Stay true to your character.
In a world full of distractions, it’s easy to lose yourself. It has become easy to lose your true core, your values, your direction because life has become so fast and overstimulating for us. Social media controls the majority of people’s minds without them realizing it. Ads, influencer and movies/ series are subconsciously influencing our minds. This impact is huge and has influenced a whole generation and has created and shaped a culture. It has become so strange that people suddenly start to speak differently because of a certain trend. But that is normal right? Trends are normal, they arise and fall eventually. However, I think that many people lost their true self due to social media. Let me give you examples.
A girl is scrolling through her phone on social media. She stumbles across a video of a girl talking about the newest make up that she got. The girl who is watching, buys this make up because she likes the girl on social media. She uses that make up and suddenly gets problems with her skin. The product that she bought had mediocre quality but she bought it anyway because the influencer girl told her to do so. What the girl forgot was that the influencer got paid to say certain things. Always be alert when people try to sell you things. Think rationally why they are talking about that topic and what they might got paid for it. Once you understand that the majority of influencers aren’t there to help you but to scam you. They want your attention, which equals one thing= MONEY.
Another example is a cultural one. TikTok and Instagram are the main source of changes in that area. People with weak characters and lack of self-esteem are easy to influence. Let’s say you personally like a certain sport. But then you see all the people on sm “hating” it because they are getting an “ick” when people are doing these sports. A weak character would now feel insecure and might even change the sport, despite liking it. The world of social media is full of lies, over exaggerated dramas, attention seeking people and scammers. The impact on culture is huge though. The word “hate” has lost its meaning nowadays. Everybody seems to hate everything and everybody. Everyone gossips about others and there are countless videos of people filming others whilst making fun of them so that they get attention from it. It’s so strange for me that people really waste their life being obsessed about other people that they don’t even like or pretend to like. If you like working out, why would you stop doing it because a certain girl or guy has said in a viral video that she/he gets an “ick”? Who the fuck cares? The most absurd thing is when people immediately jump on the hype train and also use these types of language. I personally find it extremely unsettling when people talk like this or live with these type of world views. It’s against your character when you advocate against the things you love because its trendy to do so. Some people live their life's like this and I’m afraid that the number will rise soon.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” Marcus Aurelius
If you have certain values, stick to them. You don’t have to change them for no one. I would never stop working out because It’s part of myself and I love training hard. No matter the person. I’m pretty sure you also have some things in life that you love. If you love reading, why would you stop when other people said that it’s cringe?
“The old slaves in America were not allowed to read; the new slaves in America won’t read no matter what.”
If you have certain hobbies, stick with them if you really like them. Other people can dislike them, that’s okay. It’s your hobby, not theirs. I strongly advocate against the new trend of hating on people. It’s so childish and has no use for everybody. Linus mentioned that in his latest blog “Talk to people!” and I mentioned that as well in my previous blog ”How to deal with toxic people!”
Gossip is okay, when you are a little kid, it becomes useless and childish when people do that on a regular basis whilst being disrespectful to others. Lowering others self-esteem is a sign of your own incapability of being strong.
Like I said in my previous blog the people that are constantly talking shit no matter what are people that you shouldn’t spend time with. The people around you reflect yourself. Like your surroundings? Fine! Don’t like your surroundings? Change it then.
The last aspect that I want to talk about is that Social Media gave birth to the so-called keyboard warriors. They hide behind the safety of their anonymous screen and talk the most astonishing things all day long. When I was working out in a gym with friends of mine, I saw a small guy in the corner of the gym, who was constantly looking at us, he wasn’t using the machine he was on, no he was typing on his phone for the majority of the time. We were having fun because we bench pressed together and we were encouraging ourselves to go beyond our limits. The guy in the corner was one year older than us and one grade level above us. But he wasn’t muscular (which isn’t a problem, but it’s important to mention). He kept staring at us from the distance with a strange view on his face, still typing things in his phone. While we did 5 sets of bench press, he was still at the same spot, the same machine, not one set done. Sadly, many people in commercial gyms are like that but that is another case. Two days later in school, we found out that the guy had a twitter account on which he had written about his disgust for our group. He wrote that it’s cringe that we were training together and were hyped about hitting new PR’s. This small guy talked shit on the internet but did nothing in real life. He probably was insecure or unhappy with himself. he could have used his energy on working out but he chose to tweet his disgust. Don’t be like this, this is pathetic. Use your energy for yourself. Unfortunately, it’s usually the biggest guys who are the kindest. The small ones are the ones who are talking shit no matter what. There like Chihuahuas.
“Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.”
Mike Tyson
Another example for that is a situation, in which I recognized how true this thesis is. A guy from my school talked shit behind my back. He never said something to me of course not. But he was hurting people that were very close to me with that. The moment I heard that, I got angry because he hurt the people I loved, not me. He didn’t hurt me a bit. I dislike people who are only strong when facing weaker opponents. So, I talked with the guy. I looked him in the eyes and questioned him why he would do such things. The answer was that It’s just a joke and not meant seriously. He could have meant it as a joke, but he was hurting the person no matter what. I asked him how he would feel, if I slapped him on his face right now. He was shocked and said that he wouldn’t like it. I answered with a question. I asked him why he talked shit then. He argued that these are two separate things. I mentioned that both situations hurt, the one hurts mentally, the other hurts physically. In the end their different, but the outcome is the same= hurt. Obviously, I didn’t slap a guy who is weaker than me, this would make me no better man than him. I don’t think that he really learned his lesson, but at least I never heard him talking shit about me again. If he still does, it’s fine, I couldn’t care more honestly. As long as weaker people are not hurt it’s fine to me. Let people talk. Don’t change your core and your virtues for no one.
Strength and Honor
