The Media

I've been reading random threads on this site and I've seen posts about SA being a consequence of the age in which we live. I kind of think a lot of my own inability to relate to the world around me comes from the fact that I'm into weird movies and music. Until recently, it's never fully dawned on me how critical television, film, and music are in shaping the way people are and how they turn out. It's as though people are exposed to all sorts suggestions in movies and shows. They see characters and they model themselves after them. From there, it doesn't take long before an entire society becomes comprised of method actors actively playing the roles of the people they've chosen to be. I have so many acquaintances that more or less remind me of specific actors (or at the very least characters they've played) it's starting to weird me out, though to some degree I see it in myself.

It's really surreal to me. It's something I notice more in my generation and the upcoming ones than in older ones. The way things are headed, I envision a world emerging where everyone is basically a copy of a copy of a copy...
A world where fictional characters manifest themselves through real people. A world where the most popular fictional persona's become the standard by which real people must adhere if they wish not to be pariahs.

The very thought of this scares the **** out of me. I don't think it's an accident or coincidence. I think it's social engineering. Maybe I'm over analyzing this. Maybe I should stop being critical and play along. It just doesn't feel natural.

Has this ever occurred to anyone else? Or does it at least seem like it's possible? Is it something worthy of concern or is it just normal and inevitable?

reality check. everyone is influenced by others, be it tv or real life. the media does not have to do anything with SA.

This maybe true for alot of ppl, but not me. I was born with my SA. My VERY FIRST memory is of me having some sort of SA "episode"

I think it was easier having SA in the '90s because so many musicians at the time were awkward or different and praised for it. Being aloof and mysterious was actually in fashion at the time. Nowadays, it's rare to see that because celebrities' personal lives are so intentionally exposed in the media, whether via reality or gossip shows, paparazzi, or their own YouTube channels or podcasts.

Whenever I see something with Kristen Stewart from Twilight in it, I think, "That girl seems very '90s to me." The characters she plays tend to be very "whatever," and in interviews she seems to have a slight case of SA and very dark, self-deprecating qualities. But she also gets this huge backlash among bloggers for having that sort of personality, like people assume that she thinks she's "too good for people." Yet that reserved and aloof personality was completely common in '90s entertainment, and it's also the kind of personality I have because of SA.

Anyway, not to say that this decade's overexposed pop culture created my anxiety, but it definitely doesn't help it at all. Because, as unique as today's musicians try so hard to be, people just aren't as exposed to "weirdoes" as they were before.

I guess the point I was trying to get at initially wasn't so much that the media causes social anxiety, as much it creates a cultural climate in which it's harder to hide that you have it. A huge part of relating to people and being normal comes from humor. If you don't have a sense of humor or don't have a sense of humor that aligns with the media cues that normal people are receptive of, then your chances of having a normal social life are slim.

This is my problem. It's not that I'm totally out of the loop, it's just that things that interest normal people haven't been as impressionable on me as they seem to have been on everyone else. Even though I'm aware of it, responding to it leaves me at a loss. Every once in a while, I'll employ the tactic of making a witty remark modeled off of some interchangeable sitcom character. When I do this, I usually get a warm response but I feel really phony for doing it because it isn't who I am. And yet, this is what everyone else is doing and it's basically the panacea to all of my problems... if that makes sense.

I'd never thought of it like that before - but yeah, life imitating art imitating life, until it becomes some weird feedback loop without reference to anything. It sounds like a good idea for a book.

Yes I agree with this wholeheartedly.