I think the west has seen some rising popularity in degenerate culture like the whole looksmaxxing thing, the US being super capitalistic, gambling and onlyfans etc. However it is almost always on Russian streams where I find people engage in unethical things, usually Russian actresses in adult content, drugs, gambling, alcohol is very present and what not. There's also that Russian streamer who literally beats women whilst doing drugs on stream and he has a massive following.

Why do you guys think Russia has become this way? Are there any good studies on this?

Wanting to get stronger, improve your skincare or feel more confident seems relatable and common. But when does advice stop being useful and start making you feel like you are fundamentally not enough?

We’re two Communication Science students working on a project called Where Is the Line? We wanted to explore how closely fitness, looksmaxxing and manosphere content are connected through their audiences.

We looked for shared commenting accounts across five selected YouTube videos, collecting up to 1,000 top-level comments per video. Among 4,302 distinct accounts, only three commented on more than one video. None commented across different content categories.

That means we found very little overlap among the commenters we sampled. It doesn’t tell us whether the wider audiences overlap, what people watch without commenting, or how recommendations connect the content.

Our project also aims to encourage people to think critically about the messages circulating in these spaces. We’re interested in your take:

Where would you draw the line between useful self-improvement advice and messages that make you feel bad about yourself? What makes the difference for you?

If you  see fitness, looksmaxxing or manosphere content, do these feel like separate spaces, or do you come across them together? Experiences that challenge our ostarting assumptions are welcome too of course.

This discussion is part of a university project. We may summarise responses in our course report without including usernames. Please avoid sharing identifying details:)
 

So my work wife is 44 years old and I'm 28. She's still friends with me after confessing my love for her. She's married. She cooks for me, drives me home treats me really well. For some weird ass reason she gets really jealous of me complimenting other women. She's my work wife but she acts like a jealous girlfriend idk why.

We've also exchanged i love yous at work too. I fix her hair and put it behind her ear and she starts smiling like in a romantic movie. She refers to me as her husband too. I'm not complaining about it but I often wonder if we're having an emotional affair. It's like she realized she liked me more than she initially thought

I find that a lot of people on Reddit throw out terms very loosely and try to place people in "boxes" for societal terms like incel, xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, or even Gen Z. It's like a pastime to take a post or two and throw people into categories, and sometimes fight to the death over if you're correct. I find this obsession odd, but just wondering if anyone sees this. 

Why do you think you (or people in general) prefer hiding behind a screen instead of connecting in real life?

I’ve been thinking about how social media affects the way we discover information, form opinions, and spend our attention.
Platforms like TikTok and Instagram often use engagement-based recommendation systems. Short-form content, emotionally stimulating posts, controversy, and endless scrolling can make it easy to keep consuming content longer than we intended.
But I’m curious about the user’s perspective, not the companies’ perspective.
Three questions:
1. Have you experienced this problem?
Have you ever felt that your social media feed shows you more of what grabs your attention than what is genuinely useful, relevant, or worth understanding? For example, repetitive content, unnecessary controversy, emotionally triggering posts, or content that keeps you scrolling without leaving you better informed.
If so, what happened? How does it affect you?
2. Would you want this problem solved?
If a social platform could help you discover more relevant and diverse information, reduce repetitive or unnecessarily provocative content, and give you more control over what influences your attention, would that improve your experience?
What would you want it to do differently?
3. Would you pay for a solution?
Imagine a social platform designed around the quality of your information experience rather than simply maximizing the time you spend scrolling.
Would you pay for a service like that?
If yes, what would you consider a reasonable monthly price in USD?
$0 — I would only use it if it were free.
$1–$3 per month
$4–$7 per month
$8–$15 per month
More than $15 per month
If you would not pay, what would stop you?
I’m interested in honest answers, including disagreement. I would especially appreciate examples from your own experience rather than general opinions about social media.
What has your experience been?

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No hablo de personas que han sufrido accidentes o problemas serios, ni estéticas normales: hablo de serios casos de personas con discapacidad mental, poco adaptados para ser padres o madres, que se operan hasta fl punto de convertirse en sex símbolos, algo que ni me molesta y oye, perfecto, pero que ya sabemos que genéticamente reproductivo no es favorecedor, y aún así, ocurre, pero se les tolera. Y muchos tirnen mas de 5 hijos... Es normal? Ético? Deberia prohibirse e ilegalizarse?

Y en casos de llamarnos feo/as y hacernos sentir feo/as y mal a los normales, q pensais? Se merecen estas operaciones y su belleza????

When I was 17-18 years old, there were 3 guys(let's call them evil guys) in my class(they were friends with each other). They used to whisper to whoever sat behind me to annoy me/trouble me. This they did continuously for 2 years. But they pretended to be my friends.

Two of those guys lived in an area where my second cousin also lived. The second cousin's mother was envious/jealous of me and my family. I asked one of those evil guys if he knew my second cousin. He said "No". Years later I saw on his profile a pic with few other boys including my second cousin.

Also I had a political ideology different from everyone else in class.

After 2 years, when I moved to a different place to study, they called me from an unknown number.

I think they did it because they didn't want me to succeed and focus in class. They wanted me to be distracted in class because of jealousy/envy.

What do you think?

I have never come across anyone who had this experience(neither online, nor offline).

Your Phone Has a Price. Why Does Society Put a Price on You?

I've been thinking about something that seems small but says a lot about how we behave as a society.

Imagine two people sitting together. One has the latest iPhone. The other has an affordable Android phone that does everything he needs.

Before either person speaks, do we unconsciously assign them different levels of status?

Maybe we don't do it deliberately. But brand names, prices and appearances have become shortcuts we use to judge people.

An iPhone is a phone. Yet, somewhere along the way, it became more than that for some people. It became a signal of success, financial status and social acceptance.

And this is where I find the whole thing interesting.

When did the price of something we own start influencing how we value the person who owns it?

Think about clothing. A person wearing Bata shoes might be judged differently from someone wearing Louis Vuitton. But does the expensive label automatically make the second person more intelligent, capable, honest or successful?

Of course not.

Yet we live in a world where visible consumption can sometimes speak louder than invisible qualities.

We can spend years developing our knowledge, improving our judgment, building a business or becoming better at our work. But someone else might receive immediate social recognition simply because they own something expensive.

The uncomfortable part is that this pressure doesn't always come from other people. Sometimes, we internalise it ourselves.

We begin wanting things not because we need them, but because we don't want to feel inferior without them.

We convince ourselves that the next phone, the next car or the next luxury purchase will make us feel more confident. Sometimes it does, briefly. Then the next model arrives, someone else buys something more expensive, and the comparison begins again.

It's a cycle in which the finish line keeps moving.

I'm not arguing that expensive products are bad, that iPhones are overrated, or that people shouldn't enjoy the money they earn. If someone genuinely values an iPhone and can comfortably afford it, there's nothing wrong with buying one.

The question is different: Would we still want the same things if nobody else could see what we owned?

That question matters because there's a difference between buying something for its utility or personal enjoyment and buying it to secure approval.

One is a choice. The other can become a dependency.

And perhaps the most ironic thing is that we sometimes spend money trying to communicate success to people whose opinions shouldn't determine our self-worth in the first place.

A phone can tell you something about someone's purchasing decision. It cannot, by itself, tell you what kind of human being they are.

I'd like to hear some honest opinions on this.

Do you think smartphones like the iPhone have become status symbols to the point that people judge others by the phones they use?

And, more importantly, have you ever bought something partly because of how you thought other people would perceive you, rather than because you actually needed or wanted it?

I'm interested in real experiences and opposing views, not just agreement.

Remove toxic people in your life ✍️🔊☑️