Ok, so let me preface this by noting that I am a frustrated artist trying to make it in a difficult industry.
With that said, I think we need to stop telling kids to follow their dreams.
I get really attached to some terrible takes sometimes, especially if they are based on what I perceive to be an interesting premise, and this is one of them. But hear me out, it’s got legs.
We are living in a culture obsessed with many things; celebrity, violence, tentacle porn. But among the most troubling trends, is this massive industry built around selling dreams – maybe more specifically, selling the idea of chasing a dream.
It’s such a pervasive problem, that a lot of us are starting to believe we should.
That’s not necessarily a good thing for two reasons: societal bandwidth and Hitler. Let me explain.
I don’t take joy in being the “anti-dream” guy. It’s admittedly a difficult stance to take as an immigrant.
But I just think that sometimes it’s practical to discourage what makes others happy. We overly idealize this notion that chasing your dreams is a good thing, and all I’m saying is that some dreams should stay just that.
Maybe it’s just my algo, but boy does there seem to be a lot of inspirational shit out there these days. Stills of uplifting quotes, spiritual leaders telling you to fill out a “New Moon” journal, videos of men degrading other men to encourage them to achieve something? I don’t get that last one either but I don’t like to kink shame.
Point is; the vast majority of the messaging out there is generally encouraging of people’s pursuits, but our society only has bandwidth for so many people. Sure, it’s easier than ever to achieve some level of celebrity, but that’s part of the problem. We have too many untalented people seeing other untalented people finding millions of followers and they think “hey, I can do that too!”
The worst part is – they totally can.
The social media landscape has a low barrier of entry, overemphasizes novelty, and preys on our short attention spans. This has created an environment in which “content creator” is now a legitimate career path. We used to make fun of people who wanted to make their living through YouTube and now we live in a generation filled with people who actually did it.
That’s all to say; how could you blame someone working a soul-crushing 9-to-5 for taking a shot at landing the algorithmic lottery? It’s not their fault they are falling victim to the dream merchants selling them Dude Wipes and Dr. Squatch soap.
It’s so hard to not be tempted by the possibility of making money without having a real job. It kind of makes you question why you are waking up early to build a legacy for someone else, while all we get as a reward is enough money to keep us from poverty and the occasional catered lunch – seriously, I’m so fucking tired of Jimmy John’s.
In any other industry, an oversupply of a product decreases its marketable value, but that’s not true for content. There’s just never enough garbage on that trash pile and there are hordes of people willing to make more because every now and then some idiot becomes a celebrity after tickling the subconscious of the masses in just the right way.
This hypothetical idiot then starts posting about how luxurious their life is and encouraging others to follow their dreams, to “chase after it,” to not give up, as if most of us even have a chance. Because sure, there are many content creators who make legitimately interesting and evocative stuff, but for every one of those, there are hundreds of Instagram models whose only real contribution to society is ass.
It’s just too easy to dream now, it’s too easy to chase it, but let’s face it, most dreams are pretty lame, and we still need janitors. If everyone is out there going after “it,” who is doing all the other important, albeit unglamorous jobs that make our society function.
Despite how mean the internet can be, it’s still pretty easy to find micro pockets of support, either through friends and relatives or through some niche online community that can legitimately fool you into thinking you actually have a chance at “making it” with your poorly remixed reels or GRWM videos. So now we have a flood of bad content and, respectfully, mediocre talent clogging up the attention highways, making it even harder for truly talented and capable people to get through.
I write this knowing how condescending it sounds and being painfully aware of my own hypocrisy because I too am “chasing after it.” I could very well be one of the many untalented, mediocre people creating traffic jams on the way to success. But we are going to ignore that for a moment because it’s my essay and I use moments of self-awareness to forgive my own shortcomings. It’s called self-love and you should try it.
Anyway, I digress –
Dreaming can be a good thing when dreaming is hard. When it takes courage, determination, and hard work to achieve a dream, you get strong people who have to hone skills and overcome out of necessity. When dreaming is hard, achieving a dream is notable, and true talent is venerated and upheld as an example. But when dreaming is easy and seemingly everyone can achieve it, it lowers our collective standard for talent. When you can open your phone and are immediately bombarded with short, shitty bursts of bad content and entertainment, your eye becomes less discerning, less critical, and less capable of differentiating between good and trash.
This does not create a leveled playing field. This skews the existing playing field to the beautiful, the consistent, those devoid of artistic integrity or dignity, and, let’s face it, the lucky. Not always, but enough to be a problem, enough to cause inequity. Enough to make us all a little dumber and less capable of deciding what is deserving of our attention in the first place.
Beyond the strain this dream-positive culture places on our collective attention span, we should just be more careful of which dreams we encourage.
When you post an inspirational quote, you fire a shotgun blast of positivity that hits anyone reading it. Inspiration does not discriminate. So ask yourself, do you really want everyone to follow their dreams? Shouldn’t we want to be a little more careful about who is receiving this message?
Because sure, Martin Luther King had a dream, but so did Adolf Hitler.
Lando Writes Sometimes 