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Why Can’t We Stop Watching Mukbangs?

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Why Can’t We Stop Watching Mukbangs?

To eat without gaining weight is a desire that many of us hold within our hearts. The thousands of memes made on the concept stands as proof of this claim. In fact, eating is our most enjoyable biological need. That is the reason billion-dollar industries like McDonald’s and KFC exist. Can you imagine a dimension where you will get paid thousands of dollars for sitting down and eating? Sounds like a dream, right? Well, there is a group of content creators known as “Mukbangers” who get to live this dream.

Why can’t we stop watching Mukbangs?

Mukbangs were first introduced to the world by South Korean Broadcasting Jockeys (BJ), and it soon spread around the world like wildfire. The content is basically a person or multiple people eating copious amounts of food in one sitting. They are also wildly successful, gaining millions of followers on their Youtube channels. But why are Mukbangs so popular? What is so interesting about someone else eating?

When we watch Mukbangs, we see the creator indulging in the most enjoyable form of biological need without limits. We derive voyeuristic pleasure from watching them. It is, for intents and purposes, food porn. The Mukbangers seem to do what we cannot do, no matter how much we want to. Wanting them is almost like living vicariously through them. This is especially obvious in the type of food that the Mukbanger chooses to eat. Almost all Mukbangers unanimously eat junk food that is dripping with cheese, sugar, sodium, and fat. Just looking at them eat an entire cheezy Pizza and a tub of ice cream is enough to clog our hearts.

While some creators work out religiously and controls their diet when they are not on camera, some creators have gained an extreme amount of weight and experience health problems. These creators are reflective of the reality of what happens when you eat that much food. If the other creators are the fantasy, these creators are the consequence. We can see this disparity in the comment section of certain YouTubers like Nikocado Avacado and Trisha Paytas. A lot of people come to their channels to get discouraged from over-eating, and to stay on their healthy eating plans and diets. Watching these individuals makes the viewers feel better about themselves and their issues with food. Instead of living vicariously through them, the audience is glad they aren’t them.

There is another factor that adds to the attraction towards Mukbangers. It is the conversation. Most content creators talk to their audience while they eat. Another very famous formula in content creation on YouTube used to be storytimes. But Mukbangs are steadily taking their crown. These videos achieve exactly what the storytimes videos did with the addition of ungodly amounts of food, that is, establishing an emotional connection with their audience. The viewers are invested in the content creator’s life, and the connection feels personal. A lot of people who lack a friend to go to dinner with in real life would seek these content creators for comfort and companionship. Lonely people feel less lonely when their favorite Mukbanger tells them about their past and current life. That, dear reader, is the main attraction of Mukbangs.

Rom-Coms Are Ruining Your Love Life – Here’s How

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Rom-Coms are ruining your Love Life- Here's How

“If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell so at once. My affections and wishes have not changed, but one word from you will silence me forever. If, however, your feelings have changed, I will have to tell you: you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love-I love-I love you.”

-Pride & Prejudice (2005)

There was not a single dry eye in the theaters when Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy spoke these words to Ms. Elizabeth Bennet. These words have, for more than a decade and a half, continued to make women and men all over the world swoon in public and private. For people who are unaware of this story, Pride & Prejudice is a love story written by Jane Austen and has garnered the attention of lovesick individuals all over the world across generations. It is what you would call ‘an ideal love story’. 

Throughout our lifespan, there must have been at least a single love story that must have caught your eye, even if you are a self-proclaimed love story hater. Maybe it was Romeo and Juliet or Rahul and Anjali or Aysha and Vinod. The fact is, you must have heard about seen a film or a book whose characters represented your ideal mate or romantic relationship. If that was not the case, then there wouldn’t be a multi-million dollar demand for romance books. Just take a look at the sales of books like Twilight, and you will see just how much people yearn for a soulmate or their perfect companion. These romance materials provide people with a world where they can project their desires onto a character and live vicariously through them. Sound pretty harmless, right? And it is…to an extent. The truth is that, although the preoccupation with love stories might seem like an innocent way to pass your time, it can actively harm your love life without you even knowing it.  

First of all, take a look at the love interest of the protagonist in your favorite love stories. Most (but not all) of these love interests in love stories are: insanely attractive, insanely rich, and insanely in love with the person of their affection. These characters create an ideal image of a partner in the minds of the consumers. This is an image that no normal human being can even dream to live up to. The standards for a partner are set so high that anybody else, in your real life, who is interested in you would look far inferior in your Rom-Com filtered eyes. Nobody in your life would be good enough for you. The term “book boyfriend” or “book girlfriend” is quite popular among love story readers. One thing that you will find as a common denominator between these individuals is that they seem to value their fictional love interest while completely ignoring real-life potential partners. This is the portion where you might tell us that people are not that vain or ignorant, that adults are well aware of how reality is different from the land of fiction. You are not entirely wrong, but you are not entirely right, either. While there are many emotionally mature individuals out there in the world, there is also a population that is not quite there yet. For example, in conservative communities such as ours, Bollywood films and Hollywood films give us our first taste of love. We learn the concept of love by watching Shahrukh Khan, Surya, or Prithviraj hot in pursuit of the person they love. With bright song numbers or with larger than life romantic gestures, the person is won over. This superficial image of love stays with us, even when we do reach adulthood and should know better. This is because these in our minds, the perception of love was formed by books and movies, not real-life experiences or seeing a healthy love life being modelled by our elders.

 

Due to this, we are bound to be disappointed every time we do enter a relationship. Everything feels just how it used to, your personal struggles haven’t disappeared into thin air, and the rush of love and passion that millions of books, movies, and songs promised you seems to be missing in your daily life with your partner. Too many people enter serious relationships having their expectations sky high and are confused when real life and relationship problems hit them straight in the face. There is a reason why most love stories end after the big confession scene or marriage. What comes next is not nearly as interesting or desirable to the audience. If a movie or a book does dare to show what happens to the lovers after reality males itself known, the audience is going to be thoroughly disillusioned. A number of individuals become pessimistic about love because their past relationships never seem to match their expectations. There is also this intense need amongst most people who are always looking for love to have a partner whose world would begin and end with them. In cases in these, we forget that the other party is a human being who has a separate life of their own. Instead of seeing them as their own person, we expect them to fulfill our wish list and make us happy. We end up wanting a genie instead of a real person who is willing to be our life companion. Putting these many expectations on someone is unhealthy at best. There is no questioning that the person would buckle under this immense pressure and opt-out of the relationship. 

Maybe it is time to re-define love instead of taking what pop culture tells us at face value. Love should be built on mutual respect, partnership, compassion, loyalty, empathy, and genuine affection for each other. We should stop waiting for a knight in shining armour to hand us a ready-made box of happiness and stop looking for a Beauty who would leave everyone and everything in her life to lay her world at your feet. Maybe then, we would be able to have a happy relationship where we are honour commitment and effort more than an ideal checklist that will only disappoint you.

Friends

Friendship Wrecks

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Friends are the family we choose for ourselves. While we are bound to our family by birth, the bond between friends are completely voluntary. Human beings are social animals and no matter how much we try, we will always crave support and affection from others. Having friends provides you with a sense of belonging, they are the people who will never treat you like an outcast. Friends are not only the people who you hang out with and do fun things with. The bond of friendship goes much deeper than that. Your friends influence you in more ways than you might like to think. The people you choose to spend your time with has a part in who you grow up to be. Dear reader, please do not take the previous statements as a challenge and try to prove us wrong by taking an oath to be lonely forever.

When you are going through a conflict, your friends act as a support system which keeps you going. Social support is so very important to us as human beings. People who have had close and healthy friendships in their teenage years are less likely to develop depression and anxiety disorders. Many of the people who seek help for these disorders often confess that they feel lonely almost all the time. These individuals feel like there are no one in the world that can talk to them or understand them. One of the symptoms of depression is social isolation. People struggling with anxiety disorders try to withdraw from society as well. The presence of your friends can help you reduce stress and get a broader perspective on life. Can you imagine a person who has no friends dealing with these problems? They are more likely to withdraw into themselves and live in misery since they don’t have a support system that tries to get them back into the world and back on their feet. This proves just how important and integral good friends are for your emotional wellbeing.

But are friendships these days really that strong and healthy? We don’t mean to sound ancient but, think about it. Any relationship, be it friendship or marriage, is only as good as the effort you put into it. People in the current times, especially younger ones are too preoccupied with social media to even look at the person sitting next to them and give them a smile. There are more and more people who would rather stay in bed watching TV or scrolling through their choice of social media platform every single weekend than meet their friends or family. Sorry to call you out dear introverts, but you have to stop faking an illness or a family emergency when your friends call you to hang out. You might find your friends a bit annoying, that’s okay. All we are asking from you is to try spending some time with them and actually put some effort into keeping in touch with them.

Body language matter alot when it comes to effective communication. We are not exaggerating or bluffing, communication is only 7% verbal and 93% non-verbal. The non-verbal component is made up of body language (55 %) and tone of voice (38 %). So when you talk to friend via texts, your conversation is only 7% effective and the sense of mutual connection between people are lost. Also, why is it acceptable to end a chat by giving a thumbs up or a heart to their last statement? In our humble opinion, abolish this practise right now. A smile, a handshake, a hug, and the personal warm of a friend are all robbed from you when you just text your friend without making an effort to meet them. If you are going through a break up, a message from your social media friend saying “lol. Get over it” will never ever compare to your real life friend coming to your house bearing snacks and a shoulder to cry on.  Another trouble social media has brought into the forefront is petty behaviour. If your friend goes to a party/event without inviting you, cut them off. If your friend takes a picture with a person who you consider your arch nemesis, cut them off. If your friend posts some political opinions that you don’t agree with, cut them off. Stop cutting your friends off just because they disagree with you. This brings us to another trend we have been noticing, the prioritizing  of a social media friend who tends to agree with you on everything you say over your real life friend who has their own perspectives in life. Although it’s good to find friends that you have common things with, having a friend who thinks differently than you can actually help you. They can help you broaden your mind, teach you tolerance and acceptance. Trust us, your life would seem so much easier and happier if you have a couple of friends who would always be there for you.

All this being said, do not force yourself to hang out with someone who you can’t stand to be in the same room with. If their behaviour is toxic and they are someone who constantly tries to undermine you, it is okay to cut them off. If they try to pressure you into experiences that you are not comfortable with, make your refusal very clear. If they still keep pushing, leave and never go back. We do not claim that all friends are good friends. There will undoubtedly be many people who might want to use you or are just terrible friends. It’s okay to leave them in the past if you feel like their existence is a threat to your emotional and physical well being. By this we do not mean that all people are terrible, there are so many trustworthy people out there who would make wonderful friends. Just use your objective mind and be alert, that’s all.

The Rising Tides Of Psychological Problems

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Before you read this, we recommend you to go on to any social media platform and see what Gen Z humour is like. You will notice that most of the jokes made by our younger generation is self-deprecating and often makes reference to their anxiety or depression. When posts or tweets with a joke like this goes viral and are liked by millions of young people, it means that they can relate to it on a personal level. Why? Because our younger ones are suffering. Even someone who lives under a rock would have noticed the growing number of suicide and self harm among teenagers and young adults. Parents are panicking, not knowing what to do when they see their precious children being tortured by mental illness. Most older people would tell you that the kids these days are just too weak and that is the reason for the rising cases of mental disorders. 

If you ask us for a clear cut answer, the only answer we can give you is that the research is still painfully lacking in this field. But what we can tell you for sure is that, without a doubt, mental illnesses are indeed rising on an alarming rate, especially in millennials and Gen Z. A study done by the National Institute Of Mental Health revealed that one in five youth are affected by at least one type of mental disorder. Keep in mind that this study was conducted in 2010, which means things must have gotten worse in 2020. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health suggests that the rates of serious psychological distress increased by 78% among adults aged 20-21 during the time period of 2008 to 2017. While we cannot tell you the exact reason for this obviously depressing phenomenon, we can still come up with some well informed speculations.

Most researchers believe the emergence of smart phones and social media platforms to be the reason for the rise of mental illnesses. This claim is very hard to invalidate. Using social media too much limits the time you spend with your real friends and family. It makes you sit down on a spot for a prolonged period of time and tempts you to neglect your exercise. It completely messes with your sleep patterns and leaves you feeling exhausted the whole day. When you do face some personal problems you realise that you dont have people to support you in real life and you thousands of online friends mean nothing. Therefore, you can begin to feel lonely and isolated. People who spend long periods of time on social media are mostly bombarded by two kinds of things: Bad news and filtered reality.

Let’s talk about bad news. Rasicm, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia and the violence born out of this factors have always existed. But when you use social media these issues make themselves much more visible to you by the use of a single hashtag. From environmental issues to human rights issues, the younger generation is more aware about the ‘badness’ of the world compared to the older generation. From such a young age the children of today are made aware of the unfairness and the cruelties of the world which can effectively wipe out something called hope from their minds. Now let’s tak about the filtered reality. Everything you post on social media is the best version of yourself. The reality of your social media is just as edited as the profile pictures most people choose to share. But young impressionable minds would see a very attractive individual posting a picture of their perfectly sculpted and face tuned face on Instagram and spend the rest of their day resenting their ‘less attractive’ face and body. They would see the glimmering photos posted by their friends in their million dollar mansion and start to hate their ‘normal’ life. Social media in this case makes you feel like you are never enough, that everybody has a better life than you. This can make you feel worthless, helpless and you forget to appreciate the things you are blessed with in your life. 

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