Influencers turn their life story into cotton candy – goop

Resumes have been used for a variety of purposes for centuries. Think of connecting with each other through appreciation and inspiration. To form identity and transmit traditions, norms and values ​​through generations. For religious transmission and God experience. change and history. As with me, my motives for a career memoir, in the form of an autobiography, manifesto and history of women, Exit the lighthouse. However, in this day and age, we underestimate the power of this type of resume. Let me explain why.

Since childhood, I have been influenced by biographies. Nothing has empowered me more than the testimonies of people who are heroes in their own stories and have recorded their process in raw form. Intrigued by how people are put together, what their unseen intentions and attitudes are and how these things become tangible through their behaviour, I have studied hundreds of biographies.

Biographies of people who have emerged from closed societies and gone through deep considerations, struggles, compulsions, and moments of decision-making, both in their inner and outer world. Taken from my own life, because I put up with this: the search for independence, freedom, and an honest life according to my own scheme.

By reviewing these works, I endorse how connected they are rather than set them apart. After all, analysis offers insights and hope for human progress. At least, if we don’t erase those traces of history and act on learned insights. After all, this is the strength of this dependent type.

The differences between biographies and the reliability of historiography lie in the factual material collected. In the systems of thought and values ​​that color the description of life and provide context for the facts. In the leading picture of a human being supporting the genre, the amount of similar biographies circulated and in such matters as the style and language used.

In the Netherlands we have always been modest when it comes to such personal testimonials. For example, if I had published my resume in America, I would have gained a collective appreciation and greater understanding of the change and historiography I aim for. And America is eminently a country of heroes in its own story. of personal expression as a service to the group. from parrhesia. The freedom not to continue moving within a single career path pattern.

In Holland we have an internal civilization, sometimes somewhat Calvinist, of a strong bourgeois character. Sometimes anyone who rises above that bourgeoisie is openly forbidden with a resume. This collectively discourages people here from venturing into it. Being very strong and windproof: I know something about that, and I’m no Dutch celebrity. It is impossible to predict where those winds will come from.

Fortunately, what distinguishes our contemporary view of autobiographies is that we understand that there is always a shorthand of reality. We understand that we don’t see someone’s whole life, but only a few stories about that life. That biographies have accents and substance. It need not be hierarchical or chronological. In short, they are imitations of particles of reality.

As I express myself Exit the lighthouse: that I used only job scenes from the first twenty years of my life, for the statement as an activist and whistleblower. That I see the positive and negative things from those first twenty years as they are, in the right relationship to each other.

But, unfortunately, we are dealing with a great loss of politeness among the masses. Well, Gen-Z reads more than Gen-Y, for example, but fewer resumes. They were captured by the personal stories of influencerswhich thoughtfully ensures – sometimes with skilled teams, that people spend less Offline Start prose. I wish everyone his work and his pleasure, but this has nothing to do with biographies, as some know from literary studies, and with pure narrative.

because influencers Act on moderation time, and share personal trivia to grow in followers, reach, engagement, money, photo, and browse. They stage plays for this purpose, as their personal stories need broad discussion. They vote those stories for maximum distribution and Engagement on social media channels. They post at specific times to meet the expectations of their followers. And they themselves use the AI ​​data machine, for example analysis and automation.

So it’s brimming with snackable multimedia stories. They are like cotton candy artwork. They look attractive and drain our time, energy, money and vitality. But they often leave us with an even greater hunger for depth and wisdom than before. While the subject type bios actually feeds.

This commercial Darwinism of being seen and heard diminishes the power of biographies. Because personal stories are limited to thinking. It cannot be applied to biographers who want or want to honor the origin of biographies l’art for l’art I want to do.

Today’s biographers are overwhelmed with activity, because there is still a lot of improvement and reconciliation. So if We read biographies, and then a lot Good This alternative. I find it interesting to see. Of course, the variety of famous sensations, for example artists, also continues to do well. However, we gradually get tired of all this activity, so that we quickly condemn what is associated with polarization and vice versa. This affects how we view the resumes associated with this movement.

We seem to forget that we have reached the present age, because the lives of certain groups have been less important for so long. And we humans are still rude Eliminates. Harmony, prize, opportunity, modesty, and justice are not the fact that they exist for everyone. Sometimes bias is cherished very consciously.

By the way, activism and whistleblowing has become so easy that we almost forget that there is a disconnect between who I am, where I stand in life, and what we read from my pen. My words are weapons, but I am a whole person. And never contact me influential. Call me a voice.

In my case, this resume also includes items that symbolize this statement. I am currently speaking to a few institutions about housing these attributes permanently, including a doll’s house that was featured in an exhibition in both Stedelijk and the Rijksmuseum some eighteen years ago.

I partner with scholar Nella van den Brandt on her landmark research on women leaving religion and closed societies in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. You have turned my testimonials and opinions into useful conclusions. See, that’s the power of resumes, too.

Incidentally, her research was not self-funded, not set up for self-profiling, and was not established through network corruption and nepotism. her research Center for trust, peace and social relations affiliate Coventry University funded by the European Union, the Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship To be exact. Because its historical service speaks for itself. Briefly, The real deal.

Now a new time has come for me. A time when I work on other things, more on that later. However, I still eagerly advise everyone to read more biographies, because they are related to each other. I still advise today’s makers to do more with pure storytelling. I will not always succeed. Ah, my grave will someday say: She led an immaculate life. That also came with a lot of loss. The last of this history.