“I was ashamed of myself when I realized life was a costume party, and I attended with my real face.” -Franz Kafka. Filters, AI, social media, and virtual reality: we live in the ultimate costume party. It does not matter if you RSVPed or not: we are all in this together. We can not just tear society down brick by brick, but we can, however, change how we interact with its varied complexities. And the costumes we wear can be a motley of items, which only complexifies this: adding to the piling of layers. It is not just people who fit in who are in this costume party; people fitting in or not are irrelevant to this discussion. In and out are just more tags people put on their costumes; if being you also means being popular- yay! People try futilely to be unique and original by copying what supposed outcasts do to be unique and original. Ironically, many people will jump on a trend in the name of uniqueness. Donning this cloak of self-expression shrouds us to a greater degree; whatever popular culture tells us to be (original or not) is even further away. We are still wearing a costume society sold us, one labeled as ‘outcast’ or ‘unique’ but from this world nonetheless. So even the words unique and outcast are labels and costumes, defeating what it means to be yourself.
I love that you are asking meaningful questions and sharing them with us. My favorite question in this post is “Why do we continue to act that way?” It’s clearly not as simple as “well, just stop.” What is driving the behavior? Great opportunity for your sociology studies. 😉
I love that you are asking meaningful questions and sharing them with us. My favorite question in this post is “Why do we continue to act that way?” It’s clearly not as simple as “well, just stop.” What is driving the behavior? Great opportunity for your sociology studies. 😉