RECOGNITION ON US

To get your presence acknowledged among others can be referred to being recognizable. We all want attention or recognition. Human being is an attention seeker, always craving for recognition and it comes as a part of parcel for being a social animal.

It is the key because of which all these social media platforms are running. The underlying yearning, or should I say the craving to be famous, the intense desire to be known among people, to possess an image of value in the society is what has made the social media an eminent part of our life. It is the reason why everyone uses social media, it has everything to do with likes, comments, and followers that gives us a feeling of importance and being recognized.

And this attention seeking is everywhere around us, it is the reason for selling of beauty products, it is in attractive packaging so that product can get attention of customer, it is in designing of products so that people can recognize the product within a blink of an eye. This craving is also the reason why people want to use beauty products and branded products.

Nobody is free from it. Attention seeking is also in the crying of small children, they can’t speak so they cry to grab attention of elders, once grown, they use other means to achieve the same goal. Speaking of kids, why does majority of kids in India wants to be either in film or cricket? because they saw recognition in that. Over the years an image has been developed of these people walking down the aisle on red carpet and crowd cheering for them and autographs, selfies and what not.

Thanks to Tik-Tok and other apps, the current trend is being social influencers, you ask a socially active teenager or a kid about to enter teens what they want to be, there are high chances they will talk about being a social media influencer.

Every human wants recognition in one way or the other. It is the reason why everyone wants to be on the front page. Publicity stunts solely happen because the show or film-makers want to gain more attention and it has everything to do with the race of TRP among every channel.

We all are indulged in it so much but we fail to acknowledge the fact that the best source is direct human contact.

Ask yourself, what would give you more pleasure? 100 likes on Facebook or 100 people walking up to you, looking at you smiling and saying “I like the photo you posted recently, its good”.

Essentially, they both mean the same thing, the purpose behind inventing like button is that you can convey the message that you feel good about the post; But just look how much difference does the “digital like” have from the “Physical like”. “Digital Like” might have been developed as a substitute but it surely isn’t as potent as “Physical Like”.

Believe it or not this recognition is also a reason why every kid is pushed to be a top ranker and not be satisfied with any grades. For some this force becomes so powering that it pressurizes their own personality creating frustration as they do not get more recognition and take wrong steps in their life, sometimes ending it for this sole reason.

But this attention seeking nature of ours has also been exploited by many companies. The entire advertising agenda of many brands is as such dependent on this very core idea. For example, they show you a beauty product, and tell you that if you apply this beauty product, it will help you grab attention among others.

What this advertisement is indirectly conveying to you is, “You in your current condition aren’t fit to gain attention and hence not fit to be a part of this society. So, here is a product that will help you be fit to gain attention.” Which if pulled to an extreme suggests that you are nothing without this product.

This is an absolutely rubbish thought that is being planted in your brains which isn’t true at all. This kind of suggestions leads you to thinking that somehow, in some way “You are not fit, that in some manner, you don’t have it, you lack something, you are deficient”. This idea damages your self-esteem and crushes your entire self-confidence putting a question mark on yourself as a capable human being. I have heard stories about people literally crying because they do not have that physical qualities for gaining attention and hence have low self-esteem.

So, what are we doing as a society for these individuals? creating a divide among ourselves because few people want to sell their products?

We let them sell to us that if you have fair skin, boys will look at you.

We let them sell to us that if you are tall, bearded, and muscular, then and only then girls will come after you.

And that is the bitter truth of today’s society, we judge based on the looks of a person that whether they will be dateable or not, worth marrying or not, etc. We refrain from girls who do not fit the so-called standards set by society, and the boys are also being ignored by girls who do not have the physique.

Forget accepting trans genders into the society, that is a long shot, before accepting the divided we should first stop creating more divisions among human beings. The craving for recognition adds to the standards of acceptableness we have created among ourselves. An acceptable girl would look like having fair looks, medium height, long hair, etc. whereas an acceptable boy should have good height, fair looks, beard, etc., how far should this go? It has to stop somewhere.

This all happens and we forget that as a human being we are much more than what appears from the outside. Everyone forgets the inside, but that is not our fault now is it. As we have for looks, it would be good if we had any visible and credible measurement of inner beauty of a person.

But that is the puzzle we are all sent in by god, to figure out and make matches among ourselves based on the inside.

Think like this, did M.K. Gandhi after facing colorism think “oh man, would have won a few more cases and life would be much easier if only I was white”. No, he stood up, he never lost his self esteem and guess how much recognition he got, having been known around the world not by his color or physique but by his deeds.

So,

DON’T LIVE FOR BEING RECOGNIZED,

BE RECOGNIZED FOR LIVING

Written By:

Nihar Mehta

(The NH Updater)