I'm gonna be honest: I regret lifestyle vlogging. It's so easy, other creators IRL and through screens told me, All you have to do is record your life as you're living it. It's the same logic and vocabulary surrounding MLM recruitment, and the fact that I purchased vlogging equipment from their affiliate links makes me all the more aware of the pyramid-like structure of the endeavor. In this episode, I lean into the personal and reflect on my lifelong penchant for mimicry and the unintended consequences that have flowed from living life by trying to be other people. I discuss this weird impulse in light of mimetic theory and wonder whether copying others has inadvertently led me to commodify my own life... which is a bad thing, right?

[timestamps]

0:00 - intro

1:40 - humans are natural mimics

6:19 - mimetic theory

8:48 - life commodification

10:49 - problem #1: precession of the simulacrum

15:12 - problem #2: "you're no longer relatable"

17:46 - problem #3: self-identity threat

22:32 - lifestyle vlogging is the MLM of digital content

[references]

https://mimetictheory.com/what-it-is-2/

https://mashable.com/article/youtube-influencers-quit-jobs-brooke-miccio-natalie-barbu

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09589236.2017.1288611

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