Rob Henderson’s Office Hours are here. I’ll be doing these livestreams every Wednesday at 8 PM ET—except next week, we’re shifting to Tuesday at 2pm ET when I’ll be doing a livestream with bestselling author and Substacker Michael Easter.

Some topics covered in this first installment:

* Social media is turning us into informants. The rise of public shaming, the digital panopticon, and why people fear speaking openly. Communist regimes needed secret police; we just needed phones and the promise of “likes.”

* Christopher Lasch saw this coming in 1979 – Revisiting The Culture of Narcissism and how it explains today’s world better than ever.

* Why people work harder to avoid criticism than to improve their lives – A counterintuitive but useful way to understand human behavior.

* The hidden shift in how people talk about themselves online – How “I had someone tell me…” reflects the rise of main character syndrome.

* Do young people actually want attention? – Why social media culture has made them both more risk-averse and more eager to be influencers.

* Everything online is curated—even when it looks real – The difference between reality and the highly manicured world of digital life.

* The truth about online trolls. Research shows that the worst people on social media aren’t just nasty online—they’re like that in real life, too.

* Why social media feels worse than it actually is. A small percentage of users create most of the content, and negativity spreads the fastest—so we think society is crueler than it really is.

* The new acceptable targets for public ridicule. You can’t mock some groups anymore, so people are finding new ones they can still go after.

* How companies are tracking you (even when you think they aren’t). I share a quick story about how Best Buy tried to get my personal data just because I bought a pair of headphones.

* Is the mainstream media trying to pivot? Jeff Bezos says the Washington Post is moving toward pro-market, pro-liberty opinions—maybe they’re seeing the writing on the wall.

* Gavin Newsom, podcast host. My beloved home state of California is mired in crises, and the governor’s big solution is to launch a podcast to chat with MAGA supporters.

* The “bless her heart” effect. How people weaponize fake concern to gossip and tear others down while pretending to be helpful.

* Taking questions from viewers

Join me for my next live video in the app.

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Main Character Syndrome Keeps Getting Worse

Rob Henderson's Office Hours (private feed for [email protected])

Main Character Syndrome Keeps Getting Worse