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Hedonism should not be endorsed by any means. Long term gratification is much more worth it for the individual than short term fleeting pleasures, because it demonstrates one's ability of self control, resulting in more wise decisions. Hedonism proliferates in 21st century culture, being promoted in pop culture, lifestyle magazines, and almost everywhere you look. Pleasure is being promoted as the definitive good in life, while pain is to be feared. These are fallacies that we've grown accustomed to believe. Pain and pleasure are not inherently good or evil, but they can become if our perception of them is so.
There are many examples of hedonism in our day and age, ranging from social media, to fast food, and other short term pleasures. We're bombarded with ads that promote hedonism, that also encourage kids to get into hedonistic behavior, resulting in a population that lives only for short term pleasures, that lives from impulses, thus any self control being absent. With the frontal cortex weakened, people cannot even comprehend how it is to abstain from something, not living off your impulses,
which benefits to the consumerist society and system that is encouraged, generating more profits for the multinational conglomerates. A good example is the fast food industry, as they've made obesity a global problem, yet it's still legal. People continue to consume their products, being stuck in a vicious cycle, between guilt, if any, and short term dopamine hits from the prized "reward" because "I deserve it." The younger the consumer is, the easier is to get them addicted and the chance is they'll be hooked for life, generating generous profits for them, although this is not necessarily a rule as we've seen with social media and old people.
Hedonism is also being propagated by the fact that more and more people are living increasingly alienated from their peers, while a repressive system in which you have the illusion of making progress works them, more or less, to death. People have no hope to turn to, so they turn instead to illusory pleasures. We hear all kinds of these discourses around us, such as "It's my only vice!" which are feeble excuses made by the person, which is usually an addict with the respective consumerist product. People are numbing their loneliness or other life aspects with short term pleasures, substituting them for missing aspects in their own lives.
Having no one to talk to, many turned to social media, in desperate attempts of feeling that they have a social life. This was incredibly beneficial for the social media companies, as they can always use more data from users, and get users addicted to short term pleasure, for example likes. Hedonism is promoted heavily on social media, in all categories, from food to consumerism. The effects of this can be felt around the world, as the majority of people are all participating in the hedonistic activities that are popular in the 21st century, literally living for only for them.
Nonetheless, all of us should try to take time off and rethink our values and behavior, from the smallest behavior to the top, and ask ourselves if this is what we want, or if it has been imposed on us through various forms of societal control. And if it's what we want, is it healthy? The questioning of one's personality overall is a healthy activity that should be practiced as often as possible, along with being mindful of our activities, including questioning them, which results in not engaging in impulses.