Business management expert Tom Peters has written, “As a consumer, you want to associate with brands that have a strong presence that creates a halo effect on you,” and that certainly applies to librarians who turn to the most authoritative sources of information.
So I turned to the Oxford English Dictionary, the pinnacle of English lexicography, to find the definition of mukbanging. The term is relatively new and does not appear in the print or online versions of the OED, but, thankfully, there’s a lot to be said for plain old ‘muddying’.
With “Oxford” in the title, the OED usually lists English definitions before American. In this context, “muck” is first defined as “cattle manure, usually mixed with decaying vegetable matter,” and then in three senses: “US: soil material composed of decayed plant remains, such as peat.”
The OED can be surprisingly fun. For example, a further definition of “an abominable thing” is followed by passages from English writings throughout history showing how it has been used, and this includes a 1959 quote from Iona and Peter Opie (well-known English folklorists specializing in tracking). kindergarten histories) from their The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren: “School meals ‘bark’, ‘pig storm’, ‘poison’, ‘slops’ ‘and YMCA (Yesterday’s Muck Cooked Again).” It is described in many other ways over the next 5-6 pages of the OED (each containing about 4,500 words of text). Even casual glances reveal interesting tidbits; muck can be “waste material removed from mining operations”, “Lady Muck” can be “a woman who is airy, derogatory and considered excessively arrogant” and “muckender” can be “a napkin or apron”.
However, there is no “mukbang,” so I turned to the National Library of Medicine’s article “Mukbang and disordered eating,” in which Matthias Strand defines mukbang as “a recent internet phenomenon featuring videos of hosts eating copious amounts of food.” dishes are broadcast on an online video platform. It originated in South Korea and has since become a global trend.” Wikipedia provides the etymology of the term: “mukbang is a portmanteau of the Korean words for ‘food’ (mugneun) and ‘broadcast/TV show’ (bangsong).” He said mukbanging started in South Korea in 2009 and was the first time attractive people cooked and ate food using social media to interact with their followers in real time.
Early mukbanging spawned various types of video programs or vlogs, including the ASMR (autonomic sensory meridian response) mukbang, which taps into the trend of broadcasters recording sounds and sounds that “make us ‘feel’ something” while watching. crunch and all the sounds that come with enjoying a good meal.”
Another mukbang subgenre features “overeaters” who consume large amounts of food. Enter Nicokado Avocado, AKA Nicholas Perry. Born in the Ukraine and raised near Philadelphia, Perry is a classically trained violinist with some serious mental and emotional issues that color his extreme mukbang vlogs. His early mukbanging career focused on healthy eating and veganism, but before long he was consuming entire fast food restaurant menus in one sitting and his 5-foot, 6-inch frame ballooned from 160 to 350 pounds.
What’s going on? Perry’s mental instability from the age of 5 is well established, but the concept of audience capture also played a big role. My son learned about audience capture on a podcast he heard on the subject, and after his recording I learned that there are several types of audience capture and the issue in question is described in Gurwinder’s online article. Audience Capture: How Influencers Are Brainwashed by Their Followers.” The first part of the article uses Nicholas Perry to describe the phenomenon. Perry began posting videos featuring her passions: violin playing and veganism. “He was largely ignored. A year later, she gave up veganism, citing health concerns. Now free to eat whatever she wants, she started uploading mukbang videos of herself eating different foods while talking to the camera as if she were having dinner with a friend. These new videos quickly gained a large audience, but as the number of viewers grew, so did their demands. The comments sections of the videos were soon filled with people urging Perry to eat as much as he physically could. Desperate to be happy, she began creating torturous eating problems, each bigger than the last. The audience cheered, but always demanded more… Nicokado, who was turned into a cartoon extreme by the wishes of his audience, is now a completely different character than the vegan violinist Nicholas Perry, who started making videos for the first time. Where Perry is mild-mannered and health-conscious, Nicokado is loud, abrasive and spectacularly grotesque. Where Perry was a picky eater, Nicokado eventually ate everything he could, including Perry himself. An increased appetite for attention led to the adoption of a persona.”
Another form of audience capture embraced by the advertising world is “a method of capturing a specific audience … that can then be used to target counter campaigns.”
Such techniques, which sell consumers’ personal likes, dislikes and other information, make Facebook and similar sites a lot of advertising revenue. Another form of audience capture is known in political circles as “regulatory capture,” which Wikipedia defines as “a form of power corruption that occurs when a political entity, politician, or regulator conspires to serve a commercial, ideological, or ideological cause.” the political interests of a small constituency, such as a particular geographic area, industry, profession, or ideological group…When regulatory capture takes place, the special interest is placed above the general interest of the public, resulting in a net loss to society.” Regulatory scrutiny has been rampant in the US, including naming someone with a direct financial conflict of interest, such as Louis DeJoy, who owns stock in UPS and other USPS competitors, as Postmaster and ordering many questionable changes that make the USPS less attractive to consumers. such as shortening post office hours, limiting deliveries, limiting the delivery of medical prescriptions and mailed votes.
Advertising and consumption make the world go ’round, as shown in the online graphic from Dig.com, “The Most Uniquely Popular Consumer Brands in Every State.” Alaska, like most of the Northwest, is a Costco state, Walmart reigns supreme in Texas and the Deep South, and Ebay leads the Midwest. Another chart shows North America belonging to Amazon, South America ruled by Netflix, and most of Europe, Russia and Asia leaning towards IKEA. So it is healthy to counter this by reflecting on some of history’s great philanthropists, such as Andrew Carnegie and his early predecessor Herodes Atticus, who funded the construction of 2,509 public libraries.
“Who are the heroes” you ask?
He was “the first great ancient philanthropist,” according to HistoryCollection.com. Born in AD 101 to an “incredibly wealthy Athenian family,” Herod had an excellent education and career opportunities, and when he retired to Greece, he improved the lives of ordinary people. He privately financed many public construction projects, including theaters, baths, and aqueducts, which increased employment while improving the quality of life for everyone. And “When Herod died, the people of Athens mourned him greatly.” I suspect Elon Musk won’t have that answer, especially in these trying times. As EF Schumacher, author of “Small is Beautiful,” noted in the mid-20th century, “appropriate technology (a user-friendly and environmentally friendly technology applied to a community scale”), “A finite world with endless growth in material consumption is impossible.”