23 July

We LOVE to imitate, to copy what others do. It’s unavoidable, because it’s based on our deepest desire. To desire what others have, particularly if those others are people we admire. We know kids do this, but all adult behaviour is exactly the same. Take ordinary everyday life. We all wear roughly the same things, with minor variations. Drive the same cars, eat the same foods, watch the same shows, listen to the same bands, travel to the same places. Try not wearing clothes, or speaking nonsense words, if you want to see how much everything we do and see is really a type of copying. It becomes imitative rivalry. For example, travel. There are trending places, that travellers imitate in going to. But then others will try to go some place new, not to escape imitation, but to become the most imitated by others. The reason social media is so dangerous for societies is that it supercharges imitative rivalry. Also why it’s so addictive, imitation is our deepest desire.