Mass competition for uniqueness on uniform platforms undermines the authenticity sought

Evidence

We’d all like to think that, wouldn’t we? The trouble is, there are just so damn many of us out there trying to be unique at the same time, using the same preprogrammed tools, writing in the same fonts, answering the same prompts. No wonder Eisenberg saying those words has become a viral meme, circulating on the same platforms where we are all competing for uniqueness, authenticity, and, for some, proof that in these unreal times we’re still really us. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 135

Categorization

• CANDY: The irony of everyone competing for uniqueness with identical tools is a compact, shareable observation.
• XREF: connects to: The demand for novelty paradoxically strengthens the conventions it appears to escape — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 100; Platforms replace asymmetry with reciprocity but lose editorial filtering — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 33; Platforms differ in how easily status can be faked versus genuinely performed — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 263 (+4 more)