The more popular something gets, the less appealing it can start to feel. Take The Pitt: Suddenly, everyone's watching it and everyone's talking about it. At a certain point, the excitement starts to make you feel like you should be into it'and just like that, you don't want to watch it anymore. Anna Holmes calls this feeling 'hype aversion''not quite contrarianism, but a reflex against being told what to like, even indirectly. Popularity, after all, doesn't just signal quality. It can also feel like pressure. When something is everywhere, opting out can start to feel like a way to hold on to your independence'to make sure your taste is still your own. What looks like lack of interest, Holmes suggests, may actually be something more deliberate: not rejecting culture, but resisting the 'overidentification' with it. My colleague Isabel Fattal recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. 'I saw this on a cross-country bicycle trip in...
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