We're becoming a plastic society

This letter is in response to last week's editorial, "Are young people becoming too obsessed with their looks?"

I have a few opinions on this subject. First of all, plastic surgery is just that, "plastic." Plastic equals synthetic, synthetic equals not real, and unfortunately, this overflows into a lot of our society.

People buy homes they cannot afford, cars they cannot own. Marriages are rushed and doomed to fail. Children are not loved, cared for, or even wanted. I see the symptoms that your editorial speaks of, but there are more than those things.

When a person gets surgery, the problem is not addressed- it's a mind problem, not a physical problem. Rather than eating a healthful diet all of their lives, people use crash dieting or the Atkins-type dieting, and this is dangerous to their health.

And there are others. People buy clothing that does not fit them- for instance, low-cut pants, or half shirts or skin-tight clothing on heavy or obese women. Thirty-year-olds getting as many tattoos as possible to give themselves the feeling that they have been involved in this type of art form for a long time- or motorcycles, for that matter.

But with the media's portrayals of synthetic people, this idea has overflowed to the public, and people cannot tell what is entertainment and what is true life, and I don't see it going back. Very few people are the "real deal" and all you have to do is look around. It's a "quick fix society." John Zimmerman Simi Valley