Shall we go to a movie? wait, let me check the reviews. What should I read next? wait, let me see the reviews. Is the restaurant good? wait, let me see the reviews.
I don’t know when was the last time I did something without first googling to check if anyone had anything to say on it. And, we all know thanks to Google, that everything that crosses our mind has already been done by someone. We are bound to find a ‘how to do this best’ kind of article on everything under the sun. So, why think, when someone has already thought for us? What is the natural extension of this behavior? of seeking out feedback from someone almost all the time? We end up seeking validation for our every move, for our very existence.
If we get to a place where we need to know every time, what we are doing is correct or if it is the most optimum course of action we could take at any given minute, we are leaving that judgement to others. Someone to tell us what it should be. Why? because we’ve stopped valuing our own opinion and started valuing the opinion of the ‘crowd’ out there. Somehow the aggregate feedback of this crowd is more important to us than our own. At-least it casts doubts on our own thought process – “can so many people be wrong? there sure must be some grain of truth in that.” Once that thought enter our mind, every move we take on our own without consulting it, starts feeling foolish. So, we end up going with the mean of what everyone is saying. We read books that are being read by everyone, we listen to popular music, we watch top rated movies. When do we make our own choice? Should we make our choice when so much ‘wealth’ is already available?
Sure, reviews help. They do give us some knowledge of how things are. But, where do you draw the line between what everyone says and our own voice? I’ve seen movies that are critically panned and box office duds, but which I love tremendously. I’ve read books written by obscure authors. And, so have we all. That was probably the normal way of life in the ‘pre-internet’ era. Now, how many movies do you see based on the trailer or just because you like the actor and not, because some crowd on some platform told us that it’s a must watch movie?
This behavior is not limited to movies/books or entertainment. It now permeates to all areas of life. We want to know what our friends think of our decisions, or what they think will be the best decision in the scenario we are in. And, when it comes to work places, where our survival basically rests on what our bosses think of us, it has become all the more severe. Pleasing the boss comes before our own intellectual integrity. Playing to the gallery is more important than the skill we bring to the table. Selling ourselves is more important than our work because that is what matters – what people think of us. Because that ‘visibility’ masquerades as creativity/skill. Because if enough people know us, we are somehow more ‘valuable’. Because if someone is ‘known’, there would surely be some reason why they are known. So, it is common in corporate workplaces to come across people who are famous for being famous. No one know what they are famous for, or, how they are better than someone else who is not. These are times where ‘becoming famous’ is considered to be the epitome of human life.
We don’t stop to think. Oh, wait, how do I think? Let me Google it.
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