I think that it would be important if we speak about the entertainment-fashion-beauty industry complex. It is something that heavily affects our generation perhaps more than any other in recent history. Let me explain.

Popular music and pop entertainment is something that doesn't really acquire money in the same as they did in the old days of traveling shows, circuses, and theatrical productions. A celebrity today is also a model, someone who can be used to advertise certain clothes and products.

A young woman admires Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and many others not just as musicians but also as fashion icons and as lifestyle icons.

It is the same case with male pop musicians and the young men that follow them. They are interested in their clothes, their car, their lifestyle, their attitude etc...

Who profits off of this? Well, not only does UMG, Sony, and Warner profit off of it, but also the fashion and cosmetic companies. If they can sell make-up to a 13-year-old girl, they'll do it.

I bring this up because many of us here in the West never really had to deal with military drafts, world war, religious persecution, racial and gender segregation, revolution, famine, and general autocracy. We grew up with television, videogames, and the internet. But I have been to Venezuela and Syria with the United Nations and I can tell you, it's not like this for other young people. They don't have this red pill/blue pill culture. The reason? Their society has collapsed and when this happens, many things are revealed.

Now, with the propagation of social media plus the influence of the entertainment industry, young men and women are led to purchase clothes and beauty products. This is mostly the case for young women and many men have pointed out how it is difficult to live in a society where women constantly demand luxury goods, restaurants, and a particular lifestyle.

Of course, the issues with men is twofold. They either become overwhelmed with the requirements to be a boyfriend and thus retrieve from the dating market completely or they increase their efforts and buy a Rolex, work long hours, make risky investments, get a new car, and generally try to put on an appearance of respectability and influence. This indeed works but it has its costs.

We complain about the opposite sex but what many of us miss is the fact that both of us, men and women, are individuals struggling to find meaning in an oversaturated commercial world of advertisements where sex appeal and luxury lifestyles rule.

"Dating" is essentially how the individuals in a society evaluate each other based on the principle of sexual selection. This "evaluation" is influenced by a variety of social factors and we should be more aware of them.