Generic Self.

Like a box of generic cereal, a title too literal to misunderstand. Instead of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, we have us some sugar and cinnamon squares. Instead of Trix Cereal, we have fruity flavored balls (artificial of course). Instead of Frosted Flakes, we have Frosty Flakes (this one not so different). The words don't leave much to the imagination and are at a cheap price. At least when I hear Boo Berries there is a slight inquisition, an investment,  to buy the product, as opposed to the fruity flavored marshmallow corn cereal (not real). The second gives me exactly what I wanted to know and now don't have to do any searching.

Online these days one can find anything they want. From online sales, to researching Saved by the Bell, The College Years, as I recently may or may not have done. Maybe you want to book a flight, or maybe you want to order a human through some, "backpage" website. Maybe you want to steal money, or invest in a currency unknown by most people. We can search the stars and more so, the internet can search us too. Recording conversations, monitoring our search, text, and picture history to show us things we want. We are being watched as much as we think we are watching. The stuff we do, not only online, but in life, telling more about us than we might care to admit at one time, or that we might even know about ourselves.

Food has always been safe however, well, the comfort it provides anyway. The best part about cereal is that it is easy. Many people still think it is a "healthier" food, a staple of the American diet. The grain and wheat industry love that cereals made the foundational bottom of the food pyramid so long ago and that foods like bacon and eggs were eradicated. Foods that came from nature, but with a high fat content, had no grounds competing against the safety and reliability of cereal. And it does provide a comfort too, a serotonin release and crash due to the highly processed grains making the energy readily available and then just as quick to leave. The ups and downs of cereal whether or not they have the official rabbit, the little leprechaun, or the tiger, versus a hamster, a wizard, and a monkey, they all do the same because, yes, they are made the exact same way.

When online we are exposing ourselves without leaving much to the imagination. Being integrated into technology means that people not only know what you show, but are able to closely enough to figure you out through mixing and matching things. Identifying character traits with nothing more than pictures, silent identifiers and timings of posts, behaviors exist throughout our media posts, or even lack thereof. We are giving ourselves away one day at a time to a world inundated with information and finding less relevancy with anything actually unique.

Off-brand foods have this way of getting to the point that name brand foods miss. When a patent runs out and the generic medications hit, they do the same thing. It is as though the company selling people on the over-priced flashy names wants people to invest in them, not the product. People want to feel the comfort and safety of the Frosted Flakes, versus the Frosty Flakes and a wizard. The name-brand cereals are here for you, to comfort you even if the quality is slightly shoddy compared to last time, it is the name that will cover its tracks, and it is GREAT! The guess work applies to the names for we have to figure out exactly what this stuff is, what it is made of, and how all of those scientific explanations in the ingredients list equate to food, and what's that taste like? People have to buy the product to figure out what Trix are or Lucky Charms, or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. We in America know these foods by heart, but imagine you never had, the only way to know would be to try. Now, unless this foreigner never had food before, would they not understand, Cinnamon and Sugar Squares or Fruity Balls (artificially flavored). They would know all about that cereal right away, thus allowing them dismiss the possibility quickly without getting to know the product, without even trying it.

Hold something back, be a name brand. Don't give yourself away with what you decide to show the world. People are more likely to invest when you leave something to the imagination. This could be skin on your body or ideas in the tank, all humans are unique and as much as the computers are trying to figure out our patterns, they will never know exactly how we will respond to adversity. For most of us have ever been put to a real test to see how things will turn out, how we would respond, what we would do. Do not spoil the ending of your story, keep some things intimate and personal. Though the internet claims to invite you into their dark web of apparent safety, to might just be because they have already divulged their own uniqueness like a box of Crispy Rice, no mystery, no surprise, just a generic box on sale, easily passed and even easier to disregard.

God Bless.

In my own story, for which you will never get ALL of it, I discuss my own body image disorders and the general obsession of people to be something or obsess in their body to find value, it never works out in the long run. Click HERE.