Social Pressures.

I suppose it’s typical, that as a young adult, social pressures would inevitably become a major issue in life. It is after all, the stage where our place in the world is most clearly not defined. That uncertainty of where our lives will lead results us in looking to others for inspiration and guidance. We look to our parents, our peers, the television, and almost everywhere but ourselves. We often do things that don’t make us happy, but we convince ourselves that they do. We see what’s “cool” and not “cool”. This is of course, a worst case scenario. Most of us have a limit as to the impact of society on our lives.

But that line is fast becoming blurred. Most of us have a “me” time/zone, and area where we don’t have to watch what we say, what we do, or how we do it.  Some of us, unfortunately, do not. But one must ask the question, How many of my hobbies, interests and attitudes are formed by my own mind? How much has been drummed into me by society, and how much is my own conscious decision?  

Are my attributes merely the product of genes? Do I choose to do the right thing because I want to? Or because society demands it ? Is there a fundamental aspect that is unique to each individual, one that used to be called a “soul”?  Do we have free will ? What is this festering presence on earth called humanity?

One could simply not care about societal norms, and as tempting as it is to say “FUCK YOU” to society, in large bloodred letters, Very rarely, do people actually avoid engaging with others. One could go live in a mountain cave somewhere, and not be seen or heard from, but then one would be devoid of all the benefits of society.  It finally dawns that, increased contact with society is the result of technological advances. The very same technological advances that I cannot do without. So while i can sit here and rant about how people take facebook too seriously, and that we can no longer truly know who we are, or who everyone else is, and that life is very much like a play, with everyone wearing masks in different scenes.  In the end, i will probably go and become a productive member of society, because I am human. I will end up adopting the same hypocrisies, the same emphasis on the superficial, the same sense of social ineptitude that we are all eager to hide. I will do all that because I cannot comprehend what it is like to live without a computer, running water, or electricity. 

And in a fittingly Bathetic end to this blog post, I will apologise to my imagined audience, that the internet bandwith has been capped, and hence the delay.

Oh, and here’s some pictures. It occurs to me that beyond childhood, we never comprehend "the big picture" That we are just on a planet, and our trivial concerns are just a few of 6 Billion. Most of them are the same as the other 6 billion, just with different dressings. We are not unique. We are the product of cause and effect. Only few of us can change the world. The rest of us have to deal with it.