“I think way back, the '20s or the '30s, when Kodak came out with the Brownie and they put a list of instructions on the box, like how to use this thing, I think someone arbitrarily said, 'Make sure the person in the photograph is smiling.' And we went from that one sort of set of industrial instructions to this whole culture of perkiness.”

Canadian novelist and cultural commentator, Douglas Coupland is best known for his satirical exploration of millennial life and consumer culture. His 1991 novel *Microserfs* became a defining work of the digital age, while *Generation X* (1992) offered a sharp, generational critique of alienation and materialism. His essays and fiction continue to dissect the contradictions of modern existence.