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Anthropology of Postmodernist Popularity

  • Public posts on social media validate your popularity. For example, how many people post on your Facebook wall plus how many comments your own posts attract define how popular you are.
  • This is the contemporary form of the old need to be popular and cool among your peers (students, coworkers, friends, family).
  • Ultimately, it is still all about insecurity and self-esteem.
  • This has been around ever since. Each generation has looked for ways to deal with their insecurity and increase their self-esteem. Social media are just tools to do it in a new way in a new age.
  • The good news is that the Facebook generation does not need to be in gangs anymore in order to be cool and popular. And maybe even drugs will become less popular: social media are the new drug of choice.