I feel like social media ups the ante on a lot of borderline or negative human traits because instead of CONNECTING us it's actually pushing us further apart.
It's a tangential thought I know but the fact that there exist people bragging/boasting/ saying LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK HOW EASY IT IS - this creates a pretty unhealthy feedback loop and like you said, there's no value there.
I have smaller kids and I fear for their mental well being because of the pressures of the internet and how it's bleeding into reality in weird new ways that aren't exactly healthy.
That's your whole theory, and there's nothing weird about it. Everyone knows young men take risks to make their fortune and gain esteem. It's just window dressing for a claim you threw out there without any supporting argument.
This is a deeply unsatisfying and spiritually empty existence. This leads to all the behaviors you mentioned as a form of rebellion and/or attempt at escaping the bonds of that kind of life. This sentiment has been catalogued in a variety of movies, including "Fight Club," the ur-text of Gen X anomie.
But crypto bros aren't trying to escape that. They are doubling down on being homo economicus because now they're investing in financial objects that are completely decoupled from even representing something as meaningful as a share of ownership in a business.
I think young men with this mindset will play whatever game society places in front of them. They just need a playing field where they can feel they can compete and have a chance to be seen making a home run. Crypto was there so they jumped on it.
A significant fraction of young single men feel a deep compulsion to indulge in risky behavior with a potential high reward in order to make a name for themselves or earn their place in society. I don't know if it's genetic, cultural, both. But for many young dudes, it's not enough to simply work a good job and enjoy their leisure time.
Men like this are the free radicals of society. If the society can't find a healthy productive outlet for their drive to compete, take risks, and seek fame and adventure, then they will just do outright dangerous shit with potentially large collateral damage.
For most of human society, hunting, exploring, dangerous jobs, and war were significant outlets for this. They gave men a way of doing something courageous that their culture held in high esteem.
But today, we have domesticated animals, explored every square inch of the Earth, automated all of the risky manufacturing and resource-gathering jobs, avoided large-scale war outbreaks (and used technology to reduce military casualties and fatalities). There are simply less paths available for a young man who feels like he has nothing to take pride in unless he succeeds in some bold risky adventurer.
For a while, videogames functioned as a simulated output for that impulse. I think that's why many gamers flipped the fuck out during Gamergate when they felt that their avenue to satisfy that urge was being invadaded and taken from them.
It was, I think, a driver of the rise of the alt-right, doomsday preppers, and Trumpism. This impulse elect a wildcard as President, burn it out down and start over because in a world of chaos, there is maybe an opportunity for the bold.
And now, I believe, much of the crypto world is driven by that exact same impulse. Young, overwhelmingly male, "crypto bros" desperately looking for some unexplored frontier where they can build something new and forge an identity for themselves.
The problem is that there is no there there. It's all a house of cards. No actual new value is being created, so it's just crypto bros competing with other crypto bros in what will likely end up being a zero sum game (except for all the unfortunate other investors who get sucked in).
Even if crypto all collapses, the core problem will remain. These dudes will just find something new to slake their thirst for risk. Hopefully it will be on something less destructive to society.