Care About The Things Which Matter
Social media contains an abundance of posts, reels and videos about not caring too much, not stressing over the little things – Because in 100 years, we’ll all be dead – and none of it will matter.
Blunt this may appear, but at least it’s factual – It will resonate with tens of thousands of people, if not more. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you might live to 110-120 years old, or you’ve just being born, in which case you won’t be reading this, then you are going to die in the next 100 years – Read that sentence again, and again.
Why do we care about the ‘insignificant’ things?
To some extent, we’re all guilty of it – Whether we like to admit it or not, at some point in our lives, we’ll consciously or sub-consciously feel “Oh, I wonder what that person thinks of me?”
These are the main reasons why:
We’re wired to care – For the majority of human history, being accepted by your group or ‘tribe’ warranted the provision of food, safety and protection. Rejection could literally translate to danger, in the right (or wrong!) circumstances.
After thousands of years of humans evolving at an unprecedented rate of intellect, our brains have continued this ‘cave man’ like feeling and we treat people’s important as important signals which can genuinely hit us deep, as opposed to casual feedback.
We’ve become brainwashed by today’s modern world. We live in fear via the medium of social media and the many platforms which surround us, caging us and ensuring we’re constantly left in a state of worry and anxiety.
Social media platforms are our online identity, and whatever we decide to share with the world, this is exactly how they decide to perceive us, and once they’ve seen that photo, video or statement, we’re instantaneously judged, without question.
We wait for approval which can be rewarding, and we pray for no criticism because it’s construed as threatening – These are behaviours of our brain which constantly keep us connected and addicted to the screens we’ve all become a custom to.
99.9% of us want to belong to something, this links to the point above, ‘Survival Instincts’. When other fellow human beings think well of us, it boosts our confidence, and on the flip side, when they don’t, it can bring us crashing down. This isn’t ego, it’s just unequivocally tied to where we sit in the world of ‘status’.
Caring about what others think isn’t a bad thing, as long as we use the ‘feedback’ in the correct way. In this day and age, it can help us navigate, understand and improve our social situations – We must make sure these opinions, set by other people, don’t affect us negatively, however, that’s easier said than done.
If no one cared at all, and we never have feedback or criticism of any kind, we’d constantly be longing for that confidence boost or potentially even wonder why nobody is trying to bring us down, it would almost be a perfect social world -But, that will never happen. People are ALWAYS too quick to judge and some very rarely hold back. It’s in our nature to criticise.