We strive for uniqueness, but with the enforced conformity society impresses upon us - we've lost our ability to achieve it. The concept of true individuality has rapidly diminished as, with each generation, we have lost ourselves to the technologically bred normalcy that we subconsciously, and innately, seek. Without even knowing it we have intrinsically coupled ourselves together - we have included ourselves into "the group." Though this is something we, often, claim to not want or need, are we really that in touch with our own psyche that we can claim to know what those things truly are?
The constant connectedness to the surrounding world that we encounter in our daily lives has created a great disconnect between our needs, our wants, and our understanding of ourselves. We have grown to be incredibly dependent. We have been bred to maintain overwhelmingly consumeristic tendencies. We have been cultivated to project a state of elitism and status, to project and demand a specific image. We perpetuate a lifestyle of desire, wanting, or manipulated need. This lifestyle has become something which can tip our emotions so swiftly when we discover the successes of others, their ability to stay ahead of the curve, and their ability to stay "on trend." The superficiality that we have created within ourselves through the, often, unrealized disconnect between these things has only served to further the disconnect between ourselves and society as well. In allowing ourselves to lose the importance of knowing ourselves, our friends, our motivations, our passions we have lost ourselves to the exterior. We have allowed the peripheral to maintain a sense of control over our lives - we have allowed ourselves the label of being everlastingly impressionable.
Our need to be trendy or hip has devalued our individual passions. We choose whats popular over what may be more personally satisfying.
Our need for "likes" forces us to share only the good with our "friends." We choose to over-inflate our emotional well-being to the outside world because of it, rather than sharing all aspects of our lives with the select few with whom we can be our most genuine selves.
Why have we chosen to forsake ourselves? We no longer crave the personal satisfaction that can create the individual happiness we could find from the simplest pleasures as children. Our daily happiness has become so reliant on exterior sources that we each, individually, create an incredibly convoluted structure of things that bring us happiness and the varying degrees to which they can. In our individual construction of this "happiness pyramid" we only continue our free fall into generality. It is simpler for us to gain happiness through the same vices we see others deriving theirs from, rather than find vices unique to our person. It is simpler for us to categorize ourselves as we do others, saving ourselves from internal pressures and disappointments - as it is easier to exist in a world where we can place blame outside of the self.
When will we be able to distinguish ourselves from the pack? When will being a lone wolf become acceptable? When will being unique become a title of value again? We may be everlastingly impressionable, but when did that stop us from proactively choosing what we allow to contribute to our self-identity?
