I like how the author was attempting to write about a very ambiguous topic that we deal with every day. My favorite part of his reading was about personal values, in which he had questioned whether or not human beings have instincts that are “dress[ed] up with the term values, so that we can pretend there is a measure of choice in the process” when it truly is an ideal that we are ingrained to (Lewis 7). I believe that there isn’t such thing as ‘normal’, but its an average of all of our values as an individual. That being said, we follow a certain mindset because we are obligated even though individuality is celebrated, in order to achieve a stance of normality in society that isn’t even attained by anyone directly. However, I do like the 4 basic nodes of developing values as I feel that it does describe the human nature to a certain extent. No two people, even twins, grow up with exactly same experiences and backgrounds; different people gain different values and characteristics. However, creating a general background as these nodes have set help characterize our emotions and values to something we can come to terms with.
The other part that I agree with is when Lewis stated that we are driven by “peer pressure [through] the relentless demands of the society” (Lewis 8). Everyone wants to fit in and look impressive compared to others; it is our instinct to do so. However, this multiplies extensively with the rise of social media, since more people can contact one another at a much higher rate. And because people can hide behind computers and have a level of anonymity, this creates a fake social persona by millions of individuals. As a result, I feel that our drive and individuality is faltered even more when we accept the words from others online as true, building our newfound experiences and backgrounds through unreliable information. This does make me worry for the future generations as more and more younger folks begin using such social tools and ingrain more of it into their personal lives. I personally have dealt with numerous incidents due to gossip and online information that ended up being false, starting arguments and burning solid friendships and connections due to assumptions. Also I have known some that committed suicide due to cyber bullying not being able to match “normality” as set by false social standards. So from personal experience and hearing from others, I strongly agree with the author in that our drives and individuality is suffering through social standards. Although it does have the potential to create a positive form of standardization, which we can hopefully follow, social media will harm our individuality and personal ideal of values.
Ankit, I want to further analyze the point you are making in your second paragraph. You mention that “everyone wants to fit in and look impressive compared to others” and that this is related to the rise of social media because of the plethora of falsified information that can be broadcasted by anyone. You also believe that “our drive and individuality is faltered even more when we accept the words from others online as true, building our newfound experiences and backgrounds through unreliable information.” I think this is a great point, however, not always the case for everyone. When it comes to personal values, I believe every individual has a varying level of self-dedication to those values. “The fortunate among us have strong values, however difficult it may be to articulate or defend those values” (Lewis 18). With this statement, Lewis is trying to say that when it comes to values, some of us strongly adhere to them and do not let external influences alter our personal beliefs. On the contrary, some of us are less fortunate and can easily fall into the trap of believing something that is obviously false, via social media like you mentioned. This being said, do you still think the desire for an individual to “fit in and look impressive compared to others” is a result of basing our value system on what we perceive from the social media around us? Furthermore, may it be a result of contradictory personal values among humans that drives the desire for superiority?
Anubhav,
This is an excellent response and yes, I do believe that a person’s contradictory values, aka their insecurity is a driver for superiority. However, where would even the strongest minded individuals attain their values? They’re values too are attained from others to begin with in order for them to have the foundation to make them the people they are today. “Sense experience, emotion, logic are mental nodes or techniques in which we form our values, but by adopting and emphasizing one over the other we also turn them into dominate personal values in their own right” (Lewis 13). Furthermore, although not everyone is influenced the same amount through social media, I think that there is a certain extent of influence amongst everyone, whether some show it or not. Furthermore, even if there are those that aren’t influenced by social media because of their strong values, chances are they will most likely influence the others, and create a placebo effect from there. For example, if two people got into a huge debate on a topic on Facebook (which happens frequently), at the end those two may not change their opinion on anything, but those who read through the content may create their own analysis from their perspective. Also, I don’t think that being influenced through social media is a bad thing at all. It is another avenue of educating and furthering one’s form of knowledge in order to progress their character. So in conclusion, social media has a lot of potential upsides and downsides, and it will be interesting to track its influence upon society for the generations to come.
Ankit I completely agree with what you said about peer pressure from society. I grew up in Southern California where the average person cares more about how their neighbor sees them than how they see themselves. I think this is because they feel pressure from each other as well as society to make everything look perfect. Another way that social media affects us is by how public everything is. You can see this through celebrities and how everything they do is being criticized and put all over the internet. This in turn has a subconscious and conscious impact on society because they start comparing themselves to unrealistic expectation. I think Lewis explains this nicely when he says, “Because we are social creatures, we often utilize an indirect mental mode that allows us to rely on someone else or something else in order to draw a conclusion without having to see or feel or think it through from the beginning on our own” (Lewis 8). This quote supports the fact that when social media is criticizing a celebrity, most people listen and take it to heart. We often do not take the time to analyze the situation and think for ourselves. This ties into what you said about how some people do not have a face on social media so they bully. When people criticize celebrities they are bullying them. Many of the problems that come from the internet are related to the fact that people do things that they would never do in person. I have also personally seen this occur and witnessed the devastating outcomes that can occur from such things.
I strongly agree with your argument about social media. I believe that because of social media and technology in general, there is a underlying gap in our generations between generation Y and our elders. A factor like that has an impact on our values that we continue to develop. The internet has made us judge and determine how we will value the personal values that we hold and the overall values that others hold as well. To answer your question, I believe it is contradictory that our personal values drive us to be ‘superior’ because of the social media and interactions of our peers. As Lewis states as his initial question, “what manner of men and women shall we be?” (Lewis, 5). It seems that Lewis challenges his readers that we should we choose we want to be with the values that we cherish. Taking factors not directly correlated to how we determine human values, it’s a personal choice of we perceive them and not society.