By: Mugwort

While at work recently I have witnessed countless near miss accidents that are mainly due to one or both parties simply not being aware of their surroundings. While at Walmart recently I had an individual collide with my leg pushing a shopping cart in a wide open space of the store. Then began acting like I was the reason for the incident while their phone was 4 inches from their face. Are these two observations connected in some way that gives insight into how self awareness and awareness of one’s surroundings is at a staggeringly low currently in the world?

Why does it seem that we have substituted self awareness for self absorption in every aspect of life? I say this as with the current demographic of people taking more initiative in looking into other’s lives and the daily selfie barrage from Social Media outlets than in trying to improve themselves. I am not saying that this is something new and has not always been the case when it comes to how the majority of society operates. I am simply saying that in my view these characteristics have become alarmingly indoctrinated into current day. I have asked people who exude this sort of behavior if they are aware of how invested they are in others highlight reels of their lives instead of creating or working on their own. Majority of them acknowledge that they have too much screen time per day or that it has became a habit. But very rarely do I ever see these people do anything to change this habit or form new ones to remove this sort of behavior.

Could this be due to the fact that we have placed Social Media at the fore front of everything and that it has shifted into an irreversible course we are currently on? This question is posed as Social Media has brought advantageous points to modern day life but has also brought detrimental points to the psyche of individuals lives in tandem. Prior to my removing of Facebook and with my recent return, all content presented seems to fall into these categories.

One category being that of smiling face photos with family, friends or the individual selfie taken in some extravagant place captioned by some tag line giving thanks to those in attendance or how amazing said place or thing is. This category only gives a small glimpse into the moment and doesn’t really depict the entire truth the moment’s snapshot entails. To the viewer who stumbles upon this post along with the 100 others of similar nature in their personal feed while performing their mundane job in a lackluster location. This generates a feeling of discouragement or despair as to why these peoples lives seem to be going amazing in comparison to their own. If we become more self aware, that also brings awareness of surroundings, we would be able to realize that if the whole picture or moment were observed the glitz and glam would be reduced down in terms of grandiose splendor. As to the viewer that didn’t see the 10 minutes prior to the picture being taken all participants talk in short phrases or quips to each other as Uncle Billy and Cousin Bobby hate each other but put on that smile for the camera. These glimpses also don’t explain how Aunt Joe had to re-finance her mortgage to take this extravagant trip to the Caribbean instead of re-investing into something more permanent or tangible other than for a few pictures with catchy captions to get Margarette and her clique jealous.

The second category mainly consists of the soap box rantings that flow between the glamour shot photos. These writings typically consist of a very firm stance on whatever the topic pertains to i.e politics, religion, relationship status or lack there of etc. This further exposes how we have gravitated from self awareness into a self absorption mindset as these writings don’t offer much in the way of creating open debate or different perspectives. These posts tend to be presented in a manner that often only leads to other like minded individuals stoking the fire of the biased opinion and ridiculing any opposition that enter the comment section. This behavior is what has consistently fueled the divisions we face in many different sectors of daily life, as at the base of them is a contradiction to democracy. I could go on at length about the harsh impacts this has created but will instead elaborate on it at another time.

I bring these examples forward as to also showcase how current society is flooded with Self Improvement articles or programs to roadmap you into a better individual. Most of these articles discuss the importance of self motivation through means of internal discussions or mantras to follow. They give examples of the importance to establish boundaries and goals but never really discuss one very critical piece that in my opinion is the foundation of it all, Self Awareness. When you begin the journey into becoming more self aware, it requires that you face all the good and most importantly stand face to face with the harsh reality of your faults. The coming to terms with one’s self is a very dark, enlightening, and humbling experience that is a life long endeavor. This has been displaced in current day due to the advent of how today’s news is forgotten entirely tomorrow.

Due to this we have created an ever evolving shell to hide from ourselves. To give example for this observation, could it not be argued that this is the reason for so many “woke” movements and changes to how we interact with each other. In current day many discussions or debates often never get fully engaged in as we are all now “offended” and as such the differing opinion is viewed with prejudice. This statement and question is made as observationally it continuously gives everyone the ability to no longer have to go deep into thought of the opposing opinion’s reasoning and allows us to recluse into an “offended” or closed off mindset that we no longer have to acknowledge. This closed mindedness in my opinion is the root of the degradation of Self Awareness in today’s world. This is also the root for extremists and radicals power as history has proven, when the minds of the masses become closed they are easily swayed into action on behalf of a tyrant.

So in closing I would ask the reader to look into your own thoughts, beliefs and how you respond to those of differing opinion. Ask yourself when the last time you debated someone on these ideals, or are the people in your life a replica of your own thoughts so that you don’t need to. I would also ask the reader to evaluate them all individually to reflect internally if they are genuinely your own thoughts and beliefs, or are they someone else’s that has been adopted to fit in. Performing these tasks is the first steps into self awareness that through time will allow you to begin learning who you truly are. As the thousands upon thousands of Social Media posts performed daily proves that we all want to be seen, heard, understood, and loved. But before you can truly do any of the above for anyone else, you first have to know yourself.