Framing everything in terms of mental health is one of those things were I can't tell if people are participating in some kind of mass social joke, or are serious.
coldpie · 1h ago
I think it is a little of both :) Emotional support animals are a real thing, but they are expensive and require a lot of maintenance and there are limits on where they may be taken. Stuffed animals can make people feel better for similar reasons, it's a companion to "talk to" or a nice familiar sight, and they have a lot lower bar to ownership than real animals do. So a stuffed animal can be reasonably considered to be in the same category as a real emotional support animal, but they are obviously a lot less serious than a real animal. So it's fun and funny to choose an animal with a bit of silliness and humor to it, like a chicken.
It is a joke, yeah, but it can also be a mood booster. So it's both.
dumbfounder · 50m ago
There are also obviously some people that take advantage of the rules around emotional support animals. Like Great Danes on airplanes (second hand anecdote). So the effect is that people tend to suspect everyone is taking advantage. There are even a ton of services to make it super easy to classify a pet as an emotional support animal. So, I am all for these ridiculous chickens. Might buy some for my kids (I am not into knitting).
owlninja · 46m ago
My understanding that those services that classify your animal are all unnecessary and sort of a scam.
JumpCrisscross · 8m ago
Yup. A pretty clear giveaway that a service animal is fake is those vests with “SERVICE ANIMAL” in size 9000 font on the side.
ForOldHack · 37m ago
Clearly not a pet person.
I am a total fan of emotional support chickens, real or knitted.
I am also a fan of rotisserie chickens.
LandR · 1h ago
We are in a time where it's fashionable to have mental health issues. It's very strange.
lowhighseco · 52m ago
Only certain mental health issues. Being a full on schizophrenic newspaper hoarder won’t ever be in style.
darknavi · 42m ago
Not physically, but digital hoarding is in full swing.
colechristensen · 1h ago
I've seen this plenty of times, young people almost boasting about their diagnosis like the old upper class used to be proud of gout
Some health care professionals are becoming hesitant to talk about diagnoses because it hurts the patient when they start identifying with the diagnosis it makes the condition worse when the patient starts to act more like the diagnosed condition because that's how they're supposed to act
dylan604 · 1h ago
That's what I fell about the 21 pilots track I'm so stressed out.
nemomarx · 1h ago
isn't it mostly about childhood nostalgia? "I'm more stressed then when I was a kid" seems pretty basic
alabastervlog · 1h ago
I'm more stressed out than like... during Summer, when I was a kid.
I've never, ever been as stressed out as during school, grades 7-12. If the rest of life had been that stressful or worse, I'd have checked out a long time ago.
nemomarx · 1h ago
Maybe I just had an easy time but 7-12 was a lot less stressful than office work and arbitrary meetings all day. I probably just miss the predictable schedule
alabastervlog · 57m ago
Huh, I'd liken school in those grades to a series of meetings basically all day, that are mostly presentations, every day of the week, with a lot of restrictions and harsh conduct & expectations from the people leading the meetings, which'd never fly in an office. Often with terrible lighting and long stretches without seeing the outdoors, even though a window. And crazy-early start times that may have you not seeing the sun until 3PM or so, for months. And, especially toward the end, a couple more hours of work at home every day. Mostly of math problems.
Also, all that, plus you're not getting paid for it.
s1artibartfast · 33m ago
If that were a job, I was characterize it as a boring job, not a stressful one.
I'm sure experiences differ, but mine was that school was trivially easy and inconsequential, but sometimes time intensive.
I wouldn't consider a job where I have to go and listen to a boring presentation for 8 hours a day stressful. What is stressful is the rat race and making sure I can afford mortgage payments
fragmede · 49m ago
OTOH, if you fail out of class, most of us wouldn't have become homeless, just placed in a remedial class.
Whereas getting fired from your office job would land you out on the street if you're living paycheck to paycheck.
ForOldHack · 33m ago
My school had a lot of field trips. I have never been part of a job that included trips to "the little farm. "I asked a friend from Hong Kong, if he had trips to A little farm, and he said he did.
nemomarx · 11m ago
I think this is supposed to be team building exercises, but I've never heard of a farm for one. Could be good!
tshaddox · 25m ago
I'm curious what you think counts as "framing in terms of mental health." Or more interestingly, if you think this article constitutes "framing in terms of mental health," I'm curious what you wouldn't consider as such.
This article does use words related to mental states, like "comforting" and "relaxing." But that's pretty difficult to avoid in most writing of non-trivial length.
alabastervlog · 18m ago
The name they've decided to give these, "emergency" chickens, knitting them for hurricane survivors. It's all a step up from just "we like these and they're nice" and into "these are Helpful with a capital H".
My point is exactly that that kind of thing reads like a joking exaggeration, but this sort of approach to things is really common now and I truly have trouble telling when people are joking or being serious about it. Most of it reads like joking to me, but I don't know. It's also been going on long enough that it's making me wonder even more, since, judged as a joke, it was played out and over-done years ago.
tokai · 11m ago
There's lots of research showing stuffed animals can reduce stress even in adults. There is no joke here.
alabastervlog · 7m ago
You're weirdly concerned about how much I'm reacting, which is pretty minimally. Like, I can't imagine how I could have raised this while reacting any less. But yes, I also saw your other post and got your message that you're bothered I brought this up at all. [EDIT] Ah, ninja-edited this paragraph into irrelevance! :-)
Maybe you need a chicken. [EDIT] But perhaps we all need chickens?
But thank you for helping me understand this. The framing is 100% serious, I guess.
Bender · 1h ago
I suspect they are all in support of the soon to be 28th amendment "The right to bear, breed, harvest, and sell chickens shall not be infringed."
tokai · 38m ago
You are overreacting. There's nothing about mental health in there. They are called Emotional Support Chicken because they are comforting. Calm down.
LargeWu · 38m ago
Feels the the homogenization of culture driven by social media and online communities. Somebody makes a chicken, and it gets a good reaction, so everybody starts making chickens. At first it's organic but it turns into clout chasing. Pretty soon the chickens will start to disappear and something else will take their place.
AlecSchueler · 32m ago
Trends have been happening since long before social media. I don't see the problem with "everybody" getting involved in knitting and making chickens anyway, what's the harm here?
hex4def6 · 19m ago
I think the "homogenization" is the keyword here. It's not that trends are bad, it's just that, in the 'old days' a trend might start as a community-wide phenomena that over time might spread into neighboring communities, finally becoming part of the local / regional zeitgeist.
These trends would spread slowly enough that other trends in other communities would have time and room to grow and develop. The result is you get a bunch of localized cultures, all unique in some way.
The best analogy I can think of is a plant mono-crop. Instead of different species of plant gradually finding their niche, we plant 50,000 acres with corn or soy.
I have to say, even over the last 20+ years or so, it really does feel like you can go anywhere in the world and get a very similar experience. You can go to the local 7-11, buy a coca-cola, hit up your local costco, listen to people arguing about American politics. It just feels like different countries have gradually been losing their unique culture, and we just have this global homogenized version with slight regional differences.
koolba · 26m ago
The harm is homogenization of culture stymies concurrent evolution of new ideas. Whether that’s more important than the sheer speed of good ideas traveling the world is an open question.
But there’s definitely less creative work produced without the direct or indirect influence of outside forces. As an artist you simply can’t unsee things. So we may end up at some local maxima of creativity.
api · 27m ago
Social media is just accelerating trend adoption, peaking, and obsolescence to the point that it can sometimes happen in days, or even shorter.
"Summer in the Sprawl, the mall crowds swaying like windblown grass, a
field of flesh shot through with sudden eddies of need and gratification." - William Gibson, Neuromancer
He continues to be the most prophetic science fiction writer, nailing the zeitgeist of the early 21st century in the 1980s.
spencerflem · 32m ago
Its fun to do things your friends are doing, even e-friends. It gives you something to talk about. Not every trend needs to last forever.
I'm a pretty cynical guy, especially with regards to social media, but this seems like totally harmless fun.
mplewis · 27m ago
think you're reading a bit too much into this one
bentcorner · 1h ago
Reminds me of the Blender Donut. It's a good beginner project and the outcome is pleasing.
levicole · 1h ago
The emotional support chicken isn't a great beginner project.
You want to start with a scarf and move onto a beanie.
lowhighseco · 50m ago
It’s a great project to leave the beginners bracket.
stevetron · 16m ago
They could knit some eggs, and watch them hatch and grow up to be knitted chickens.
It is a joke, yeah, but it can also be a mood booster. So it's both.
I am a total fan of emotional support chickens, real or knitted. I am also a fan of rotisserie chickens.
Some health care professionals are becoming hesitant to talk about diagnoses because it hurts the patient when they start identifying with the diagnosis it makes the condition worse when the patient starts to act more like the diagnosed condition because that's how they're supposed to act
I've never, ever been as stressed out as during school, grades 7-12. If the rest of life had been that stressful or worse, I'd have checked out a long time ago.
Also, all that, plus you're not getting paid for it.
I'm sure experiences differ, but mine was that school was trivially easy and inconsequential, but sometimes time intensive.
I wouldn't consider a job where I have to go and listen to a boring presentation for 8 hours a day stressful. What is stressful is the rat race and making sure I can afford mortgage payments
This article does use words related to mental states, like "comforting" and "relaxing." But that's pretty difficult to avoid in most writing of non-trivial length.
My point is exactly that that kind of thing reads like a joking exaggeration, but this sort of approach to things is really common now and I truly have trouble telling when people are joking or being serious about it. Most of it reads like joking to me, but I don't know. It's also been going on long enough that it's making me wonder even more, since, judged as a joke, it was played out and over-done years ago.
Maybe you need a chicken. [EDIT] But perhaps we all need chickens?
But thank you for helping me understand this. The framing is 100% serious, I guess.
These trends would spread slowly enough that other trends in other communities would have time and room to grow and develop. The result is you get a bunch of localized cultures, all unique in some way.
The best analogy I can think of is a plant mono-crop. Instead of different species of plant gradually finding their niche, we plant 50,000 acres with corn or soy.
I have to say, even over the last 20+ years or so, it really does feel like you can go anywhere in the world and get a very similar experience. You can go to the local 7-11, buy a coca-cola, hit up your local costco, listen to people arguing about American politics. It just feels like different countries have gradually been losing their unique culture, and we just have this global homogenized version with slight regional differences.
But there’s definitely less creative work produced without the direct or indirect influence of outside forces. As an artist you simply can’t unsee things. So we may end up at some local maxima of creativity.
"Summer in the Sprawl, the mall crowds swaying like windblown grass, a field of flesh shot through with sudden eddies of need and gratification." - William Gibson, Neuromancer
He continues to be the most prophetic science fiction writer, nailing the zeitgeist of the early 21st century in the 1980s.
I'm a pretty cynical guy, especially with regards to social media, but this seems like totally harmless fun.
You want to start with a scarf and move onto a beanie.
They could knit some pink flamingos.