Ads and personal image

It all started with seeing my kids consuming their media. Unlike their predecessors, Gen Z and Alpha are now more curated and personalized than ever. My kids’ main source of entertainment is mostly streaming services: Netflix, Disney+, Youtube, you name it. They are rarely exposed to ads, and even if they did (through Youtube), it was a simple click of a “Skip” button or an immediate switch to a different video. Gone are the days of sprinting to the toilet when the ads appeared, or when kids had the same collective memory of certain brands and ads. From there. I noticed several things about my kids. First, they are not super fussy about their appearance, and second, they didn’t really know how to do some self-grooming things unless I told them how to do it (okay, I know how it sounds, but bear with me; I have more to say/write about this). The first observation: My kids are not super fussy about their appearance. This sounds like a good thing, and it is! At the same time, it’s…