Social Media Has Tricked You Into the Belief That Other People Are Constantly Thinking AboutYou – They Are Not.
by Sydney Preston
@Sydney_17
I am going to hold your hand while I say this – No one is thinking about you.
I know, very harsh – but stay with me for a moment.
Like many of us, I have spent an insurmountable time online. There is something genuinely beautiful about the internet and social media platforms. We are able to connect with people across the world like never before. We have access to learn about new cultures, people and lifestyles that have allowed our mindsets to shift and grow. To learn about paths we never knew we could take.
When used correctly there is an abundance of inspiration that permeates from our screens. When used incorrectly we become carbon copies of one another. I believe that we may have become connected to a point where people are no longer thinking for themselves because everyone is so concerned with the thoughts of others.
There is a tactile element to the internet.
The algorithm has become increasingly more accurate in curating the perfect feed for each individual user. Everything flows flawlessly from interest to interest. Each viewer will only see people who share similar passions, who think the same way as themselves. After seeing this time and time again with every scroll you start to live in a bubble. You may – subconsciously or not —begin to act like the people online, to say the same lingo, to wear outfits based on trends even if it doesn’t feel like yourself because at the end of the day all we want is to feel included.
Human beings are pack animals. We long for other people and, in this day and age, it has never been easier to connect. But, in order to stay connected we have trained ourselves to never be different from anyone else so we can always feel included. We all crave external validation. The need to know if what you’re doing, saying, posting is right. Whether it be via likes or a verbal confirmation – we want to know what someone thinks in order to know what the next move it.
As a result, I think the true reasoning for the online world has escaped us. What was once used as a means to celebrate learning about new things and new people has made us stop looking at anything but ourselves and how we are being perceived. Everything has become so easily accessible that it has stopped us from taking the long path. We have stopped looking inward, stopped examining things from a different perspective.
And it begs the question:
has authenticity escaped us due to the fear of being seen and subsequently rejected?
We have all become so obsessed with image. How people view you, what they think when they see you, wondering what your Instagram looks like through the eyes of others. All the focus is on projecting a character of yourself but when you take a moment, when you sit in the silence, do you know who you are? Do you know what you want? Not what you want to look like to someone else but what you want for yourself.
And it begs the question: has authenticity escaped us due to the fear of being seen and subsequently rejected?
In an era where trends change at hyper speed, people have learned to keep themselves contained in order to not be in the spotlight. The fear of a misstep causing people to dislike them is now strong enough to keep people from ever going after the things that they truly want. So, no one is trying anything anymore in fear of being seen failing.
Well, I have very good news for you; people aren’t thinking about you at all. So, if you fail, no one will really care. Everyone is utterly focused on themselves; they have no brain space to consider what you’re doing. The internet has made this beautifully vast world seem small.
All the time and energy that you’re spending on performing for an audience that does not care is draining all the personality from you.
Sitting down with that realization is deeply uncomfortable. Having to come to terms that the choices you have been making have not been yours to make, it has been decisions made from the part of your brain that adores validation. Everything from where you choose to live, what you choose to post, how you dress, it all comes to the same point of proving yourself.
Becoming fully aware of this is like a sudden drop on a rollercoaster – jarring, terrifying, breathtaking, overwhelming all at once and then you’re soaring through the air exhilarated.
No one really cares about what you’re doing so go do all of the things that you have always wanted to do. Go out into the world as yourself and if you don’t know who that is anymore go out and fail again and again and again until you start discovering what makes your soul happy.
You’ll never have control over what people think about you but you do have control on how much that statement will impact you. Once you shed the weight of performing, you can begin to understand that the only thing that truly matters is living a beautiful life because one day when you look back at your life, will you think about how people perceived you or will you think about the life that you lived?
Yes, we have been trained to fit in at every point of our lives and overcoming that is not easy said or done but that does not mean that you need to continue on that path of losing yourself for the sake of image. Being true to yourself will open all of the right doors.
You are a beautiful human being with the ability to think, feel and experience this life. All you have to do is let go.
