Member-only story
Do You Care About What Others Think Of You?
We all probably should
I’ve seen entire communities held together only because most of its members care about what everyone thinks of them. In the small village, everyone knows everyone, which is tantamount to everyone judging everyone. It is the most effective method to ensure the majority does not deviate from the accepted norm.
The Pressure Is Real
It’s not just villages, though. We see the same logic in toxic male gang culture: better make a lascivious comment than risk being considered half a man. We can even see it at a smaller scale: don’t we all have a friend or family member who never followed their dreams for fear of what others would think? Maybe it’s us. It happens all the time.
The pressure we feel from other people’s opinions can be so great that most of us, at some point, have decided we won’t care about what anybody else thinks. This is brave, romantic, and an insultingly simplistic approach to reality, an immature reaction to a mature problem. Don’t get me wrong: I’d rather have everyone not care and rebel against cultural pressure than be part of a conformist collective. However, we can do better than simply not caring and acting regardless of the circumstances, actively disregarding the world around us.