- Although we have greater access to each other, we are less “connected” — we are less invested in community. I’ve written before that [[{1.2a1a2} social media encourages us to label ourselves for better visibility]] — microlabels are effectively hashtags that people can use to find others like them online. - (See also [[blog posts are a search query]] when I write that… ) - Anyway, performing aesthetics can be seen in wearing the “right” clothes, using the right slang, consuming the right media, and other non-experiential ways to signal your “belonging”. - This gives the *trappings* of community without the *labor* of culture-building. It shows that you have *something* in common with a given group, regardless of whether you have a concrete connection to them in shared experience, place, values, traditions, or other contexts of your life.