I know where everyone went to brunch last Saturday morning in Los Angeles. I also know where everyone in Los Angeles went to brunch on the weekend of March 22, 2014. Of course claiming my knowledge of everyone’s whereabouts is hyperbolic, but I know where a lot of people who live in Los Angeles went to brunch on any given weekend if you give me a wifi password; and I don’t even have an Instagram profile.

Now before you dismiss this article due to a justifiable premonition, I’m not trying to make a point about social media. I think we have heard enough about our generation and social media, so don’t fret baby boomers and the like—we feel properly patronized, but have resolved to accept our addiction to our phones and won’t deride your iPad enthusiasm in the process.

I’m talking about Los Angeles. Regardless of any stereotypes to which you may subscribe, loyalties you may boast, or disgust you may proudly hold (esp. if you are from New York), LA has a lot of cool shit to do. Just beginning with the restaurants: there are so many really good ones. They aren’t all organic vegan cold-pressed raw alkalized lettuce menageries either. One can easily satisfy his or her craving for animal by-product laden, carbohydrate-based meals in any of LA’s, I dare say, “boroughs.” And before I am burned at the stake for blasphemy to the idealized metropolitan paradigm of the United States (yes I mean New York), how else would you describe the segmentation of Santa Monica, Hollywood (West v. East), Downtown (where?), Culver City, Malibu, Venice, and East LA?

If you have run out of restaurants to visit, congrats on being rich and old, but there are still countless places to play in Los Angeles. One can enjoy concerts at dozens of venues, shop (obviously), visit world famous museums like the Getty and LACMA, appreciate the freaking beach (everyone forgets), and even go bowling at the trendiest alleys.

Importantly, all of these activities and restaurants are aesthetically pleasing so to match the people. I say this very purposefully. Los Angeles has done quite the job of cultivating an economic and social structure footed in impression management. I steer clear of making claims of perfect adherence to any sociological theory, and still Los Angeles does well to perpetuate a dedication to theories of impression management.

While driving back to Marina Del Rey from Malibu, I passed through the side streets of Santa Monica and Venice rather than using a freeway or main drag. I have lived in LA for nearly four years, and I had not seen the majority of the storefronts I passed on my way home. I thought not about the different foods, products, goods, or services I had missed out on by not visiting these places—but about the chrome filtered photos obligatory of any venturing out in Los Angeles. I thought about the types of people who would be at this restaurant and that, and about having the right outfit and making sure my eyebrows were done and if my skin would be clear that day and if my outfit was missing the mark or close enough and if I was dressing for boys or girls or what etc. As it were, I cannot afford to eat at any of these restaurants, but the thoughts went through my head. The point is, Los Angeles and its market aims to create a photographable atmosphere, and we all take part in the dramatization of this atmosphere.

To take a piece from Goffman’s cake, the people of Los Angeles are performers. Not because some people here go to work and get paid to perform, but because they come home from work and do other things. The curiosity of a performer’s authenticity contributes to our own presentation of our authentic self. Branding and marketing firms seem to be more numerous than are trees in this city. Subsequently, this industry has taught us how to cultivate our own “personal brand,” but more importantly has expressed the necessity of such a personal brand.

This brand accompanies us to everything fun there is to do in Los Angeles. And we take photos of it. And we filter these photos, post them, and then look at everybody else’s. We don’t just look at the people in these photos, and this is important to note. We devour the painstakingly executed combination of the location and it’s accoutrements. We interpret the atmosphere of the photo and try to understand the way in which this post is an expression of this person’s personal brand. And we do this hundreds of times each day.

We do the same thing with tweets, making sure that the tweeter has an understanding of the forum. We must confirm that the tweeter is parodying his or her own personal brand because something so en vogue as even the term “personal brand” is a perfect idea upon which to assert one’s sociological awareness as well as self-awareness. So while someone on twitter may not post a scrupulously curated photo of brunch, he or she aims to compose a tongue-in-cheek comment on the millennial sanctification of this activity.

As an unyielding advocate for the accurate understanding of social-psychological phenomena, I make no claims as to the universality of this experience, nor do I assert any social theory. And still, I wonder if you experience something similar?

Why is this about Los Angeles in particular? Because we all know it’s true. I do not deny that this happens everywhere all the time, but Los Angeles lives and breathes on impression management. Its market relies on social media, but more specifically on cultivating concepts we want to impress upon others as part of our authentic self. There is a particular brunch location in Venice that overtly advertises unlimited mimosas as major draw. The other marketing technique, though, is covert. When one goes to this restaurant, he or she gets the privilege of posting a photo in front of the notorious blue and white wall outside that lets everyone know where exactly you went to brunch this Saturday.