I used to hear about pickup artists all the time—books, forums, “negging,” the whole thing. Now it seems like they’ve vanished, and the only people left are “alpha male” influencers selling courses. Did the pickup artists go extinct, rebrand, or achieve enlightenment?
IMO, it is/was an advice and self-improvement trend that, like all such trends, ends leaving a vacuum for something else. Kind of like fad diets. So yes, I think that has been largely replaced by the alpha/guru influencer thing now.