> Here is my related hypothesis: we now put more weight on many smaller lower-noise status markers, instead of fewer bigger noisier markers. In particular, we p

> Here is my related hypothesis: we now put more weight on many smaller lower-noise status markers, instead of fewer bigger noisier markers. In particular, we put more weight on markers of connections to statusful people and institutions. At first I didn't agree with OP's claim that there is more visibility of status. I don't think that is entirely correct: I always knew my family was poor, and I knew who the rich kids were, or who the top performers were. But when I circled back to the top of the article I realized it makes sense: 40 years ago in my childhood it was rich/not-rich, smart/not-smart, hot/not-hot. Now there are dozens of metrics for ranking oneself. I agree that overload of negative data is the anxiety driver. It's like we're all being forced to become data scientists and numbers junkies. We've metricked the hell out of our well-being. At least for this generation. Aren't we infinitely adaptable? Or will future kids just have shorter life spans due to the social stress?