Chatterbox #350 – Hyperblanding

Hello, how's it going? Welcome to the QLUPS English Podcast. This is chatterbox episode number 350. It always feels great to hit a milestone 350 episodes for chatterbox. Amazing. Thank you for being a part of our journey here at QLUPS. And if you're new to chatterbox and you don't know what it's all about, let me quickly explain. And it's our series, which features interesting conversations for intermediate to advanced English learners, designed to help you build your vocabulary and your fluency and your understanding of how English speakers look at the world and think about the world. In just a moment, I will be joined by my co-host Anna. And of course, I'm Andrew. If I haven't introduced myself yet. And we're going to talk today about hyper-blanding. Hyper-blanding. Maybe you haven't heard of this topic before, but I think you'll find it fascinating. In a nutshell, it's about everything becoming the same. Music, fashion, architecture, even the food we eat, worldwide becoming the same. And we're losing some of our uniqueness from country to country to country. Or at least, that's the idea. And when Anna and I talked about this topic, it was pretty funny because we actually didn't see eye to eye on some things. We didn't agree about some things. And I want you to keep your ears open for those parts and see if you can feel what we disagreed with. It's not like we had a big argument or anything, but I think our perspectives on hyper-blanding are a little bit different. We're not exactly the same, which makes for a fun and interesting conversation. Right? So I hope you will enjoy this one. Before we get started with the episode, though, I want to let you know about the helpful study guide and the interactive transcript that is available to accompany this episode for all Q-loops members. Plus, on top of that, there are so many other benefits and bonuses that you get as a member, like our weekly speaking classes. We have many classes each and every week where our community gathers and we practice speaking English together. They're super fun. And if you haven't tried one out, I would really encourage you to do it. It's one of the highlights of my week, to be honest, is hosting one of the speaking classes. Plus, there are so many other benefits and bonuses like our fluency files series and much more to sign up and become a Q-loops member. Just visit our website, Q-loops.com, and you can do that for an affordable price. And of course, thank you to all of our Q-loops members out there. We couldn't do Q-loops without you, so thank you so, so much for your support. We really appreciate it. Alright, I think it's time to invite Anna and we'll get started with our conversation. So, be honest guys, this was a tough episode to do. We had a myriad of technical problems before we were actually able to start recording. So, you might notice at the start of the episode that Anna and I sound a little frustrated, and that's because of all the tech problems that we had, but don't worry, we got it solved. And we ended up having a great conversation about hyperblanding. So, without any further ado, let's get to it. Here we go. Enjoy. And joining me now to talk about hyperblanding is my co-host Anna. Hey, Anna, how's it going today? Hi, Andrew. I'm very well. How are you doing? Oh, Anna, I'm a little bit frustrated because our recording session here has been difficult to start. First of all, we had an issue with your microphone, and now I'm having an issue with my internet. So, this is the second or third time that we've had to hit record. But, I think everything is working now. So, we're here and we're ready to go and we're talking about hyperblanding today, which is this new expression. I haven't really heard it before until recently, but I thought it would make for an interesting conversation. And so, here we are. And I think a great place for us to start, Anna, would be with a definition. So, what comes into your mind when you hear hyperblanding? That's a great question, Andrew. And I think let's break it down, first of all. So, the first part is hyper, and this actually has a couple of different meanings in English. And the first one, if you call somebody hyper, it means that they're very overly energetic or excited. Or, and this is the case with this word, it's an excessive amount of a certain quality. And then if we look at blend, blend is an adjective, which has a really negative connotation in English. It's like it's very boring, it's very plain, it's not very interesting. It can be, for example, how we describe food, if it doesn't have any flavor, we call that blend. So, if we put that together, hyperblanding is like an excessive sameness. There's nothing that's very interesting. Nothing stands out. It's all just a little bit bland. So, that's how I think about it is just a lot of sameness. And it's definitely got a negative connotation, which I think is really important to get across. What do you think, Andrew? Is there anything else you could add to that? No, that's great. That's a great definition. And I agree that the word blend does have this negative connotation, this negative feeling associated with it. And if we use this as an adjective, what are some things that we could describe as being blend? Food, definitely, we can talk about being blend if it doesn't have any flavor or any taste. Also, for example, music, I think we can call it being quite blend, like not really anything interesting or different, or kind of sounds like everything else. Maybe fashion as well, somebody's style, they could have bland style, right? Maybe they're just wearing a plain t-shirt and tackies, like nothing colorful, nothing jumping out at you, really. Yeah, just sort of boring style. And maybe even I would say potentially personality also as well, if somebody's a little bit bland and they don't really have anything interesting for you, right? Which is subjective, of course. All of these things are subjective as to what you think is blend. But you might also call somebody a little bit bland and not very interesting from your perspective. Yeah, when I was a university student, some of my friends used to tease me by calling me the nickname "blandy". So I think they did that because they knew it would get under my skin. Sometimes you just joke around with your friends and of course my name Andrew lends itself to the short form "andy". So it's very easy to combine these words. And as a university student, I really wanted to be an individual, a unique person. I was like into music and wanted to be creative. So by them calling me "blandy", they knew that it would get under my skin and bother me a little bit. So that was one of my nicknames back in the day and kind of funny. But we're talking today, not about high school nicknames and university nicknames, more about everything feeling the same. And so I think why don't we share our personal experiences? You know, QLips is very global. We have listeners from around the world and Anna, you and I, we are global citizens as well. Like we're living in countries that are different from our home countries and you're originally from the UK but living in Spain now. I'm wondering when you go back home to visit the UK, do you see some of the same chains, like the same cafes, the same restaurants, the same clothing stores? Do you feel a lot of the sameness between the two countries or are they very unique and very different? What's your perspective on that? I think to be honest, it's a little bit of both. There's definitely, for example, a certain look, I would say, for generation Z, you know, the generation Z. There's definitely a specific look which goes across cultures and that's what I think is just a regurgitation of the 90s, the low fitted jeans, the gelled hair and a bun, the glasses. I'm like, I've been there, done that. Got the t-shirt. That's what I was wearing when I was like 13. So it's all just the same things for me that's just been cycled round. So I can see that. I can see that there's the same shops and the same coffee shops and things like this. But I do also think that there's also identities that are unique to certain cultures. So I would say, it's a little bit of the same, but I also think, Andrew, and I wonder whether you agree with me that it's always like that. There's always a look or a trend that's in that everybody copies and follows. And for example, my mum, whenever she comes here, I'm like, okay, you have to wear a Spanish mum outfit. There's like a very specific way that I feel that Spanish women dress and that's a compliment they dress in a very nice way, in my opinion. So yeah, I don't know, but I kind of think it's, we're always a little bit same. Most people follow the trends. Most of us wear the same types of things. So I'm not sure whether I agree with this hyperblanding, actually. I'd be interested to see what you think, Andrew. I think I agree with hyperblanding because I've traveled a lot over the last few years and. In the countries that I've visited, I see the same chains. I see Starbucks everywhere. If I go to the shopping mall, I see the same stores. I see like H&M and Zara everywhere in every country. I see the same fast food restaurants and chains. And of course, each city, each country also has local restaurants and local specialty dishes and things like this. But a lot of people are wearing the same things. Like so many people are wearing the same kind of Nike shoes. And so many people are using the same apps. We're all on Instagram. We're all listening to music on Spotify or one of the other popular music apps. And we're all listening mostly to the same things as well. Of course, there are specific genres, you know, but if you listen to some of the new pop music from the West, and then you compare that with a K-pop song and a J-pop song and a Latin pop song, they're gonna have a lot in common. Like the language might be different. And yeah, the lyric content may be different a little bit as well, but they're gonna sound pretty similar. Maybe the melody and the beat, there's a lot of similar aspects. So although of course we're not like one country, one culture, one language. Nothing like this, but I do feel like there is a lot of uniformity from country to country to country. So I think I understand this hyperblendess where the authors of this are coming from. - I'm really glad you brought up music as well, 'cause that's actually one of the areas where I do think like all the music recently that I've listened, I know all the music, but a lot of it, it just sounds like the same drivel all the time. And then the other week, I, for some reason, when I was listening to music, a '70s music playlist came up. And it was like, oh my goodness, this is so refreshing. Like the music was, it's timeless. And it just thought goodness, it's all of this horrible music that probably has just been like, I don't know, people going over it in five minutes, you know, very formulaic. And it just feels like the same stuff but just regurgitated in a different way. And it was so refreshing to listen to some different type of music. So I'm glad you brought that up, 'cause that's definitely one area that I see hyper-blanting, like very formulaic type of music, dance music, that type of thing. And that I've seen coming out over the last few years. I'm not saying all new music's like that, but, yeah, it's like you said, same music, same styles. And that can feel a little bit samey, a little bit bland. - Hmm. - For me personally. - Yeah, for sure. I mean, this is one of the things that I think is happening on social media and on our social media apps. And maybe it copies over to other industries as well. And that is copying something that's successful. Now, maybe this is not a new concept, right? Probably forever and ever, like when somebody is successful then everybody else copies that person. But I don't know, maybe it's just me, but on social media, I've noticed, especially maybe because social media moves so fast and the trends are so quick that one style of video will take off. And then immediately there will be so many people who copy that same idea. And then you get like this trend that explodes and you see so much content that's really, really similar. And then it will shift and change. But like, for example, I'm trying to think of the ones I've seen recently on Instagram. I noticed, 'cause I love music. So naturally I follow a lot of musicians and music reviews and this kind of thing on social media. And so one style of video that really took off was just walking on the street. Somebody does a street interview and asks, like, hey, what are you listening to right now with a stranger and the stranger will take out their AirPods and answer the question. And it's kind of interesting to see what just random strangers are listening to at the same time, right? They're all walking around the same space, but listening to different music and different genres. And so I saw the original creator who did this first and then within, I don't know, like a week or something, then there's floods and thousands of these videos where people are on college campuses asking college students, what do you listen to? And in an office building, hey, what are you listening to? All these different places. And then I saw it in the Korean language. So some Korean creator copied that, hey, what are you listening to? And so I think maybe because of social media and the way that information just spreads so quickly and if one thing is successful, then you can just jump on that and ride the wave of that success. You don't even have to really be creative anymore on your own. I'm wondering if that has something to do with it, like the way that information and trends are spread so quickly globally now, just makes it feel like everything is the same and nothing is as unique or fresh. Absolutely, definitely. And I think you touched on it as well in the introduction and about globalization. I mean, we're such a globalized world and we're all online and we're all sharing things. So of course, these types of trends are gonna get picked up much more quickly. But then again, I come back to the same point as before. It's like, I don't think it's necessarily, like you said, people have always copied things work. I mean, that's nothing new. I think it's just that it's at a maybe a faster pace or it feels more prevalent. But I'm not sure whether I think that I feel like there's more sameness, but it does remind me actually of a black mirror episode. And if you've watched this, if you're listening, if you've watched this, Andrew, there's an episode called "Nose Dive." And this is set in the future, but I don't think it's supposed to be too far in the future. And one of the key things that they, from a design perspective, point out is that everybody's wearing the same clothes. It's all these pastel colors. Everybody's driving these same little cars. Everybody speaks in the same way. Everybody's eating in the same restaurants. So in a way, they've kind of taken that hyper-blanding to the extreme and their take on it in that episode was kind of that's where we're heading, right? To this hyper-blanned, everybody's the same. Nobody's different. And it kind of makes me feel quite sad actually because that is the interesting thing about life. And we kind of have a sort of a saying or expression in English, which is if everybody looked the same, it would be boring, right? Or there's some different takes on that phrase. But I really do believe that. Of course, most people will follow and do the same things, but the interesting part or the different thing is when people do something really different, they look different, they make different music, those are the things that really stand out. So hyper-blanding, I think, is something we would definitely want to stay away from to a certain degree. One thing that you just mentioned there that I think is interesting is about the way people talk. And I'm curious because in Canada, we only have like three or four different accents. And they don't vary too much. Like the east coast, far east coast accent in a province called Newfoundland is pretty unique and different from the rest of Canada. And of course in Quebec, it's a French-speaking area so they have a different way of speaking. But in general, the rest of Canada, even though it's this huge block and area of land, there's not too much difference in the way that people speak from one province to the next province. However, Anna, where you live, I know there are thousands of accents, maybe in the UK, like it really varies almost from one village to the next village, one region to the next region. And I know in the case of the USA as well, traditionally there were many different regional accents. And those regional accents, they do still exist, but it's been my observation that they don't exist as strongly anymore. And instead of each region having a unique accent, it's kind of morphing or changing into this broad American accent, where there aren't as many strong regional differences compared to when I was a kid. And there would be really, really strong regional differences. And maybe when my parents were a kid or going back 100 years, there would be extremely strong regional differences. Have you noticed in the UK, with the way that people speak, is that the same thing happening? Is there like a merging of a broad UK accent or are there still a lot of regional varieties? I still think there's a lot of regional varieties, but I'm not an expert in that. I really don't know if there's maybe more of a common language. Maybe I would say in slang words, maybe perhaps even so. Like I would say there's still so much diversity in that respect. If you're in London and then you're in Bristol, for example, then you're in York. I mean, we have lots of variety of accents that are like different ways of saying things. So I haven't picked up on that so much, but again, I'm not an expert. So I might be wrong, but definitely in slang words, people using the same slang things. But again, I think that's always happened, right? You know, if we go back to the 80s or the 90s, it's the same. Like people said things in a certain way. There was always these slang things. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't think the idea of trends is any different than it's ever been and copying trends. But perhaps maybe it's just the speed at which everything is being spread out that is different. But I think there's still lots of different identities with different countries and different cultures and so I don't know, but who knows? Maybe we will reach a point where we're just so globalized and everybody's doing the same thing. same thing and it feels kind of tiring. I know for me, maybe another example where I notice it is with videos and content, and you picked up on this a little bit, Andrew, one of the things that drives me absolutely insane, and I don't know what to say for you to, is this AI generated average, which you can see on things like YouTube, YouTube is the main culprit for me, and oh my goodness, they drive me absolutely nuts. It's like the same motivational music that they have at the beginning. It's the same phrases, but they just change them very slightly, and it drives me absolutely insane. And you know, I've got a theory because I think YouTube must be putting out these adverts to try to make people subscribe because they are so bad and they are so annoying, and they're so bland and samey, like that's the point, they're all the same, and it's just like, I can't stand it, like honestly sometimes I've wanted to throw my phone out of the window when I've after hearing like the fifth version that's basically the same thing. So yeah, I've noticed that with AI this kind of look that it generates for people, like this perfect look, and also this certain type of sound that's very bland and very savi, and even in the writing, that's another thing as well, Andrew, you can really see when something, I think anyway, has been written by AI. It has this very clean, clinical feel, and it's very bland. So that's again another area where we might see hyperblanding is with writing and putting things out there, and this is terminology that's quite popular now, which is like AI slop, slop being like mud essentially, like just nothing useful, just waste, and it is that feeling of AI slop both in terms of videos and written content. So that's where I see some hyperblanding definitely. Absolutely, I mean the way that the AI systems are trained is on all of the data that exists in the world, all of the text that's on the internet, right? So it's just recycling that essentially, it's using that training data and then using that data that it has to create something new, but it's all still based on what the training input was. And so you are going to get some recycling, and I'm totally 100% with you, with the AI images, the AI videos, the AI text, especially, you can really notice if you spend a lot of time on the internet, like unfortunately I do. When something is written with AI, and I have a funny story about this, kind of I was recently in an email conversation with two other people, and they were both non-native English speakers and both from different countries. So three people in this email chain, one person from Europe, one person from Asia and me, I was the only native English speaker, and I could tell that the two non-native English speakers were just using AI to write their responses, because as a native English speaker is very obvious, I think, for us at this point, at least, to tell when something is written by AI based on the word choices, the sentence structure, the punctuation, these are our tips that tell us, oh this was written by AI. And so I was kind of laughing like this is hilarious because one person is writing an email with AI, and then the response is with AI, and then the response to that is with AI, and I would imagine that these two other people were writing in their native language, and then just using the AI to translate, but I thought what happens if they're not even doing that? What happens if they're just copying the response, putting it into AI, and then getting the AI to write a response to that, and then kind of glancing and checking to see if it matched what they wanted to communicate? Like this could be a really big problem, we're just getting this snowball effect, where something is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and there's no human input into it at all. And so that's a kind of scary thought. I mean, and I, you and I, we've been talking a lot about AI recently, and we always come back to the same thing, that is really scary, and we don't know where the future is going, but maybe this is another element to the hyper blindness as well, where we have the speed of data transmission with the internet and with social media, and then AI as another element on top of that as well. And then I would also have to assume that another factor would be travel. I think people are traveling more than they ever have, right? And when people go to new places and they experience new places and maybe they say, "Hey, I like the way that this looks. I'm going to copy that," and then new trends spread that way. I don't know, all of these things, I think, maybe are factors for this hyperblanding. Definitely. And I heard a really good sort of just very short sentence about AI, which is, I think they said, AI reflects, it doesn't think. So exactly like you said, it just reflects what's already there. So of course, if it's just holding up a mirror to what we already have, and it's just putting out the same things in a slightly different way, then you would assume that that's going to make things sound a little bit more "samey." And by the way, when I'm saying "samey," this is just kind of a colloquial, very casual way of saying that things are all the same, right? But it's not really like a technical word, but you'll hear people use it in casual conversation. So it's just very "samey," and I guess that's part of it, and I totally agree, and I'm sure that AI has accelerated that process of making things feel like it's all the same, very formulaic, very kind of circular logic. So I think there is part of that, but I do think, as I said before throughout the episode, I do think there's an element of, we've kind of always been copying trends and following things that people think are cool or whatever. So I think that's always been around, but maybe just the speed of it, and maybe AI has also kind of catapulted it to new levels too. Now everybody's talking about AI these days, so why don't we try to avoid the hyperblending trap, and we'll change our topics slightly. And I'm curious, like, if we had a time machine right now, and we could jump in the time machine and go back maybe 150 years, 200 years, if I were to come out of the time machine and be here in Seoul, South Korea, where I am right now, things would look extremely different. People's fashion would be extremely different. And if I were to go to other countries, maybe if I visited Japan or China, other places in Asia, maybe some places in India or the Middle East or different regions around the world, we'd have a lot of variety in fashion. However, these days, although some countries do have some unique styles, like, I think, especially the Middle East, I was watching the World Cup. I don't know when this episode will be released, but while I'm watching it right now, it's the World Cup time, and I was watching Canada versus Qatar. And I saw all the Qatar fans, and I was like, wow, that's cool. They have the really own unique fashion style in that country that is rather unique, but among most of the countries of the world, we've all kind of merged to this one kind of fashion, which is a little bit, I mean, it's fine. It's cool. But at the same time, we've lost a lot of unique individual identity in terms of fashion. And that got me thinking, like, is there something from your culture, something from your country that you think is still unique or something that you're proud of that's like, okay, other countries don't have this. This is uniquely British or uniquely Scottish or something like this. Goodness. Well, I guess yes, there is some fashion things, I mean, things like kilts, which are very associated with Scotland and the Scottish culture. So yeah, I think there are some things that are unique, but I don't know. I kind of think that we've always dressed the same in some ways. We kind of always have the same trends, and we have the same clothes. And I mean, look, the majority of people are going to be wearing jeans, you know, and that's just what it is, because everybody loves jeans, you know. I don't think that's necessarily bad. I do think, for example, in London, I think London's a really interesting place, of course, because it's a huge global city that melting pot of so many different cultures. But London tends to have like a, if I compare it with Madrid, a little bit more of a bold style, you see people experimenting a little bit more of fashion. I'd also say that was somewhere like Berlin as well, but I've been there. You know, there's a bit more variety. People are not as afraid to take risks when it comes to fashion choices. You might see people wearing things that you wouldn't in Madrid, for example. I would say that here in Spain and in Madrid, my take on it is that people tend to look a little bit more semi. They tend to wear specific type of thing, girls, boys and whoever. So yeah, I do think London has a really, in the UK, London, especially in other places, we have a bit more of a bold style, which I think is nice. As I said before, that expression, right, if everybody looked the same, it would be really boring. And that's of course, because variety is nice or variety is the spice of life, as people say. And it would be boring if everybody looked the same, you know, that we would just lose, like you said, that identity or something special. So I'm all for people expressing themselves and wearing different things, because it's interesting. You know, it's interesting when people wear different stuff and look different and those people are normally the trend satchers, right? People that wear things sort of different. They're the first people that's kind of pushed the boundaries a little bit So yeah, what about in your culture, Andrew? Yeah, I mean Canada is a pretty new country and so because of that we don't really have like a Deep Canadian culture an original Canadian culture of course There's the first nations people and they have their own unique culture, but for people who came from Europe originally We just took our European traditions to North America and so I think in a lot of ways like What would be traditional Canadian culture for for people from European countries is actually that that European culture? So the same like you said and of the kilts, you know like my mom was from Scotland She was born in Scotland, so I kind of think that that Scottish style is kind of my traditional family style Way back in the day my ancestors would have worn that kind of traditional uniform, but In Canada now, no, we don't really have any traditional things like it's a little bit sad We don't have that deep traditional culture or traditional food or things like that It's always a little bit embarrassing when people ask me like what are some Canadian dishes? I have to try and I'm like oh the list isn't very long Like there's not not a ton of different different foods for people to try so Yeah, I think because Canada's a rather new country. We just don't have that same heritage But I totally agree I'm on the same page that variety is the spice of life and Although I don't think I'm really a fashionable person or I'm not very bold or unique in my fashion choices I do really appreciate it when people push the envelope and push the boundaries and try new things I love it when I go to you know in Korea here for the most part. It's a pretty uniform culture and there's a lot of sameness especially in the winter if you ride the subway in the winter you'll see that almost everybody has like a black long winter coat on and That's almost a meme here in Korea like if you see a picture of people in in the winter It's like everybody looks the same and it's just because it's very utilitarian and it works well and it serves a purpose It's easy But you don't see like a lot of different colors and stuff and so when I do go to a more Hipster or already neighborhood in Seoul and I do see some people Experimenting with their fashion or with their hair whatever. I think it's all it's really cool and I appreciate that And just before we wrap up I'm curious What do you think about you? I just said that I'm not To adventurous with my fashion and I think I'm more of a conformist I kind of conform to the norm and I Maybe in my mind maybe I'm more of a free thinker in my mind I don't really conform to all of the standards in society with the way that I think and maybe the way that I act and my attitude But in the way that I look I guess I would be pretty bland pretty conservative pretty conformative from the outside What about you do you bring any like flare or spice to your outward appearance? Not really. I don't think I mean I would say I'm a pretty standard pack as a human goes but I I mean I Guess I would agree that I'm not Maybe fashion wise. I definitely don't push the envelope very much and but at the same time I don't really follow trends so you know there was this big trend recently like but these barrel jeans style and I'm definitely not the sort of person that goes out and buys something just because it's trendy so But I guess I would say that I bring something different to the table as everybody will do but definitely not in an outward sense Yeah, I guess I'm just I may be I may be I'm part of the hyperbladding problem maybe But I think that's the thing is it's it's not a you know Everybody is kind of the same right and we all follow the same types of things So there's nothing really wrong with that. That's kind of our human nature is we like to be part of a pack and we like to be socially the same that's kind of survival right but I Really appreciate it when I see other people as you said Andrew doing something different and Wearing something different or having a race specific interest. So yeah, I think again to bring come back to that phrase if everything was the same It would be boring And it's kind of ironic Anna that we are talking here as as two foreigners right we're or foreigners living in our our I guess our second home country is now and Although we think that we try and fit in and stuff at least with me Even though maybe my fashion choices are pretty similar to what a Korean person would wear just Because I'm a foreigner just because I came from a different culture just because I'm an English speaker Naturally, it means that I'm gonna be so so different than all of the people around me So it's interesting like we can fit in and we can be really unique and different at the same time So maybe things feel the same from our perspective but from an outsider's perspective Maybe it's quite different. I'm not sure but I thought that was a little ironic sure Well, Anna I think that's gonna bring us to the end of our conversation here today and I really enjoyed it I listeners. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Of course we'd love to hear your opinion your Take on this topic and the best way to get in contact with us is on our discord community You can share your thoughts and opinions with us and with our listeners from around the world as well Over on our discord and the link to do that will be in the description for this episode Please don't be shy. We love hearing from you So we'll be eagerly awaiting your feedback and your comments about this episode But yeah, for now, I think that's gonna bring us to the end guys Please take care and we'll catch you in the next episode until then goodbye See you soon. Bye