The first question is simple: on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you care about other people’s opinion?
The second one is a bit trickier: under what categories do you place the people who are part of your life?
Whose opinion do you care the most and the least? Between father, mother, boyfriend, friend of your girlfriend, boss, unknown followers of Instagram and the neighbour’s cute cousin, who are you always trying to please or at least not to appear foolish to?
I personally tend to care about the opinion of absolutely everyone – from those who love me to the ones who clearly don’t. I suffer and I suffer with drama.
Of course age has taught me a few things and I did improve in some aspects here and there. But on the whole I alone am capable of making a whole soap opera.
I frequently try to guess what other people think about something I’ve done, for example, and I can overthink about the same subject for LONG days.
Social reputation, this is the flavour of the month.
I know I’m not alone. Our online behaviour is the biggest proof that we are constantly seeking the approval of others, and on a large scale.
I do not want to focus here on this worn out subject of perfect shots, meticulously calculated posts and the obsession with wows & likes. We know this is how things are and how they will continue to be. What bothers me the most, in fact, is that there is no more room for us to think about ourselves. The Internet takes so much of our time that the only thing we see is other people.
We are defined by the opinion of others; we are who the web shows we are.
You are probably not immune to all of this. Don’t you spend a good portion of your day looking at photos and videos posted by someone else, reading what they wrote and – even inadvertently – forming your opinion about them? When do you actually explore your own online profile and form opinions about yourself?
Who am I, ffs?
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