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In some regards this is just a follow up to my last blog post.
I will never stop talking about the facade of social media. Because when you have young people aspiring to be influencers, you know there’s a problem. But less about the masks, let’s talk about how we see those masks.
In a world of fake news, photoshop and politicians I think we need to be a bit more privy to what we are consuming. Nothing is really how it seems these days and you can get yourself into some sticky situations if you take everything at face value. As the old saying goes “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is”.
Of course, I am not suggesting that you need to be annoying about it and start questioning every single thing you read or hear. You just need to learn how to pick your battles. Especially living in such politically charged times neither side of the political spectrum is without it’s bias. Tory=bad, Labour=good or vice versa is a very flawed way of looking at the world and event though the majority of us don’t simplify our arguments to this extent, this is essentially what we are portraying.
Because a world without nuance, context and factual evidence is one set for failure. We should all be open to questioning and being questioned. It’s how we learn and grow as individuals. No matter how righteous your cause seems there are going to be people who question it. And that is okay. If you’re defensive about rationalising your own stance on a topic then that is down to an insecurity within yourself that you need to deal with.
The world isn’t fair, the world isn’t tailored to you. The quicker you understand this the quicker you will begin to feel more at ease with the society you inhabit. And this is not to say that there are things that don’t need to be changed. Of course in order to progress as a civilisation we need to advance and with this institutions will change. There are real social causes wanting better lives for people and changing the world for the better in my opinion. But this doesn’t always mean that it will be in the best interest of every single person. There is no politician or movement out there that can save you. It all starts with you, you need to change your actions and outlook. And from this you can cut through the BS and see things for what they really are.
Saying this, I am aware I am speaking from a place of privilege. And when I write this I am mainly talking about people that live in western society. I understand it is a lot harder to change your circumstances when living in poverty or oppression.
There are people, even with the best of intentions, that will tell you what to think or will shame you for thinking a certain way. The only person with a monopoly on your thoughts is you. And if you try your best to be a good human, treat everyone equally and with respect then there isn’t a single person out there that has the moral high ground to tell you how you need to act or what you need to believe.
The world is just full of people spouting opinions and it’s so easy to be taken in by someone who speaks fast or just seems to know what they are talking about. But we shouldn’t always take this at face value. The onus is on you to do your own research and form your own opinion. Stop letting the mainstream media control you, take a step back and really analyse what you are seeing and hearing. And always ask yourself what the motivations are of the person giving you this information.
Opinions stem from a place of fact. And where a lot of people differ in this sense is that it can either be a place of scientific fact or anecdotal fact. Scientific fact is hard to dispute whereas an anecdotal fact is not. We live our lives with our own views and perception of the world that the way we see something may not truly reflect reality. This isn’t an argument for invalidating people’s experiences but it can be true that 2 different people can experience the same situation and have different perspectives on what happened. Which one is right? Is either one right? Probably not, it’s just part of being human really.
And the crazy thing about this is, if I perceived something to have happened, then in my mind it happened. Because I still get all the emotions and feelings that come with my perception. So in reality it’s less about the experience itself and more about how we see it.
Every day you’re being bombarded with propaganda and a lot of the time the perpetrators of this rely on your your naivety and emotions to steer you into a certain way of thinking. It is incredibly hard to form an unbiased opinion. But the more you look at both sides of the argument, question your own beliefs, the easier it will become to see for the world for what it really is.