Nowadays, take a stroll down the street. You’ll notice most people look the same, that our differences aren’t visible anymore, most of our routines are copied and pasted, and that we’re practically morphing into each other. Here’s more on Consumer Culture.
Individual quirks that once defined us are slowly disappearing. Everywhere you look, people are starting to blend into the same thing—our clothes, our routines, even our ambitions feel less like personal choices and more like copies of each other.
What used to make someone stand out is now being replaced with uniformity, as trends, standards, and social pressures push us toward a single, polished version of “normal.”
It’s not just about fashion or the way we look: it’s about the way we live. From the jobs we’re expected to pursue, to the food and drinks we consume, to the content we scroll through every day, so much of our identity has become shaped by repetition.
This raises a bigger question: are we truly choosing who we are, or are we simply following a template laid out for us?
Fast Fashion
Fast fashion has been a trend for a while now.
It refers to the fact that most brands are rapidly producing and distributing trendy, inexpensive clothing to capitalize on current fashion trends.
However, that caused minimalism to take over, and even though it’s simple and neat, it has caused a disappearance in individuality and each person having their own sense of style.
Even if you want a unique sense of style, it’s hard to find that, as the demand for basic, plain clothing is now high, and it’s hard to find something different.
So we’re forced into all looking and wearing the same.
Beauty Standards
Social media has been forcing most women to want the same ideal look.
It brainwashes many young adults into thinking that, to be liked, you need to fit into a certain category that is nearly impossible to achieve.
This is mainly because filters and editing apps create the same “ideal” appearance. As a result, many teens are driven to seek cosmetic procedures: lip fillers, nose jobs, contouring, pushing people toward one standard.
When someone you look up to undergoes these procedures, it influences (very) young minds and creates an urge to follow in their footsteps, altering the unique features they already have in order to feel satisfied. This all leads to a point where authentic features are almost discriminated against, and most people strive to fit in and feel confident. Ultimately, this results in a variety of people looking the same.
Work & Daily Routines
Egyptian Gen Zs, from a young age, have mostly grown up in either National, International, or other schools.
There aren’t many job opportunities to pursue, with the main paths limited to business, medicine, pharmacy, engineering, and similar fields.
We’re all being fed the same 9-5 job routine daily, a cycle that leaves us sick and bored, stripping away most creativity and making us think and feel the same.
Yet we’re also told to be grateful for it, so even feeling tired of this routine feels wrong and invalid. Even free time is spent in repetitive ways—Netflix, fast food, shopping malls, and basic productivity have now become something that makes a person seem special and different.
Consumer Culture & Branding
Most brands now follow the same demand. For example, people want to carry an iPhone, wear AirPods, eat and drink from the same breakfast places, and fit into the same lifestyle.
Marketing creates “must-haves” that shape identical ways of living, and not many brands stand out from one another anymore.
This problem keeps growing as demand never stops. Most people, for instance, open the same type of local brand that sells basics and repetitive clothing.
F&B brands also push the same foods: matcha, bagels, boba, and fried chicken, so even what we consume has become the same.
Social Media & Algorithmic Influence
Most of this influence comes from social media, as platforms mainly promote the same lifestyles, and viral content pushes everyone to copy trends:
TikTok dances, Instagram aesthetics, and more.
The “For You Page” makes us all consume and mimic the same content, leaving us feeling forced to follow trends whether we like them or not.
In the end, it all leads back to the same issue: most of us morphing into the same person.
Psychology of Conformity
If you ask most people what one of their fears is, many would say the fear of being judged.
That is exactly what society uses nowadays as a weapon against one another, since not many enjoy standing out and instead force themselves to fit in to gain the social acceptance they crave.
This only fuels the loss of individuality.
The Consequences
Due to everyone wanting to fit into unrealistic societal standards, we slowly get stripped away from our authentic selves and molded into socially shaped characters.
Instead of embracing the features, habits, and quirks that make us who we are, we bend and reshape ourselves to match what is considered acceptable or attractive at the moment.
Over time, this leaves little room for individuality or self-expression, and uniqueness becomes rare: something people start to fear rather than celebrate.
But that was never what we were created for. Human beings were meant to be different, to express themselves in countless ways, and to bring variety into the world.
