Why has ‘hype’ become such a big problem in modern society?

In the modern world, “hype” applies not only to products, but also to people and media, and it’s caused by a superficiality and commoditized social structure. This is because the development of media and increased competition have led to an excessive emphasis on external factors.

 

A long time ago, three university students in South Korea made a raft out of sweets and successfully floated down the Han River, which became a big social issue. They posted a video of their rafting across the Han River to criticize the overpricing of Korean confectionery companies, and it resonated with many people. As a result, the term ‘overpricing’ came back into the spotlight, along with the trending phrase, ‘I bought nitrogen and got sweets. More recently, Kim Sang-won, the director of the Crime Science Research Institute, criticized reporters on a broadcast program for using words like “confidence” and “giregi” to describe the culprit in the Suwon chopped-up body case, linking him to “human flesh and organ trafficking. In the modern world, the word “hype” is used in a wider range than in the past. Why is the word “hype” so common and influential in modern society? Is nitrogen really the only thing that makes a raft of sweets float down the Han River?
In the past, consumers have recognized the problem of companies trying to profit from overpricing, and there have been movements and government actions against it. For example, according to an article in the Dong-A Ilbo on June 19, 1973, a movement called “Stop Packaging that Deceives Consumers” that raised the issue of the falsity of over-packaged snacks received great public support. Recognizing this problem, the KFDA tried to prevent over-packaging by establishing appropriate packaging standards and enforcing crackdowns. As you can see, the problem of overpackaging has been a persistent issue since the past. However, while the term “overpackaging” was once limited to products, the scope of the term has expanded in modern society. The word “hype” no longer only applies to products, but also to movies, celebrities, and almost anything else that’s inflated beyond the facts. People use the word “hype” to describe a variety of situations, such as people exaggerating their experience and history in job interviews, programs making themselves more glamorous than they really are in order to keep up with competing programs, and celebrities whose reputations are valued higher than they really are by their fans. There are two main reasons for this. In addition to the fact that the development of media has maximized the opportunities for expression in a society that values external factors, it is also due to the recent “commoditization” perception of modern people.
First, the social phenomenon of valuing external factors has been maximized by the development of media, and as a result, external “hype” has become more frequent in society. The development of the Internet, media, and social media has resulted in a society that emphasizes appearances, and in such a society, people naturally focus more on appearances, i.e., “over-presenting” themselves. A prime example of this is the behavior of teenagers in modern society, who wear heavy makeup, undergo plastic surgery, and edit photos to make themselves look better on social media than they actually are. Among elementary school students, drawing eyelines with “compa” (a computerized signature pen) is popular, and makeup has become very common among middle and high school students. There was even a popular program called “Dotage” among teenagers a few years ago, and for a while, “dotage” was the idol of many teenagers, who would edit their faces to be more perfect and post them online. This culture has led to a culture that emphasizes external factors among teenagers, and there have been many cases of bullying based on appearance. This irrational culture of emphasizing appearance has already spread in modern society, and there are many cases of external ‘hype’.
Second, to understand why the concept of hype, which was limited to products in the past, is now being used more frequently in a wider range of products, we need to go deeper than the development of media. The broader use of the phrase “hype,” which was once applied to products, reflects a society that has commoditized more and more. In today’s cold, competitive world, more things are treated as commodities than in the past. The modern world, with its extreme appearance-oriented culture and rampant superficiality, forces people to commoditize even themselves. For example, many large companies require applicants to list personal details when applying for a job. According to Yonhap News Agency, some companies even consider physical characteristics such as height and weight as a factor in hiring. As a society that emphasizes external factors, people are forced to hype themselves up like a commodity for situations like job interviews in order to beat the competition. Let Me In, a program that has been criticized for promoting superficiality, takes this “commodification” to an even more extreme level. “Let Me In” not only reflects the irrational reality of a society where appearance is an important factor in judgment, but it also shows the uncomfortable reality that the contestants’ lives and appearance changes become commodities to increase viewership. In a society where people are forced to commoditize themselves, it is natural that many other things are commoditized. There is more competition in everything than ever before, and it’s no wonder that hype is more common in such a society. People are more aware of this problem because of the absurdity of commoditization and “over-packaging” of many things, which is why people are constantly criticizing the “over-packaging” of sweets.
In modern society, the development of the media has maximized the phenomenon that looks are more important, and appearance has already become an important criterion for judgment, and the problem of ‘commoditization’ of everything, even people, is widespread in society. The public is sensitive to the hype of confectioners because they see their own ‘hype’ in the confectioners’ hype in their daily lives, so they are even more sensitive to the hype of confectioners as if they are seeing their own ugly side. Before floating the nitrogen sweets on the Han River, did they think about how much they were floating on an inflated raft, and did they think that it was not just the hype of the nitrogen sweets that allowed them to cross the Han River, but their own inflated selves due to the hype? I hope that we can move away from a society that emphasizes only external factors, and that our inner beauty can shine through as soon as possible.