Fast Food Culture // Variant Perception #16

Just one more episode. Just one more swipe. Just one more fry. Impulses everywhere. Another notification, advertisement, and silly video grabbing for attention.

There’s never been a time in history before where the human sense organs (brain included) have been bombarded by more data. A highly tuned force directed like a laser beam at our most sensitive (and reactive) emotional soft spots.

The outcome? That impulse for more, more, more even though we know that we do not need, want, or really even desire more of what we just consumed.

After a night where I spent too much time on Twitter and Instagram before bed, I reflected on how some of my media consumption behaviors share more in common with my relationship to fast food than reading a book. I swipe. I scroll. I read. I consume.

And, in the morning after I wake up I feel less excited, lower energy, and slightly disappointed that I let the dopamine monster take control of the steering wheel.

Which brings up a broader thought loop for me. An observation that I’m noticing and believe to be a helpful framework for modern life. I’m calling it “Fast Food Culture”. How American fast food chains represent a cornerstone symbol of many aspects of modern western culture.

Fast food is quick, cheap, gratifying (but only temporarily), uniform, profitable, superficial, convenient, disposable, and global.

Much all of these same qualities (beneficial or innocent on their own) can be transposed onto core elements of our culture that on the outside might appear great. Yet, just as most everyone now knows that McDonalds is not a great choice when you’re looking out for your health, I don’t believe people associate quick, profitable, convenient, and disposable as necessarily “unhealthy” values when they get combined together.

For example, one new part of culture that’s become ubiquitous is the use of dating apps. I could replace “fast food” in the paragraph above with “dating apps” and the comparison rings true.

So, are dating apps unhealthy? With a broad stroke, I’d say no. There’s more nuance than a yes/no answer. But what’s most impactful is the relationship we develop with something that’s so incredibly convenient and enticing.

Maybe our culture would become more robust if we viewed the combination of “fast food values” as something best consumed in moderation? Going further, what would our culture look like if we viewed convenience as a liability more than as an asset?

Depression, anxiety, and other mental illness is on the rise in America. How much of that can be correlated to the new wave of services that share more in common with a fast food joint than the deep fulfillment and satisfaction that comes from something hard-won?

I don’t have an answer to this, just an intuition and what’s served me in my own life. Maybe when culture optimizes too much for what’s quick, easy, profitable, convenient, and disposable we lose important qualities that only come from participating more fully in things that don’t scale. Too much convenience creates a cheap, shallow veneer. Looks nice on the outside but not going to win any awards.

I think about the architecture and design of different periods of history compared to most modern glass and steel buildings we see sprouting from downtowns across the world. Art nouveau, gothic, baroque, classical, and islamic architecture projects took immense amounts of thought, design, creativity, and time. They’re beautiful works of art that we’ll celebrate for centuries to come because they were anything but convenient to build and design.

Do we idolize and study the people who lived the most convenient, mass-produced lives? Of course not. I think of Teddy Roosevelt. One of the most iconic figures of American mythology. A man whose life was spent pursuing adventure and service with a heavy dose of purposefully chosen struggle woven throughout.

Engineering Depth

Modern society optimizes and creates incentives to make life more convenient and impulsive (because it’s more profitable). Yet, living a life that’s too easy, too convenient, and too disposable (not balanced) creates a shallow pond instead of a deep lake.

What our world is missing we need to purposefully add back in. All the ice bath bros (which I am proudly one of) have something right. If our world lacks difficult challenges that we get to face, we lose that wonderful feeling of overcoming adversity.

That’s the feeling that builds character. It’s how we build leaders who step first. The kind of people who take ownership for the problems they encounter. A quality that feels incredibly lacking in American leadership.

Maybe your practice is doing things that don’t scale. Learning an instrument for the first time as an adult or planting a tree that you may never see grow to maturity. You do something not because it makes your life easier, but because you get to rise to the challenge and overcome it.

As in everything, balance creates more harmony. So here’s to you having more harmony in your life.

-Jared