this more as a look at the way a certain segment of kids operate as opposed to the way things are universally.

Tyler Oakley looks like somebody I know and it's driving me nuts because I can't figure out who it is.

i couldn't help thinking how the hunger games girl is gonna feel watching this footage of herself in 5-10 years

i really hope rushkoff does another one of these in 2026.

She may not be devoted to The Hunger Games anymore, but that kind of impulse doesn't go away easily. She'll be wrapped up in something else by 2026.

that repulsion with advertising/being sold something is the most lingering part of the feeling in the air where/when i grew up. my mom told me in 7th gr that people wear brand names on the outside of their clothing because they're insecure and i have pretty much believed that my entire life.

I got this line too! Heavily. It's revealing, though, that it convicts obvious, visible advertising, but doesn't address that all choices are products of environment and input. Like, if advertising is bad, and "selling out" is bad, and being swayed by social forces is bad (made to desire products or brands or even desiring of popularity/approval at all), then the ultimate good is "neutrality" or some kind of purity of personal development, as if such a thing is even possible.

When I was in the 4th grade I convinced my grandparents to take me to Lufkin where there was a skate shop to buy clothes and a board. When we were driving back my grandpa said, "you know with all of those t shirts you got you're gonna be a walking advertisement for those companies." I didn't fully get what he was saying, but I felt self conscious. It did soured my excitement at finally having cool skate clothes. I don't think I was aware of it at the time, but most of the things my grandpa lectured me about was preparing me for becoming punk rock and anti-corporate.

lol with skate brands, I was like, fuck u, I'll happily advertise for Vision in contrast to my Guess-obsessed classmates.

grandpa otm.

Advertising gives an identity to people who otherwise would have to go without.

I think choosing who to advertise for is a valid choice. Hopefully our choices aren't and will never be ONLY various corporate giants, I mean every time you wear a BAND T-SHIRT you're "advertising"! It's not a better or worse method of identification than any other.

wearing band tshirts is kind of embarrassing though
i still do it on occasion, but the only tshirt with an ad on it that i feel really good about is the shirt for my friend's record store because i love to tell people to go there.

I think about 80% of my clothing is band t-shirts. Always found it to be a fun conversation-starter (or stopper, like the stoner kid who shouted at me on the street, "Hey, Bob Marley sucks!" while I was wearing my Marvin Gaye t-shirt).

xp I thought you would say that. :D

I think choosing who to advertise for is a valid choice. Hopefully our choices aren't and will never be ONLY various corporate giants, I mean every time you wear a BAND T-SHIRT you're "advertising"! It's not a better or worse method of identification than any other.

Glad you brought this up - I was about to ask whether/how much daylight people see between wearing a Nike shirt, a FUBU shirt, a Lacoste shirt and a Black Flag shirt.

Of the t-shirts I still wear, about half of them are things I got from participating in charity events - bike rides, blood drives, etc. - and therefore advertising orgs whose values I actually share. The other half are Star Wars because I am a giant fucking nerd.

If I were given a choice of not displaying corporate logos on my clothing or anything else I own, I would definitely take it. The practice of putting logos prominently on merchandise is so universal now that I do not have that choice. It has become compulsory. However, I have been known to remove or efface logos.

this isn't really all about logos and tshirts though -- brand advertising is only part of it. there's another part of the message that says that you don't exist (or exist *enough*) unless other people recognize you and appreciate you publicly, so you have to put everything out there front and center (your opinions, your preferences, your 'likes', every aspect of your identity, and even your physical self) so people can see it and applaud for you. the idea that i should be advertising myself at all, much less that aggressively (to what end?), is another part of i find off-putting.

tbh I have zero visible logos on my clothing I'm wearing and am kind of annoyed by the one subtle stitched logo on my jacket

there's another part of the message that says that you don't exist (or exist *enough*) unless other people recognize you and appreciate you publicly, so you have to put everything out there front and center (your opinions, your preferences, your 'likes', every aspect of your identity, and even your physical self) so people can see it and applaud for you.

Yes. This relentless need for public validation is difficult to watch. So is the need to announce what it is about you that makes you "you." Show don't tell, kids. Show don't tell.

I think the need for approval is an integral part of human nature but this is a new way of garnering that approval that is pretty interesting to think about.

Xp yeah, I agree with that. (I half-jokingly said something on Twitter a couple of weeks ago about "History will mark the moment we stopped talking about people and started talking about 'personal brands' as where it all went wrong.")

In other news, SECRETS OF THE VATICAN was extremely grim.

That sounds like a good one.

The kids putting together the facegroup profile for their friend had a slumber party makeover feel to it that was kind of heartwarming in an uncanny way.

If I were given a choice of not displaying corporate logos on my clothing or anything else I own, I would definitely take it. The practice of putting logos prominently on merchandise is so universal now that I do not have that choice. It has become compulsory. However, I have been known to remove or efface logos.

― Aimless, Tuesday, February 25, 2014 2:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shoes are the worst! I have not bought a new pair of athletic shoes (broadly defined) in years and years because they all feature huge motherfucking logos on them.