Being Different

The social wave of this decade has bewildered me for quite some time. One moment everyone's fine with doing things alone, and the next you find that everyone has to do everything with everyone else. Otherwise, it seems that they feel bad about themselves or something. Food needs to be photographed so others know what you've been eating at every meal. Games need to be played with friends in order to be fun. Even your movements need to be reported on some social networking site. My first thought was that all of this was utterly irrational. It's not something that people grew up needing, and now it's become something of a way of life. However, on closer examination, it's become increasingly apparent to me that I am looking at what is more of a fad than a true evolution of peoples' needs. For example, I keep getting friends requesting to play games together, then find them doing their own thing and basically not making any serious effort to play together. And then there's the matter of people buying into trendy gadgetry like the iPhone, only to underutilize it. I've come to realize that ultimately this is just the high school popularity contest returned to haunt us in a slightly different guise. Most people want to fit in wherever possible, and following these odd social trends is a relatively easy way to prove that one fits in with the "in" group. They have little true personal dedication to the trend itself, but are instead doing it for the very public act of fitting in. Sadly, not many people seem to be inclined to accept the fact that they are different, and to simply say NO to a fad that does not appeal to them. I have been told that I accept and even embrace my difference, but as always I say I am different simply because that's the way I am. I make no effort to do so just to express some newfangled individuality or just for the act of being rebellious for its own sake. Then again...maybe not quite so, regarding the matter of rebelliousness.