Modern culture suggests to us that when something is popular, it must be good. But if this were the case, people wouldn’t die from doing stupid TikTok challenges. As popular as it was, eating Tide Pods was a very bad idea.

The same can be said for exercise or healthy eating. They’re both clearly good for us, yet the obesity epidemic proves that neither is overly popular.

Mass media, marketing and influencer culture are partly to blame for this skewed sense of good and bad. But they’re only part of the problem. The real culprit is people’s lack of discipline and common sense.

Rather than taking ownership of their bad decisions, people justify them because “everyone else is doing it.”

The problem is that everyone is making the same mistake.

Just because it’s popular, doesn’t mean it’s good.