The celebrity lifestyle promoted by social media is certainly a problem in that it encourages an excessive lifestyle as the norm, but such lifestyles wouldn't b

The celebrity lifestyle promoted by social media is certainly a problem in that it encourages an excessive lifestyle as the norm, but such lifestyles wouldn't be as possible for most people without debt. Debt has significantly reshaped society. It's usually hard to tell if a person is actually wealthy because people can run up credit cards and take out loans in order to portray the image that they think they need to have. Most people don't have enough money in their checking accounts to pay for a $2000 emergency, but credit card debt among Americans continues to increase. Need fancy clothes and meals? Your credit card can give you those. Need a luxury car, suburban pickup truck, or a Tesla? Get an auto loan. How about a modern house? All you need is a 50 year mortgage and parents who are willing to cover the payments when you aren't working. Even then, you can choose to live in a Sprinter van and look like you're "living the dream" by driving to different hotels and monuments. People are easily fooled by appearance, and don't really care that much about merit or giving others a chance to understand their true character. I used to wear blazers and sportcoats over my tshirt and jeans, and I would get a lot more attention from people for that one change alone. As soon as I gave up that look, I became a ghost. Imagine if I had also worn a buttoned up shirt, better pants, a necktie, and a Rolex knockoff. I probably would have gotten jobs faster and gotten more women to say "yes", even though all of those things would have cost a fraction of the credit available on my platinum card. I think most people know this, though perhaps not so consciously. If looks are so important to people, then why not go into debt early in life to achieve "the look", reap the rewards of having said look and spend the rest of life being a debt-slave? That's not the path that I chose, as these days I usually have a $0 on my credit card or at most a few thousand that I pay off relatively quickly. But I can't honestly say that the average person is wrong to put themselves into debt in order to get others to view them as a source of abundance. I'd probably have more friends, more connections, more relationships, and more job advancements if I had taken on lots of debt when I was younger. The normality of debt is the playing field we have subjected ourselves to, and if people primarily depend on their eyes to detect success in others, it makes sense to be a debt/wage slave. It's the game that a lot of people feel they have to play. Instagram and YouTube just heighten the visibility of this playing field to an obscene degree. Even with debt, people can't keep up because seemingly normal and average people are having better lives and more fun than we are. It's especially alarming to those who took the old-world advice of their elders and thought that hard work would equate to success.