Do we live in a cocooning culture? | The Tylt

Everyone has experienced the sensation of never wanting to get out of bed again. Your sheets are just so comfortable, your mattress is Goldilocks-level just right—there’s no good reason why you should ever put on pants and go—ick—outside. Think of this sensation as a micro-cocooning. 

Popcorn’s cocooning is staying under your sheets on a grander scale. She originally shared this theory in the eighties, stating that, “...cocooning [is] our desire to shelter yourselves from the harsh realities of the world.” This shelter (or “bunker,” more like it) involves making sure your home is not only the place that has everything you need, but the place you always want to be. Want food? There’s delivery and food subscription services for that. Need to work out? Try Peloton. Entertainment? Ever hear of the internet?

Heck, people don’t even have to meet at a bar to see their friends’ faces anymore. A little Snapchat here, maybe a little FaceTime there, and you’ve fulfilled your “in-person” socializing due diligence. Back to binging “Love Island.” 

Binging jokes aside, an upward cocooning trend is a legitimate cause for concern. Not only do people need physical contact and assimilation in order to be, you know, functioning human beings, but if all the attention is being put on the home, what’s going to happen to the world outside? Absolute degradation, is what. But you know, whatever, make sure to just sleep all the time and play an extra three hours of Mario Kart like you always do, instead of hanging with that cutie that asked you to go to that Childish Gambino concert tonight. 

Faith Popcorn is known as the “Nostradamus of Marketing,” so take that as you will. Or maybe we’ll just spell it straight for you: If the world didn’t end in 2012, it’s unlikely cocooning culture will ever get too extreme.  

For one thing, Popcorn slightly backtracked her own predictions in 2016. In an article published by The Drum, Popcorn claimed marketers were gravitating toward a “de-cocooning” trend in which people would be tempted to go outside again. Also, aren’t millennials always getting chastised for blowing their cash on real-life experiences—like going hiking or checking out concerts—instead of focusing on the “important" things? Please pick a stereotype and stick with it, people. 

People are always doubting other people. It’s always “end of days this,” “goodbye mankind” that, and do things ever end up being that bad? Nope. The world picks itself up by the bootstraps, adjusts its belt, and walks on. The individual is a lot smarter than they’re given credit for; that one Reddit dweller spouting nonsense online doesn’t speak for an entire generation in the same way a few nights in reflects a complacent population.

Stay in, go out, do whatever you like. Just remember that life is well-lived when moderation is in place. Cocoon and de-cocoon in equal measure, my friends.