To many people, Jimmy Carr is a controversial comedian, but regardless of what you think of him, he is not a stupid man. Like many comedians he has a keen eye for observation, a sharp wit, and a first rate brain.
I saw a short video of him being interviewed (which I found on Instagram but can also be found on TikTok) and he mentioned something I had never thought of. Most of us have heard of gender dysmorphia, and body dysmorphia, but Jimmy Carr mentioned “Life Dysmorphia” and I had an “a-ha” moment! I don’t know if he originated the idea, but after hearing the term I Googled it and there are a few websites on it. Jimmy Carr does seem to be taking the concept mainstream, though.
For clarity, I would define Life Dysmorphia similar to body dysmorphia: a distorted view of and hyper focus on the perceived deficiencies and imperfections in our lives.
Humanity as a species is genetically predisposed to want more, its a survival trait. Capitalism succeeds by exploiting this trait and has convinced us that only “things” will make us happy.
Social media has been twisted and its primary purpose seems to be to compare us to each other. It has become so prevalent that it is virtually impossible to avoid social media entirely. It has conditioned us to believe that happiness only comes from having newer and nicer things than our friends and neighbours, and that our lives need to be easier, not better.
Capitalism and Social Media have combined to create a type of life dysmorphia in our culture. As a society I feel like we focus so much more on what we don’t have than what we do. We have been conditioned to compare our lives to people with more than us and crave more, instead of comparing ourselves with those who have less and appreciating the things we do have.
We’ve been taught that our lives need to be impossibly perfect, and if they’re not perfect we’re supposed to be miserable….
….so we are.
Mind Flush - My S.H.E.T.T. Blog 