Why does everyone want the same thing?

A few days ago, my family and I got back from a vacation in Paphos. Every day, we’d find a little patch of grass by the sea, just a short walk from our apartment. Right in front of us was a broken pier where you could sit and enjoy the sunsets. One day, when we walked down to the pier with the girls, just as I was about to step on it, two well-dressed young guys ran past us. At first, I didn’t get the urgency, but then I saw them setting up at the end of the pier—one of them pulling out his phone, while the other struck poses for the camera like he was some big-time model. It clicked for me.

A few days ago, my family and I got back from a vacation in Paphos. Every day, we’d find a little patch of grass by the sea, just a short walk from our apartment. Right in front of us was a broken pier where you could sit and enjoy the sunsets. One day, when we walked down to the pier with the girls, just as I was about to step on it, two well-dressed young guys ran past us. At first, I didn’t get the urgency, but then I saw them setting up at the end of the pier—one of them pulling out his phone, while the other struck poses for the camera like he was some big-time model. It clicked for me.

We ended up sitting there for about 20 minutes, and I watched as these “models” switched roles. They weren’t letting anyone else enjoy the view, and they weren’t even looking at the sunset because they were too busy snapping pics for their social media feeds.

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I apologize for my grumpiness, but for years, I’ve thought that social media is both the best and worst thing to happen to humanity. It feels like we’re living our lives through screens. Real life is passing us by while we scroll and consume all this targeted content designed to keep us glued to our devices, creating a fake image of “our perfect lives.”
After waiting for a while, we decided to ditch the pier and stroll along the promenade. At one of the nearby bars, I saw a sign that said "WE LOVE FLAIRS," a tired play on the "I LOVE NY" logo created by Milton Glaser in 1976.

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I apologize for my grumpiness, but for years, I’ve thought that social media is both the best and worst thing to happen to humanity. It feels like we’re living our lives through screens. Real life is passing us by while we scroll and consume all this targeted content designed to keep us glued to our devices, creating a fake image of “our perfect lives.”
After waiting for a while, we decided to ditch the pier and stroll along the promenade. At one of the nearby bars, I saw a sign that said "WE LOVE FLAIRS," a tired play on the "I LOVE NY" logo created by Milton Glaser in 1976.

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And then it hit me. Just like in social media, in advertising, everyone is trying to be like someone else instead of finding their own unique identity. There are countless imitations of that logo, from cities around the world to pubs and cheap fast-food joints. Everyone wants a bite of the apple, but no one can truly be themselves. They’re all just pathetic and strange imitations.

Behind that iconic logo was a thoughtful creative process aimed at promoting tourism in New York. What works for New York won’t necessarily work for other places. I’m sorry, but Ma'ale Adumim, Gaza, Tel Aviv, and Azerbaijan will never be New York. Each city has its own uniqueness, its own vibe, and its own identity.

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Ironically, this behavior leads to a lack of uniqueness. When a silly trend pops up on TikTok, the first time you laugh, the second time you think the advertiser is foolish, and by the third time, you just feel sorry for them. We start losing trust in everything; everyone’s selling the same thing in the same way. They think, “If it works for someone else, it’ll work for me,” which, of course, dilutes the message.

And the worst part, in my opinion, is the loss of creativity. When we seek to copy, we lose any chance of being authentic and the ability to think outside the box, to bring something new to the

Ironically, this behavior leads to a lack of uniqueness. When a silly trend pops up on TikTok, the first time you laugh, the second time you think the advertiser is foolish, and by the third time, you just feel sorry for them. We start losing trust in everything; everyone’s selling the same thing in the same way. They think, “If it works for someone else, it’ll work for me,” which, of course, dilutes the message.

And the worst part, in my opinion, is the loss of creativity. When we seek to copy, we lose any chance of being authentic and the ability to think outside the box, to bring something new to the