lizardywizard:

I haven’t seen the original article because it wasn’t linked, but I think the choice of pictures for the header makes my point well enough.

Which is: ever noticed how all art about “the evils of the modern world” focuses on smartphones and fat people?

I’d be the first to speak up and say there are plenty of things wrong with modern industrialized society. Like, oh, I don’t know, climate change. Cops murdering with impunity. Species going extinct. The way the US government has practically been taken hostage by corporate interests. An emphasis on throwing away and replacing rather than repairing. Schools teaching to the test and crushing creative thinking. Mass unemployment and poverty. Fox “News”.

I can think of ten dozen more, and smartphones and fat people aren’t even close to making the list. If we lived in a world where our biggest “problems” were people being fat and people having computers in their pockets, we’d be in damn near utopia.

So why do so-called “cutting-edge”, “countercultural” artists insist on repeating those two images over and over again?

If I had to venture a guess, it would be that the artist’s original target audience is older generations who don’t understand technology (fear of the unknown/misunderstood) and in some cases lived through rationing/times when physical activity and slimmer bodies were more prevalent than today (longing for their past heyday and rose coloured views of lean times, metaphorically speaking).

These things that are more pressing threats to our world (climate change, cops, etc…) are things that currently benefit those older generations or are what bloated their wealth and opportunity. So they’re not bandied about as societal ills like things unique to millenials and younger generations are.