The way the society has configured our minds to believe that without achieving specific things we have no place among our peers or in the society at large is alarming. It makes us feel the need to race ourselves beyond what is considered ordinary, a crazy race of what to achieve and when. It is something known to almost everyone that in this present generation or era the value and worth of every human is now measured on the scale of materialism, Character and attitude is no longer considered as basic necessities for humans to posses, it has become a secondary value that comes after accumulation of wealth.
It might not have occurred to you but someone out there is looking down on you because you don't seem to matter based on the fact that they believe there are some material possessions you should have obtained. There is a popular adage among my people which says "Olowo soro Tanika sope ohun ni idea, Wu idea wo ni Tanika Fe ni" What this means in English is that When a wealthy man speaks and the Poor says he/she has no nothing to add, what kind of contribution or idea do you expect a poor man/woman to have. This translate to the fact that in the congregation of people, only the wealthy is valued and the poor has no place in it.
This act occur in every sector in the society including social media and web3 platforms such as hive. Have you never experienced a case whereby some celebrity or Whale on hive says something, it doesn't matter if its makes sense or not everyone will be in total acceptance and submission to what he/she has said and anyone who dares to speak, even if the person happens to be the wise one, regardless of the knowledge and wisdom of such person he/she becomes the enemy despite speaking the truth.
This materialism pressure created by the society is the reason why most people work so hard to achieve financial stability and independence. Sometimes it is not because they don't have enough to feed their families or keep themselves sustained despite the hard economy, but a lot of people still go extra miles to achieve financial stability just to get acknowledged in the society. It has even gotten worse to the stage that some families now consider the wealthy among them as the most important and significant.
It is a known fact that humans are social animals, socialising is our birth right and we deserve to be accepted for who we are but what happens when we get segregated from the society by the society because we are judged by what we have and our possession.
Most people like to think, whatever the pace the society is setting it has nothing to do with the direction I have chosen but that isn't true. Truly, societal standards is subjective to individual opinion, which means that, despite the tone being spoken by the society every individual in the society doesn't necessarily have to dance to it but that isn't what is important, if you choose to create your own tone, to have your own opinion and your standards that defers from what the society believes, you would risk the consequences of being cancelled, of becoming a pariah.
It is said that societal standards are created to maintain order in the social sphere but here is the fact, these standards started from somewhere, someone or a group of people started this before it becomes a general belief. So whoever follows the standards set by the society without questioning it, is said to be doing what is best for the society, only those kind of people, society will be willing to cater for and those who rebel society rejects. The society only strives to maintain its standards not cater for people.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Unrealistic standards in hive learners community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
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