Toxic Positivity & Capitalism: Is interruption possible in modern society?

When approaching the concept of ‘remediation,’ our group found ourselves drawn to a theme more personally relevant to us in our generation. In the hindsight offered by this reflection, I found that the phenomenon we had resigned ourselves to representing and counteracting through this project was so conceptually modern, I struggled to find sources that could help define and distinguish my arguments. The topic: toxic positivity.

Toxic positivity disguises itself as optimism and reassurance, but lacks the depth and compassion required to properly validate the feelings of the recipient. Psychotherapist Aimee Hudson and Psychologist Kat Wyeth define the subject as a “tendency to react to other people's struggles and suffering with reductive statements of positivity.” It is an “overgeneralisation of positivity across all circumstances” that “prevents us from acknowledging how we are actually feeling,” and instead creates a “black and white thinking towards emotions” (Wyeth and Hudson, 2022). Although there are usually good intentions behind the behaviour, it tends to have adverse effects that fail to adequately address the root of the problems.

Presentation of our idea to our peers and tutors faced us with the question, “what do we want our audience to do?” Despite knowing generally that what we hoped people would do was unsubscribe from toxic positivity, we were still yet to work out the matter of how. It was not until our lecture on “Realism and Its Interruption” that we were able to explore the concept of disrupting reality.

The thing about living in a culture that promotes this misguided attitude is that there is always the nagging feeling that something is still not quite right; a lingering unresolved negative emotion pushed down by the shallow inspirational quotes, left in the shadows casted by “the bright side.” In becoming the embodiment of toxic positivity, we hoped the “positive” messages repeated in our project would be so saturated, they would spur this negative feeling to grow until it became too irritating, uncomfortable, and overwhelming to ignore the problem. To achieve this, our film began as an unassuming, feel-good mental health and wellbeing PSA to promote positive thinking– favouring pastel colours and old Hollywood film aesthetics to lull the viewer into a false sense of security and comfort. Throughout the duration of our installation, more screens, audio layers, eerie visuals, glitches and distortion were added to increase the feeling of uneasiness. In our lecture, the “moment of interruption” was introduced through the scene in The Truman Show, when Truman Burbank realises his life is a reality TV show and makes the decision to escape (The Truman Show - At World's End, 2016). To my understanding, this concept of interruption is simply the moment in which one is made aware of the reality they are living in. The development of technology and ideology in our modern society has granted us access to more knowledge than ever before. However, the vast availability of information and the fact that corporations have the same capacity for awareness poses the question – is interruption possible in modern society? Is it possible to generate enough of a rift in our passive acceptance of our present reality that we might experience a real life peripeteia?

To answer this, we must first define the reality we mean to interrupt or, in other words, the problem to raise awareness about. This is where I sought out to contextualise toxic positivity and track it back to its fundamentals. Why did we subscribe to toxic positivity in the first place? Since the messages toxic positivity spreads are not necessarily inherently bad, and some of the advice might be genuinely helpful in the correct circumstances, the reason lies in its attempts to advertise happiness, and where it falls short of the mark can be identified in other theories of happiness. In response to psychology focusing more on negative aspects of human nature and how to cure them (the “disease” model), President of the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman introduced the field of positive psychology in 1998. “Positive psychology calls for as much focus on strength as on weakness, as much interest in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst, and as much attention to fulfilling the lives of healthy people as to healing the wounds of the distressed'' (Peterson and Park, 2003). Traits of Abraham Maslow’s self-actualised individual— considered to be a person who has reached their full potential— includes the acceptance of one’s own flaws, as well as their best traits (Perera, 2020). The common theme is the acknowledgement of human duality and the range of emotions that are part of the human experience.

This is particularly prevalent across social media as the culture it has cultivated is one in which people tend to filter their lives to only show the “best” parts. As American comedian Bo Burnham describes it, “[social media] is just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform.” This habit of social performance has translated into an understanding of happiness that is as one-dimensional as the digital personas we curate on our social media profiles (Burnham, 2016). Similarly, content creator Felix Kjellberg, known online as PewDiePie, made a video titled, Forced Positivity on Youtube, in which he addressed the issue of vloggers and influencers feeling the need to project an unnaturally, unwavering “positive” attitude in order for people to enjoy their content (PewDiePie, 2017). As a result, one of the reasons people uphold toxic positivity is out of desire for likeability. Unfortunately, this behaviour ends up isolating people more than fostering genuine connection. People who look up to these social media influencers watch them promote toxic positivity and buy into it. Thus, perpetuating a cycle that creates a sort of Emperor’s New Clothes situation: no one speaks about their true feelings for fear of judgement or rejection. Furthermore, the concept of happiness and peak human performance has been hijacked by consumer culture and defined by superficial values. A Coca-Cola advert invites you to “Open happiness” alongside an image of a Coke bottle, while Trident offers up “a Little Piece of Happy” in the form of a piece of their gum. Neither “refer to the actual product each is selling” but rather, suggest that their product is synonymous with happiness (Communication Theory, 2014). They reduce happiness to something more temporal than sustainable, leading the pursuit of happiness down a potentially hedonistic path that aligns with the capitalist agenda.

Therefore, the reality we intend to interrupt is one in which we think happiness and satisfaction with life is possible without acknowledging and accepting the full spectrum of human emotion.

Which brings us back to the question. Is there any way to disrupt this commonly accepted way of thinking and living? It is difficult to say for sure when it does not appear to be the case among the masses yet. However, it is important to consider how easily capitalism tends to appropriate any revolutionary ideology the new generation begins to rally behind. Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays was the first to take his uncle’s “ideas about human beings and used them to manipulate the masses.” He showed American corporations how to link “mass-produced goods to [people’s] unconscious desires” by using the Suffragette Movement to sell cigarettes to women. He staged an event in which debutantes would dramatically light cigarettes on his signal and join the Easter Day parade. He then told the press he had heard “a group of suffragettes were preparing to protest by lighting up what they called torches of freedom” so that the moment would be captured by photographers. With this, cigarettes effectively became a symbol of female empowerment (Curtis, 2002). In today’s society, corporations still use political protests to promote their products. Youtuber HBomberGuy made a video titled WOKE BRANDS, in which he addressed this issue and posed the question, “Can a product be truly progressive?” He remarked that companies now attempt to “buy your allegiance by saying something vaguely progressive” but also benefit from the free marketing that results from backlash in the form of trending Twitter hashtags. One example he gave was the #BurnYourNikes trend that followed a Nike ad campaign featuring black athletes, such as Colin Kaepernick, taking a knee in protest of racism and police brutality. The backlash backfired as Nike’s value went up by 6 billion dollars. (HBomberGuy, 2019). By connecting their product to a prevalent social or political message, companies can place themselves at the centre of discussion, benefitting from either side of the debate. The situation can be likened to the analogy of the “close door” button in most elevators and how “It is a totally disfunctional placebo placed there just to give the individuals the impression that they are somehow participating” (Žižek, 2001). As John Berger put it, “capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible” (Berger, 2008). The dominating reality is that capitalism always seems to catch up with that which attempts to oppose it and the meaning becomes lost in the consumerist sea. “Once we could have fun denouncing the dark, solid reality concealed behind the brilliance of appearances. But today there is allegedly no longer any solid reality to counter-pose to the reign of appearances, nor any dark reverse side to be opposed to the triumph of consumer society” (Rancière and Elliott, 2009).

Regardless of whether it is escapable, it is also worth considering whether it is even ethical. In a society where the media is saturated with tragic images and depressing news coverage, do people even want to be snapped out of the realities they have become accustomed to? Is there comfort in ignorance? It is arguable that surface level perception without deeper contemplation is preferable to becoming hyper aware of the dark side of reality. Even in the case of our installation, we relied on the audience’s negative feelings of discomfort and anxiety to motivate them to change. However, there is still the possibility that the feelings we attempted to generate may have been overwhelming to the point of only succeeding in pushing viewers towards some other form of escapism, so as to avoid feeling such discomfort again. In Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others, she argues that “one can not look. People have means to defend themselves against what is upsetting… This seems normal, that is, adaptive. One can become habituated to horror in real life, one can become habituated to the horror of certain images” (Sontag, 2004). After a while, people may become desensitised, or simply turn a blind eye in defence against negative stimuli– a self-preservation instinct. It is especially easy to do so when these messages are seen mainly on TV and social media, platforms which blend entertainment with reportage. This may be elaborated on through the case of theatre and cinema. Plato argues that due to the reality of spectatorship, theatre “transmits the illness of ignorance.” For context, Rancière claims that “To be a spectator is to be separated from both the capacity to know and the power to act” (Rancière and Elliott, 2009). Similarly, James Elkins explains “There is also something quietly hypnotic about just looking, something less like hunting and more like dreaming… Just looking is like dreaming, but dreaming fittully, tossing and turning and not knowing quite what's happening" (Žižek, 2001), which aligns itself well with Beaudry’s Apparatus Theory that “suggests movie viewers experience an immobility that makes watching a film akin to dreaming” (Goodro, 2018). Simply presenting images for an audience to view does not necessarily force them to consider their meaning any further.

So is there a solution or is all hope lost? In terms of addressing this issue in media or art, “as long as the performance draws [the spectator] out of their passive attitude and transforms them into active participants in a shared world” it may result in successful interruption. To combat the sensationalisation employed by capitalism, one might take inspiration from Bartleby and his passive resistance in stating “I would prefer not to” (Melville, 1856), a phrase which is “not that a predicate is denied” (Žižek, 2019) but is a polite refusal that is not intense or passionate enough to blatantly incite a polarised response that corporations may exploit. In our final assessment critique in which our classmates experienced our installation, one of the comments we received was about the effect of experiencing it in a large group as opposed to alone. Although we had initially designed it to be viewed in a smaller group or solitary, there was an effectiveness in the fact that the shared experience encouraged connection and discussion rather than increasing feelings of isolation. It may well be that the solution is as simple as creating safe spaces for people to raise awareness and share their thoughts and feelings openly and honestly or, to “unplug” entirely and renounce your role as recipients of media messages.

In summary, yes. Interruption is possible in modern society, in the sense that people can be and may already be aware of the problem within our reality, however, its effectiveness in provoking change of reality is still in question. The answer lies in the willingness of the audience to be interrupted.

Bibliography

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How social media platforms enhance participation in the entertainment industry

“the entertainment industry… has integrated notions of audience engagement and fan participation more deeply into its logics and practices”. - Henry Jenkins

The accelerating development of technology in modern society has brought us ever closer to a 'Web 3.0,' with features that align more with this new era of internet. In turn, social media platforms have become the centre of communication, intertwining with every aspect of our everyday lives. The opportunity social media platforms– like Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram– have posed for more active media consumption and creation has thus enhanced participation to the point where fans and ordinary people outside of large entertainment companies have a more direct impact on the design of the entertainment industry itself. Arguably, the success of products produced by the industry hinges on participation across social media.

This participatory culture– defined as “a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations… in which members believe their contributions matter and feel some degree of social connection with one another” (Jenkins, Ito, and boyd, 2016)– has enhanced the formation and experience of parasocial relationships between entertainer and audience, fan bases as communities, and in some ways, broken the fourth wall, as consumers become producers themselves with tools social media has given them access to.

To start, parasocial relationships generated by the entertainment industry have been redefined. This is because social media has allowed celebrities and other influencers to quickly identify a specific need of their target audience to more effectively fulfill that need with the content they create (Alice Capelle, 2021, 5:41). The comment sections on social media, for example, allow these idols to have direct contact with their audience. Through features such as ‘Live videos’ with comment sections, on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, users can read and respond to viewers in real-time. They also have the option to reply to comments left on their posts with more videos, as featured on TikTok. Both simulate a real-life conversation and give content creators the ability to immediately answer the wishes of their audience, making fans feel acknowledged by the subject of their appreciation. However, unlike real-life interactions, social media leaves room for careful curation of personalities, and reaction rehearsal which, as a result, forms a relationship with their fans that does not resemble on the outside what it truly is behind interactions. Youtuber, Alice Capelle explains this through the case of vlogger/viewer relationships, and how some vloggers advertise themselves as “sisters,” “girlfriends,” and “friends” of their viewers. She also refers to PewDiePie’s video, Forced Positivity on Youtube, where he admits that in his older videos, he “might seem a lot happier” and “positive” but he “faked it” because he thought that was what it would take for people to want to watch his videos.

To some extent, the fan participation these platforms allow for only creates an illusion of true connection. It is arguable that the genuine emotional investment cultivated from both sides of the parasocial relationship manifests more intensely than it had in the past, as social media removes privacy– encouraging oversharing of personal lives and blurring the line between real and perceived relationships. The ‘Follow’ button used to subscribe to our favourite actors, artists, performers, and more, is the same button we press to connect virtually with people we know personally. A ‘like,’ comment, or ‘retweet’ can be shared and seen by anyone, regardless of social standing. This can lead some participants to believe that they are not only equal enough for a real relationship with the celebrity/influencer/content creator to be plausible and true, but also owed their time and energy. In truth, the usage of social media tools in this way simply helps members of the entertainment industry build a brand image and gain the loyalty of their audience by developing and maintaining these perceived bonds. The consequence, however, is that their continued success relies on their ability to keep up the persona and dynamic they have installed– a task that has become even more taxing with the demand for a constant social media presence. It is an increasingly sharp double-edged sword with the audience and the entertainer on either side.

On the other side, is the near-unstoppable force of the ‘fandom.’ The new generation, accustomed to a never-ending cycle of new media consumption at a very fast rate, has grown up with social media platforms which allow them to perpetuate this cycle– by inducting them into online communities based on their interests and app usage. This is why TikTok has so quickly become a top competitor among social media platforms. Introduced with a similar concept to retired apps such as ‘Musical.ly’ and ‘Vine’ of the early 2000s, TikTok’s 15-second video feature brought about the nostalgia of the aforementioned popular apps, but implicated features from updated versions of platforms such as Instagram and Facebook– like when in 2016, Instagram’s feed controversially changed from chronological to algorithmic. With personalised 'For You' pages, TikTok’s algorithm was designed to cater to the unique interests of users where the more they interact with its content, the more related content they will discover. Similarly, Instagram and Snapchat include 'Discover' sections, where users can scroll through an endless stream of content collected and pushed onto them, related to their liked, searched, followed content. Users can also stay up-to-date on viral content through ‘trending hashtags.’ It is easier than ever to locate and upload media that relates to specific interests, especially concerning entertainment, as users’ participation directly contributes to the algorithms that sort its content. With social media designed to push like to like, fans can more easily find each other and form 'fandoms': a united entity that, in a way, assumes control over their subject’s reputation. Those ‘hashtags’ can provide evidence of this. First used on Twitter by user @chrismessina in 2007 to filter content, the hashtag has grown to be capable of acting as a weapon against not only celebrities but anyone who stands out enough to be noticed by the Internet. Thus began the phenomenon of ‘cancel culture.’ This refers to the way the public may boycott or “cancel” someone or something, in response to an incident that individual or organisation was involved in, past or present. In 2016, one victim of cancelling on Twitter, American singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift became the target of the trending hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty. The drama and cyberbullying that ensued caused the pop star to delete everything on her social media accounts, before going on her first extended hiatus since the start of her career. Comparably, ‘K-pop stans’ have become “a group who has an enormous degree of cultural and political power in its own right,” with social media as their platform (Judy Knows, 2020). For example in 2020, fans teamed up to dominate right-wing hashtags countering the #BlackLivesMatter protests, such as #BlueLivesMatter and #MAGA, with k-pop and idol-related content.

However, the power that fandoms hold across social media can work in favour of the idol or work followed by the fandom. Because the bond they form tends to stay true to the word’s origin, “fanatic” (Jenson, 1992), the resulting polarisation of the “them vs. us” or “Othering” (Shaw, 2021) mentalities nurtured by fandoms often take their devotion to an extreme. For example, the “BTS ARMY” or the fandom attached to the most popular KPOP idol group, BTS (originally an acronym for Bangtan Sonyeondan) has been inducted by the group’s agency, Big Hit Entertainment to adopt a “purchase, promote, protect” mindset (Judy Knows, 2020). With this, they carry their idol onto a pedestal beyond the close, intimate relationships that were first formed when they were initially building their image and fanbase. Due to their humble origins and revolutionary breakthrough into mainstream media, BTS’s “underdog” status gives the ARMY a heightened sense of importance, where their unwavering support, “through buying, voting, streaming, producing, tweeting, etc.” is even more necessary. As a result, it feels like when their idol experiences a win, the fandom does too. Additionally, “when one becomes a part of the fandom, there is a real sense of being part of an “in-group,” an exclusive community, meeting primarily online through social media, where members feel deeply connected by their shared appreciation and duty. This connection is further deepened by BTS’s awareness of the fact that “what fans really care about is communicating with their artists.” They achieve this through South Korean-specific platforms, such as VLIVE, where they can live stream chat with fans, similar to Instagram’s live video feature. As business strategy professional, Judy Knows explains, this can be best represented by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The “sense of belonging” and pride in witnessing and contributing to their idol’s success satisfies the individual’s ‘love & belonging’ and ‘esteem’ needs.

To take it one step further, Jenkins also asserts that “Participatory cultures involve fans acting not only as consumers but also as producers and creators of some form of creative media.” Fans may follow the footsteps of their idols, entering the entertainment industry in a way that echoes those they observed before them. With BTS again, “all the opportunities to co-create stories with BTS through their narrative universes between fan fiction on platforms like AO3 and Wattpad and Big Hit’s BTS video game ventures” enable fans to “develop and flex their creativity and gain validation for their imagination” (Judy Knows, 2020). ‘Fanfiction’ as a genre was one of the first instances of fans using their creativity to become more actively involved in the content they consumed. In some cases, it even acted as the foundation for works that had reached a commercial, professional level in the industry. Examples include Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James, having its origins in Twilight fanfiction– which in itself derived from fanfiction– and the film, After, based on the Wattpad Harry Styles ‘fanfic’ by Anna Todd. More like these have also been shared across fandoms on platforms such as Twitter and Tumblr. New technology and social media pose these “new possibilities for production and also for reception, which make possible new kinds of collaboration and exchange, new kinds of engagement and creativity” (Meikle and Young, 2012) and, as a result, “the “consumers” … are becoming producers” (Jenkins, Ford, and Green, 2013). Hence a new era of “the prosumer” began. American comedian, actor, and content creator, Bo Burnham remarked that “social media is just the market’s answer to a generation that demanded to perform.”

As previously discussed, social media provides a direct line of communication that both A-list celebrities and ordinary people can take advantage of. The option to make Instagram pages public has introduced new players into the entertainment industry: ‘influencers.’ Utilising hashtags and other algorithmic designs to help get their content discovered whilst keeping an eye on the profile ‘insights’ feature to analyse the way other users interact with said content, has allowed regular people to gain a large enough following to make a living off of sharing content via social media. Addison Rae, a 21-year-old from LA, gained popularity on TikTok after a video of her dancing went viral. She has since signed to a talent agency called WME and even attended the 2021 Met Gala. Likewise, new Netflix and Hulu shows, Hype House and The D’Amelio Show turn ordinary teenagers– who also achieved virality on TikTok– into reality TV stars, calling to mind major celebrities like the Kardashian-Jenners. Many independent artists have also found that it is easier nowadays to promote music and get discovered, especially on TikTok, because of the vast array of social media platforms and the features they offer to aspiring musicians and other content creators. A single viral video featuring their original songs, posted by TikTok users, like Tai Verdes, Lyn Lapid, and Salem Ilese, has landed them and countless other musicians real record deals. TikTok's duet feature has also been used to start trends in which people add their own musical talent to another’s, creating a mass collaboration that is remixed and reposted over and over. This was particularly popular during 2020’s quarantine, when thousands of users participated in a rendition of The Wellerman sea shanty, started by Nathan Evans, an ex-postman who has now also been signed to Polydor Records. But social media has opened opportunities for more than just musicians. Small businesses– from handmade jewellery and candles, to clothing and original artwork– can thrive through social media engagement and can also utilise the new ‘shop’ tab on Instagram– similar to Facebook Marketplace– to direct people to their online merchandise.

In conclusion, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter enhance participation in the entertainment industry to the extent that it has completely transformed the dynamic between consumer and producer, performer and audience. The power is no longer solely in the hands of entertainment companies and agencies because “we now have to recognize audiences as creative” (Meikle and Young, 2012), and acknowledge not only commercial demands but the emotional needs of the fans, as the industry finds itself at their mercy. Social media has, therefore, exposed the complexities of the consumer and empowered them to be more active in how they are entertained.

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