people's personalities are too heavily based on the media they consume and it'll only get worse, amirite?

"Oh what, you mean you READ something? How dare you read things, and absorb them, and recombine them, or <gasp!> agree with them? How dare you form a worldview? What are you, some kind of sheep?" 🙄 🤦‍♂️

I mostly agree. People should think critically about what they consume. However, I think "originality" can be very difficult in this fast moving age, and it's much easier to achieve originality by using twists on preexisting ideas. I think a big issue you're trying to point out is how easy it is for media algorithms to trap you into a bubble fed off your confirmation bias, which is totally true.

So you're woke?

What does that have to do with anything?

Like is this just you complaining about "woke" people?

Also the people who say these things are the most unoriginal people out there lol.

Are you aware people can think for themselves?

OP finds out that media shapes culture

yep it's called drinking the Kool-Aid

Not mine.

I agree to a certain point. Used to have a friend who's whole personality was basically her Tik Tok fyp. all that left her mouth was Tik Tok references and jokes. If you whole personality is based around social media, thats wrong. But, we also consume media that we like and it similar to our personality, and we can copy some of that media too. It just shouldn't get to the point where social media is the only reason you have a personality.

There's a lot of people I know who just seem to repeat a lot of rhetoric without truly exploring or dissecting the meaning of what they're saying and elaborating/ adding to those ideas. It definitely seems to be a coping mechanism to a certain extent.

As a Gen Xer my personality is like 20% John Hughes movies, 20% Mtv bumper shorts, 20% VH1 Popup Video facts, and the rest is commercials and the movie Airplane!.

TLDR: Don't be an NPC

I agree with this take, there are a lot of NPCs that just follow the herd or the media without doing research and forming their own opinion.

Damnnnn i literally caught myself doing this yesterday... better late than never i guess.
Until cooler heads prevail the best we might hope for is a respectful agree to disagree.
You would think with all the brilliant minds and free thinkers out there that a formula for compromise or understanding could be found. ❤️🤍💙

Totally agree. Instead of people just using their own common sense and knowing instinctually what is right or wrong to form their own opinions they listen to other people ( with agendas and prejudices ) and form their judgements from there. And worse they act out on them to a worse degree.

I agree but with a caveat.

I don't think it's an issue in terms of fictional media, people like escapism and it's fine if they are passionate about it and share it with others

But it becomes an issue when people form core beliefs or take serious action based on misconceptions, archetypes or stereotypes that they media they consume reinforces. Like for example a show having a harmful racial stereotype that someone then commits to belief

Oh you like hip hop? Why cause you HEARD a bunch of songs you like from somewhere?

The only part I agree with is humor because I've met too many people who think they are funny as a personality trait, but then all they do is quote movies they didn't write or share memes they didn't make.

Thats how culture works chief

Peoples personalities are based on the society around them and not just randomly generated like npcs in a game

Um yeah, thats how personalities are formed. They come from our surroundings and the Memes passed down generation to generation. The arts have consistently been the cultural mover of humanity since the beginning whether music, paintings, plays, oratory speeches and debates, etc.

199% true. its crazy how many people are influenced by the media they consume. and yeah i fully believe it'll get worse.

Wow you read books and they informed your opinions about the world and your ideology?
You didn't live in a cave devoid of all human contact until you apriori figured out what you think about the world?

I had my f* up personality way before tick tock and all that social media b*** showed up trust me

This edgy teenager definitely thinks anyone who espouses any popular opinion or really just any opinion that's different from their own is just a brainwashed sheep, aping popular media because they lack the amazing critical thinking skills they possess. I Guarantee it (I regurgitated that gem from Men's Warehouse.)

I'm pretty sure this has always been the case. There was probably at least one guy in ancient Mesopotamia who said something along the lines of "Gilgamesh is just like me fr"

people don't live or exist in vacuums. we're imprints of the world around us, our culture, our upbringing, the media we consume, the music we enjoy etc.

Did you just watch good will hunting

I understand what you mean, but I personally do this because I have a hard time connecting with people and thinking of things to say on the spot when talking. This is a pretty common trait of those with social anxiety, like me. Not saying all people that do this have social anxiety, though. Trust me, I've had my fair share of cringelords who base their entire personality off online propaganda. It's painful to watch sometimes. 😅

Depends on to what degree people are allowing media to shape them. If it's becoming their entire personality, then okay, it's an issue. So yeah I agree with you.

There's a lot of people who are just reciting what they see on Twitter or wherever else and do 0 research on their own

We live in a world that has morphed into a "I need it now!" mentality. Not only that but it seems everyone wants to know but nobody wants to read about it or even answer their door anymore. You want to know? Answer your fu*king door! Read a fact filled article, not some opinion piece via TikTok or fb or whatever.

Idk, but it seems like there are way too many people that need to go outside and actually find themselves instead of acting off of social media.

I actually want to hear more from you on this. Was this triggered by a conversation you had with someone?

You're not wrong, OP!

^{just about 3 decades late}, ^that's ^all!

Humans have been doing this for thousands of years at this point, regurgitating opinions you heard elsewhere and pretending they're your own was a thing long before social media.

As a side note, I think there are too many people who base their entire personalities off being a contrarian and putting themselves above the rest of the general population solely based on the fact that they themselves "don't like social media.".

As someone who plays a video game where the majority of the community is a bunch of children and teenagers regurgitating the same dead meme over and over again or trying way too hard to be edgy and funny but end up being cringey, I agree with this

I'm confused. What do you want people to do?

Come up with quirky catchphrases by themselves? I don't even know what you mean by personality, like my interests? Of course they're based on the media I consume.

Do you think people's level of honesty, pride, empathy, ambition etc, is determined by media? Because thats more like personality

Me and my friend were talking about this. It doesn't make us necessarily unique, it's just frustrating how people become so easily predictable by how similar and influenced they are. I gave it a shot under the guise that "everyone's a unique snowflake, don't be mean!" But when I could already predict what they're gonna say, it becomes unfun and disheartening

Yeah too late for me I'm afraid. My personality is The Magnus Archives and maybe musicals. Save yourselves before you fall down the pit of obsession like I did otherwise you'll be constantly drawing eyes and gore.

Social norms and trends have always dictated how people behave and present themselves. Technology has just make the process much easier to make and see.

My personality comes from books because that's the majority of the media I consume :)

Oh you like HORROR MOVIES?!

So you got your personality from thin air? Are you telling me we're not supposed to be shaped by the environment we live in?

we are products of our environment

Our personalities are literally formed by our experiences of course things we like such as media are part of it

Explains it using a movie example. I love it.

You realize, your entire party, is exactly what you're complaining about.

31m here. Media determines a lot of personality when you are young. It kinda always has. Music, movies, sports, games, etc. It's all been around for decades. Once you get older things change and your personality becomes more about relationships, work, family, etc.

Maybe its different with the younger generations. My personality was shaped by my childhood trauma, genetics and my parents.

Well, if we see it from a "world dynamics" perspective, like geopolitics, actual documented war conspiracies that happened in the past and what's actually behind a lot of historical occurences from a political and geopolitical standpoint... well, most people know next to nothing about the world and how it works. (No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, just a political science doctor).

Some people actively push to fill this void with all the possible BS they can come up with, forging people that spontaneously come up with probably the wrongest possible ideas about how the world works and also enough narcissism and entitledness to demand that this wonky ideology is deemed right and never proven wrong.

Nothing has changed except the speed of information. The Sopranos didn't have the internet fame, but it didn't take long for every guy at the gym to start saying FORGETABOUTIT etc. Humans like to mimic trends. Be a little more creative.

This is not only an unpopular opinion but it's also untrue. You're describing one kind of person, temperamentally, and it it's not that their personality is based on media, it's that they're suggestible, likely isolated, and believe that doing as other do will bring them acceptance. These things are not a personality but a reflection of a personality style. This is also more just being a hater than presenting an "unpopular opinion." This page has a lot of just like hater energy, let people live.

let me introduce you to the russebuss

How do you not from what you seen with movies and videos or read in books or who your friends are how you were raise?

I think it's other way round. People create their opinion and surround themselves with media that strengthen their view.

It's always been this way. Now it's on the internet.

Y'all need psychedelics. Create your culture.

it's a little hard not to make my personality about being trans when it's a defining part of who i am and how people see me

I don't understand how else you think personality and opinion forms if not from the media we consume, the experiences we live, and the culture we surround ourselves with

This isn't even an unpopular opinion it's just ignorant lmao

You have Bernays to thank for this

So, since I don't consume media, I have no personality and it'll only get worse.

Word. But I got my sense of humor from dealing w trauma

Were just computers. We become what we consume and always will