Am I being me?
I’m torn.
I have two really interesting ideas debating in my head. Both ideas completely contradict each other, and both play out as plausible as eachother.
The first idea is that we are living in a time where we have an opportunity to exercise our individuality on a scale not seen for centuries. We have access to anything, anytime. Search, and find. Click, and buy. See, and Share.
We can express ourselves in real time, anywhere in the world. We can share our experiences without boundaries. We can stumble upon random things that will teach us something we never knew we wanted to learn.
True, right?
Now try this on for size.
The second idea is, the notion that we are being watched, and processed, and fed cues that are forcing us to experience a limited, predictable set of experiences, that inevitably decrease the scope of us being truly individual.
For example, Amazon will recommend things they think we will want to buy. Netflix give us film suggestions, based on stuff we watched yesterday. Facebook, show us the what our friends are cooking & listening to.
How does that support me being different? Without question, it makes me behave more like people like me.
It does not support me being unexpected interesting.
I love my friends, but every time i take a recommendation on Facebook, I am becoming more like them. Not more like a unique person I hope I really am.
So which idea is the strongest?
I conclude both.
To maintain being truly different, takes energy and diligence. You need to actively ignore the easy route of clicking the first thing Google think you want to buy, or connecting with the people that Twitter suggests you follow, or being tempted by the Laksa that Tim from my high school is cooking.
Buy a book on Brain Surgery. Take a trip to Wyoming. Take acid and go walk in the woods.
Just don’t be you.
I thank Seth Godin for his brilliant book We are all Weird, and @eaonp‘s gift of The Gutenberg Parenthesis for enlightening the first idea.
I credit History Channel’s The Virtual Revolution Part 3 for showing me the true cost of our digital footprint as we surf the web.