| It is quite common in our society to encourage individualism and embrace diversity. We are constantly bombarded by slogans such as "Be yourself", "Do your own thing", "Dare to be different" and the likes. However, there is a fine line between accepting yourself for who you are and broadcasting to the entire region who you think you are. Modern technologies indeed make it easier for people to express themselves (i.e. myspace, youtube, facebook and even Xanga). I have nothing against these websites because they are simply outlets of who we think we are. They are extremely subjective which is perfectly fine with me. We blog about our rants (just like this one), update our facebook profiles once in a while, upload pictures and videos and so on. Manifestation of individualism indeed. However, what bothers me the most is when most of us are too preoccupied with our own issues that we forget to be considerate to the people around us. Inconsideration is very much evident when you observe two people having a "conversation" and noticeably, one of them dominates the whole interaction. It is quite understandable that maybe the other one is reserved, quiet and/or timid. It is a completely different story if the other party is trying to voice out his/her opinion while the dominant one consistently (without fail) divert the focus of the conversation to him/her. We should all attempt to listen attentively. If that is too much to ask, at least try to act "interested" (e.g. nodding, "mhmm's", "go on" "oh yeah?") so you won't look rude. Another issue that needs to be addressed is our tendency to talk about ourselves more often than we should, more often than our friends would want! Fudge, that is why we have therapists, counsellors and social workers! Do not burden your friends with "I did this over the weekend and this happened to me which I thought was really amazing because I was with (insert person here) and I had so much fun!" (Sometimes I think Xanga was made to save our friends from this horrendous load). From another standpoint though, real friends know how to listen. Just make sure you attentively listen to them as well. Friendship indeed works better when efforts are reciprocated. Lastly, although we are embolden by the mainstream society to let our inner self soar, it is extremely vital to keep in mind that we are part of a system. Whether we like it or not, we are all interconnected. We depend on each other. Heck, even global recession is bringing countries together! What I am trying to say is, we should try to avoid our Narcissistic tendencies. We do not want to be like Narcissus who stared through the water admiring his reflection, rather, we should look at the world surrounding our reflection. |
