Twenty Somethings

Recently, I have been obsessed with the concept of individualism. Individualism is what shapes us as humans at our core: encompassing our beliefs, choices, and actions that define who we are and what our own unique self identity is. After all, we are all just a  result of the experiences we’ve had, the struggles we’ve faced, the friends we have, and the things we understand about the world. With an infinite combination of these available, it’s no wonder we’re all a little bit different. This is what makes understanding and believing in individuality so important.  

Individualism’s main value is the belief in personal autonomy-the freedom to make our own choices, pursue our passions, and shape our own destiny without interference from the outside world. In a society where it feels as though there is constant pressure to conform to be like people around us, we are often expected to push aside our unique values and expectations, thus sacrificing our personal freedom and self-expression that makes us who we are. By recognizing and believing in the right to individualism,  we are driving innovation and progress simply by encouraging creativity and critical thinking. When we champion the idea of individualism, we challenge conventional social, political, and cultural norms, thus generating the freedom to produce groundbreaking ideas, solutions, and advancements in our own and other’s lives that would otherwise never be possible.

“It is important for the common good to foster individuality: for only the individual can produce the new ideas which the community needs for its continuous improvement and requirements—indeed, to avoid sterility and petrification.” -Einstein

While individualism is a governing idea in my life that I hold closely, particularly during election season, I have also recently started noticing how quickly individualism can turn sour. While individualism is an ideology about the intrinsic worth of the individual, it also is a moral and political ideology that can be taken to the extreme. Recently I’ve started noticing a trend of Gen Z adhering to a prevailing idea of hyper-individualism that does more harm than good.

Since Gen-Z has gotten older, there has been a historic and fundamental shift in society regarding individualism and the impact of the digital age. Today, it has become increasingly easy to have access to an array of people from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, genders, career paths and appearances. It’s easy to scroll for hours on your phone through Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, Reddit, and the other seemingly endless types of media that keep us connected. 

While this isn’t inherently bad, it feels as though more and more people are falling into a trap where they feel the need to set themselves apart from the thousands of people they see online. Gen-Z in particular, with the importance we place on being individual, we feel the need to somehow stand out from the masses and be the “main character.” This phrase creates an unconscious compulsion to be somehow different from everyone around us and “worthy” of being the center of attention, or unique enough to stand out. 

Being different is celebrated in our generation, but it is because of this pervasive trend culture we see online. You’re no longer wearing blush, you’re a “strawberry girl.” You’re no longer listening to music you heard a concert opener play, you’re entering your “rock girlfriend, indie sleaze girlfriend era.” You can’t wear gold jewelry and a bun without being a “clean girl, healthy fitness queen.” There is this double-edged sword that we want to be unique and different, but we also are instantly categorized into the newest trend cycle and given a label. There is an inclination to categorize things online to help us simplify someone, and it is increasingly detrimental. 

Gen-Z lives a contradictory existence where somehow within the extreme conformity we see online through trend culture, we also need to celebrate the idea of individuality and reward people for it by making them famous, celebrated, and then the basis for a new “trend” that won’t be cool in 6 months.  Somehow we are both self-aware of the hivemind, yet prisoner to it. 

Gen-Z has this innate fear of being called basic. We need to be different somehow. This individuality we place so much emphasis on often becomes a point of fascination of how can I stand out from the people around me? We seek out underground artists that only have 400 monthly listeners on Spotify and hate on Taylor Swift. And at the end of the day, we don’t even hate Taylor Swift, but we can’t have people thinking we like her because then we’re just like everyone else and can be easily categorized into the masses of “swifties.” 

This trend among Gen-Z is what psychologists call an individuality complex. It is this need to be more individual and unique than others. It is this constant attempt to push back against labels online and resist conformity by making choices that assure others you are not like them. In other terms, it implies the desire to be different and cooler than the people around you, and thus better.

We are constantly reminded of everyone we can’t be everytime we get on our phones.. Everyone around you is cooler, more unique, better. This gives us this active obsession with our image and how we are viewed by everyone around us. 

Our perception of ourselves and our individuality is completely clouded by what other people think and view us as, becoming a competition with the people around us. 

We engage in unconscious competitions to be seen as more unique than others, more self-sufficient, more self-reliant than our peers with no real, perceptible, tangible benefit other than our own incredibly clouded self-worth. We are forced into this mindset that we are better than others. We think we’re smarter, deeper, different, or that we have more-evolved beliefs and priorities, going directly against the original belief of individuality. 

This phenomenon is commonly called illusory superiority, or the Dunning-Kruger effect. Your need to be better and different leads you to think so highly of yourself while putting others down for liking popular and “basic” things, that you isolate yourself from the people around you and often feel misunderstood or lonely.

 When we adhere to this idea, we only are inflating a false sense of how much better we are than others, creating a foundation of unacceptance and disgust for people who are not like us, and thus below us. Suddenly we aren’t as accepting of differences as we would like to be and are going directly against what we claim to stand for!

At the end of the day, what happens if we aren’t actually all that unique from the people around us? Do we still retain our value if we are hard to distinguish from others? If we subscribe to that trend we love or listen to Taylor Swift, are we still worth something? Are we still special and unique and different? 

The short answer is yes. 

We can’t define what is cool and special and better, it’s all up for interpretation. At the end of the day, individuality still stands. Every single person around us is a different combination of people, experiences, and thoughts they have been through that cannot and have never been replicated in human history, so even if you think someone is “just like everybody else,” they aren’t.

That being said, being just like everyone else isn’t inherently bad thing, and you aren’t better for putting people down who like popular things or have common interests.

If you like things that are unique or different, I applaud you! Regardless of what others think, staying true to yourself is the best form of individualism. It’s only when you refuse to do or like things because it’s popular or common and think you’re better than the people who do. You could be missing out on a huge part of life. 

We tend to revel in what makes us different and more unique than others and throw away our differences that create this beautiful idea of individuality. We have lost the plot when we stop respecting and celebrating each individual person for who they are.

So yeah, individuality is a fine philosophy in moderation (as are most things). Recently, it just has been taken to extreme levels in our digital age that create polarization and give people an massive ego. Failing to see how everyone outside your narrow worldview and identity is worth your time and respect is a result of hyper-individuality and a superiority complex.

 If you become incapable of celebrating each person’s individuality, you fail to see their beauty and what life has to offer.