Just yesterday, I was blogwalking and I couldn't help but notice how a lot of people post memes and questionnaires on their blogs about the '5 bands to see before you die', '25 things about me', '10 reasons why I think I'm amazing' etc etc. It's the exact same thing on Facebook with all those quiz applications and chain notes that seem to go on and on and on.
I, myself, am already guilty of some. I already did the '10/16 things about me' on Facebook and added in the 25s somewhere in this blog. Not to mention that evil little application called LivingSocial where you can pick out your top fives of everything and anything. Top five desserts, top five stars to have babies with... And such. My favourite was the Five People I'd Like To Throw Off a Cliff, in which I included Mr Bean in and drew protests from quite a lot of people.
Here's a top five question they should add in: Five famous people to discuss the universe with.
Well, for me there's Gandhi, John Lennon, the Dalai Lama and uh...
Pause.
Let me think about the last two.
You see, as simple as these questions might seem, I think some of them aren't really the type that you could just answer off the top of your head. It made me think... Why do we humans take the time to list out things when in fact we take an eternity struggling to choose which goes first and which goes last, which goes in and which goes out, which one is okay to flaunt and which ones should be permanently hidden from public view?
Perhaps we feel obliged to portray some kind of pseudo-image of ourselves in this pseudo-world, because it's in our nature to show the good things and carefully leave the bad ones behind. And to think that there are people who judge others of being 'too ordinary' or 'having the personality of a mannequin' or 'too mainstream', based on their tastes in music, clothes, conversation topics, or even on hOw tHeY TyPe.
Are you guilty? I know I am, for some of these things and I'm certainly not proud of it. But sometimes, I too, can't help it. It kicks in like a natural evading instinct, a mean instinct that craps out in the most inappropriate of times.
I guess it's similar to how social cliques are modified by peer pressure, and I just wonder how, when, and from where these pressures originally stem from. Perhaps if you trace it back from the very beginning, it could go back thousands of years. Perhaps it stems from the closest animated living thing us humans have on this planet, the animals. Perhaps it's animal instinct. Perhaps we're really not that different from the pets we own at home. Maybe it's time we go back and have a heart to heart conversation with Rover, see what he thinks about it. Maybe he can help us fill in the last two slots in the list above.
So how does that makes us humans the most perfect creation by The Creator, when there's evidently psychological flaws, and even these flaws differ from one human being to the next? Is having flaws part of being 'perfect'?
Sigh.
Sometimes it's a strain to think up smart answers to mindnumbing questions, and all you want to do is just blend in with the crowd and nod along with the masses. Maybe, I don't know. Sometimes we just give up to the notion that the human mind normally run at a stagnant pace, and we try too hard to keep it running at locomotive speed. We may believe that we're original, but as a whole we're actually pretty mediocre. We still all depend on our faiths, on the laws we obey and the trends we follow. To put it simply, perhaps even we need a break from our own originalities. So we don't have a right to deem others as 'unoriginal', really. Everyone is born on the same level of nakedness, and will die tarnishing the same soil anyway.
Which is why I did those lists. Because today, I'm not a unique and beautiful snowflake. Today, I'm flowing in the same river as you are. Today, I'm turning on the radio and tapping my feet to the rhythm of uh, Lady GaGa.
Maybe that's why they call it 'guilty pleasure'. The pleasure's natural. It's the will to be different that's making it feel all wrong, when it's probably not so.
I don't know, just my two cents. Now pass me back that spliff.
gimmie some of that spliff too hahha
ReplyDeleteagreed. i think so too, sometimes. i just have this appalling inept way of putting thoughts into words. huge problem. sheesh. thumbs up to this post though! awesome stuff. :D
ReplyDeletei wish i knew who wrote about wanting that spliff.. i'm betting it's ezzart, you mofo haha.
ReplyDeletejo ann, thanks for taking the time to read. the issue is one that generally ticks me off, but at the same time i feel somewhat hypocritical when i find that kind of judgmental feeling kicking in inadvertently. i dunno, maybe it's just time i put it into words so i can reflect on it from time to time.
thanks again :)
I think we have become so accustomed to being an "individual", largely due to pressure from both recent history (such as the 60s) and the media with them glorifying the importance of being "different". If you take a look at many of those so called questionnaires or questions-lists, they are there to reinforce the idea that you are unique because you have choices and you've made them. This equals to being different, as anyone can pick different things.
ReplyDeleteBut that individuality only amounts to how many choices and how much space is actually really given to you. And the truth is, you are not actually making choices; you're presented a series of options to choose from, which essentially falls inside the "safe" choices of the quiz maker (and you are free to analogize this to other condition/situation).
In addition, as you rightly pointed out, our presence on the internet is based on what we would like others to perceive us as (there's actually a study on this, but for the life of me couldn't find it at the moment :( ). The goal is to be individual enough yet still accepted by the everybody, and for that purpose social networking sites flourishes.
But a lot of this, let's be honest, is very trivial. It judges on the shallow, instant reaction of a profile (or a quiz result).
Is it real? Is it wrong? As much as the old school kids hate it, I think this is an ongoing trend of new communication, of perception and images.
Strangely, I notice, this phenomenon mostly happens to city dwellers? I rarely found people from the countryside ever thought about the need to be different (at least image-wise), let alone the idea of being in front of the computer for a long long time :p then again that's my observation, I could be wrong.
Good writing, Mit!
milkamilka
I was going to expand on our chat last night.. But all I can remember is the word 'pretentious' and for some reason 'poo'. But I'm sure those two werent connected :P
ReplyDeleteOh yes! I wanted to say that everything gets down to a mixture of personal taste and your peers. Being so 'mainstream' ensures that you'll just be the butt of a lot of jokes, but to be too different just makes you feel like you're a bit pretentious.
Eh? Is that what I wanted to say? Well you know me, darling girl!
Urf.. The alphabet is jumbled in my head at the moment.
Hey Mit! I know exactly what you mean, we've all been there ;)
ReplyDeleteI think we just have a really shallow culture, especially us in the cities cos we are fed with endless worldly entertainment and it leads us to think those things to be our attributes.
Let's say, someone puts some weird music on that sacred list and leads others to think that this person is unique. But without that attributes, would others think that he/she is unique? Based on what? It's better be by his/her character, or his/her work, hobby, or thoughts, or simple things like how he/she handles problems :) (that IS something!) Something that is coming out of him/her (not being different by what others do and simply liking it).
I think every human has that special substance in that nakedness, the one that succeeds is the one that does not forget.
So, yes, listen to Lady Gaga all you want and keep sharing your unique thoughts with us ;)
Conclusion: Those quizzes are narcissistic, culture is shallow. Haha :D
-Arian Alana
Yes! 'Shallow' is the perfect word to explain everything. And yeah, now that you mention it, it is rather funny regarding the difference between 'metropolitans' and those coming from the countryside. Probably the higher you are on the society level, the more likely you are to 'jaga image'. Or perhaps, the more open you are to media and technology, the more likely it is to happen? The question goes on and on. :P
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting, all of you :)
Not really, to be honest 'jaga image' happens everywhere Mit, but what constitutes as 'jaga image' differs on the places you look.
ReplyDeleteDi desa, bodo amat musik yang lu dengerin kayak apa, baju yang lu pake se "trendy" apa, tapi rumah lu rapih ga? Anak lu santun ga? etc.. Itu juga a way of 'jaga image' bukan? I may be generalizing here, but yeah you get my point.
Oh! You have a point there. So perhaps everything is done based on human instinct? I really think it's interesting how there are so many levels of 'jaga image' di berbagai macam komunitas.
ReplyDeleteRight, but people in the country take their time to act good and to clean their house. And they can fake it, but they can't fake the action and the product (being good, clean house, etc). You know what I mean? They had to go through the acts. Whereas in the city, in a flick of a second we can answer 5 questions quiz, get a result (which you can fake), and publish it and call it "me". And no one will be able (or will want to, anyway) to contest you. The product of that? Instant self-glorification.
ReplyDeleteIf shallowness is seen as a quantifiable depth of personality (or lack thereof) and be defined as constant reverence for the superficials, then the least amount action = least shallow.
Jaga image, I think, can attributed a little more positively. It doesn't necessarily have to be shallow.
milkamilka
Lol I think I should start proofreading what I write before posting it :p, I meant "more action = less shallow".
ReplyDeletemilkamilka
anyways what we can conclude here is that the more information and entertainment is readily available the more we see people getting into the same trend(we can blame mass media and the internet for that).. its the whole wanting to belong feeling all over again.. people are animals plain and simple whether your one of the herd or pack or just the solitary creature,where the majority of the people wants to follow the leader(idol,superstar,moviestar,rockstar,pornstar xD)and copy what ever they do, dress, music, bad habits(or good ones)..and the hypocritical ways of modern society as a whole that makes us civilized people that some how leave behind a feeling of distaste coppery in our mouth that wants to be unique in a sense.. what ever happened to individuality and sense of worth? the answer is that its never happened in the first place.. all our lives we strive to fit in consciously or sub-consciously and no matter how much we try to be unique its always comes down too you hanging out with a group of friends that shares the same interest as you and fashion.. so yea you can blame the big bad corporations that controls everything we do subliminally for the sake of making major profits.. next thing you know it there is no such thing as individualism anymore and humans are slowly evolving into a collective state of mind(but thats for another day =P)
ReplyDeletemajority of people will do anything too look good to other people, even though its not the real them.. quizzes and stuff people will never truthfully answer them and are afraid to be ridicule by others if the result is not favorable.. come on most people judge people by looks and first impressions.. i think human beings as a whole are pretty shallow with the exceptions of the minor few...
anyways theres nothing wrong of indulging that little tid bit of what main stream life has to offer i do it all the time by ridicule all the trend,fashion and annoying garbage that seems to be pumping out these days and the sheeps that follow blindly to the slaughter.. just sit back and enjoy life =D
sorry for the wall of text =P
ReplyDelete