Well...who are you then?

Well...who are you then?

I think that I think more about things than I ever thought I did. 

No.

I am most certain that I definitely have the tendency to think - a lot.

I think that I end up thinking too much at times. I've often found myself in situations where people might perceive me as awkward, lost, or indifferent to my surroundings, when in reality, I could have been, quite simply, lost in my thoughts and wondering about everything or nothing, in particular.

Given the generation I belong to and the amount of time that I end up spending on the internet, most people find it weird and extremely intriguing that I don't have any of the popular social media accounts - Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter. I do use Pinterest though. And honestly, I personally believe it's the best thing I've ever discovered because a) I only view what I want to see - which is mostly memes from books or TV shows, hilarious anecdotes or really interesting art ideas without comments from people and b)There's no expectation for your opinions, you don't have to necessarily follow people or share things on this platform. You could of course, do that here too...but I don't think it's really expected as such. I feel that it suits my personality given that I would love to follow the content and get inspired by several ideas rather  than wondering if I need to mark my presence and leave a personalized token of having viewed  something on each of the posts.

But in spite of it all, I think it's extremely hard to understand what we want and what we're trying to look for exactly given the amount of content and data that we're presented with on a daily basis. And I think there could have been a few times when we find ourselves going with the most popular opinions and following people or the things they say, just to fit in and be with the "in-crowd". Here's why I don't really like social media: I feel that it's too overwhelming for someone like me. I could be wrong but I think that sometimes, the people who share way too many posts or write about these extremely motivational things, offering their sagely wisdom as quotes or stories, posting pictures and writing about their accomplishments do it just to fit in with the crowd. I'm not trying to be cynical of their achievements and the positive things that are happening in their lives, there's a certain sense of joy that most people have when they share things that are dear to them.

It's only natural for people to get influenced and inspired by others and the things they do so, it's nice if someone with great and joyful things (or maybe completely random stuff!) and they have every reason to be able share their happiness with the world if they want to. But there are times, when I wonder if other people who aren't as fortunate to have similar experiences or who'd rather have a small group of people rejoice with them instead of putting it all out on a public platform would feel completely normal and okay. I think it's a great gift to be able to share your experiences, successes and joys or perhaps any other event in your life with the people around you and want to have lots of responses and viewership and things like that. But in the process of wanting to be appreciated and known, do you really think they're being honest to themselves and what's actually happening with them? Do you think people can share a part of their life without being competitive about it? I think it is only natural for some of us to look at the multitude of posts from people having the time of their lives in the form of vacations, promotions, victories, major life changing moments or just a random picture under the bright, summer sun captioned "Where the sun melts away into the summer sky", with lots of emojis and whatnot. I think it is only natural that you'd want people around you to join in with the happenings in your life. But imagine this: You could be one of those people who isn't doing much at all (or so you believe) and in an act of boredom, you log into one of these platforms where you're overwhelmed at the sight of these posts flooding in, on your home page. There's a group of people doing that and then there's this group of people doing this. I'm not trying to say you need to start comparing yourself with these people and let yourself down or get extremely excited over what you see. I think it takes a lot of effort to "always" be in the state of mind where you can attach a person you know to the post they've shared with the thing they're talking about and react to it (agree, disagree and the whole spectrum of human emotions in between) without comparing yourself to their experiences. I really do think it takes a lot of effort. 

Here's something for you to think about: Given the amount of time that we all spend on the internet, how much of your opinions, thoughts and ideologies do you think are what you truly believe in without being influenced by what the world has to say? It's an extremely wonderful thing that every individual has their own individual brain that they carry with them, where they have a perception of what's right and wrong and how things should be. But it's so easy to get carried away. There could be situations where you've molded and chiseled your personality over the years based on the media you viewed. So are we all just a collection of the content we consume? Or is there more to us than that? Something that marks our individuality and gives each of us a sense of having an independent opinion or idea? And how do we go about recognizing and appreciating that? How do we become tolerant of what others have to offer and say, listen to their point of view and yet, be true to what we believe in?

I think the most difficult thing to do as a human is to get exposed to a variety of perceptions and notions about things and ultimately, to be able to preserve your own view on it. To look up to others in terms of what they have achieved and aspire to be more like them while retaining and preserving the quirks that represent their true selves. I'm not trying to state things in terms of what's right or wrong, true or false. It's just that we need to be able to discover what we have to offer to the world without getting affected by what the world offers right back to us. It's a great gift if you're being true to yourself and what you believe in, whether it's in the form of the posts that you share or if it's in the act of not wanting to share anything at all.

Well, who are you then? Are you just a character in this play of life where a majority of your mindset or personality is a result of the collection of content that you consume or perhaps, the one you don't? 

Think about it :)