Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Aristotle
Self discovery is the process of getting to know yourself as a person, the person within yourself. Self knowledge begins with self observation, self examination & self evaluation. It helps to identify our personality, aptitude & capabilities, intellectual & physical traits, interest & relationship.
We gain our self identity in two ways:
- First as we develop self awareness, we observe & evaluate our thoughts, feelings, behaviour based on past experiences, current needs & future goals.
- Second we look outward to the world in which we live for example, social, academic & physical for feedback which also shape our self identity.
We are fundamentally social being & an essential part of our development involves finding our place in social & cultural context in which we live in. Recently our social world have expanded dramatically in last decade due to the proliferation of the internet & social media. The most powerful ways in which technology is altering self identity is through the shift from being internally to externally driven. As time passed we never realised that we were slowly getting trapped by something that have been in existence due to us.
The difference between technology & slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
When it comes to technology we never looked upon its consequences because the perspective for the advancement of technology has always been for the betterment of society. It has proved to be very beneficial to all of us since it reduces human labour, saves time & helps us make connections far and wide.
Tell me any sphere of life were it hasn't touched us???? We have outsourced our entire life from getting birth certificate to death certificate, being swiggy generation to being in "trends", ordering raw veggies to pharmaceutical, from education to sports & now even our leisure time is more of technology then it is ours.
Today even more men has means to live, but they have no meaning to live for.
Victor E Frankil
In the heightened capitalism & era of globalisation human life has reduced to being a consumer in every stage of life. This business economy has led to the alienation of us from ourselves. Technology is like icing on cake 🎂!!!. Yessss!!!! There is no denying the fact that technology helped in human evolution, brought changes necessary to give survival to 8 billion folks on this earth 🌎🌍🌍 in some or other way but we also can’t deny the fact that it has brought with itself addiction, depression, obsession, false sense of consciousness, identity crisis, health hazards & lots of crimes near to us.
Today's generation has forgotten to make the difference between what is necessary & what's not for them. Millennials are in compulsive need to be "in the game" or in "trend" has given rise to their miserable lifestyle. This obviously has grown consumer led growth but vital effects are that everyone wants to be better than everyone else. A utter useless race which is benefitting only data fiduciary. This need of being superior give rise to inflated sense of self importance due to external validation & false gratification people get from their utopian followers online.
But who cares!!!! We can afford it so we will have it because we need to trend on social media. We forget that if we are being greedy we are depriving someone from their needs. It may not be seen directly but when we consume more than we need it put strain on our environment which in turn leads to environmental pollution, climate change & health hazard.
From Buddha to Gandhi it took whole lot of years of their life to know who they are & what is the purpose of their life. For this they allowed themselves to make mistake, wander, read a lot, experiment with life & also led a social life which they can influence by their virtues. It was not that they were not criticized or looked down upon by people. But their self introspection & purpose of life was so strong that they never got bothered by external situations which do not serve the purpose of greater good.
We think by showcasing our life style from professional to personal front, telling people our 24*7 mood swings & minutest vulnerabilities we can gain followers & possibly money if this worked. It has become a mania. Previously it was ” neki kar dariya me dal” now situation is like ” kuch bhi kar Facebook, Insta, Snapchat, pe dal😛😛”.
We must know throwing ourselves publicly on this cyber platform will always not come with appreciation but at times people are trolled, criticized & hated just for doing nothing. Which is in too much fashion with the meme culture we are learning. With this comes e – stress & lots of under confidence which is not possible to be handled untill we know to self introspect. Untill we know what matters & what doesn’t. Who are important to us & most importantly how we perceive ourselves & same time accept ourselves without the shadow of social media.
Constant need for attention causes ADHD ( attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) & also depression when one doesn’t get enough. This e stress causes emotional trauma, lack of trust & self doubt. This in turn gives rise to anxiety. Detachment from real world & too little human interaction causes stage fear & social anxiety. Too much outsourcing ourselves may even lead to cyber bullying, brainwashing hate speech & in wrong contacts. It makes us intolerant due to the very fact it boost our ego. We become furious when we are acknowledged about our wrongs. We may think technology is liberating us from our boredom, giving us freedom of self expression but in reality it is alienating us from real things in our life. Too much in vogue, the negation of thin line between expressing ourselves or hurting the sentiments of other just for our infatuated perception driven by extremism.
But what could be solution???? Technology is also present day need. So here comes the role of self knowledge, self awareness, self acceptance, self love & how much we have discoverd ourselves. Though self discovery is life long process but basic virtues of life are being taught to us from childhood. This reflect how strong our value systems are.
The Bhagwad Gita enlightens us with several lessons on the knowledge of self & the world. Man’s understanding of the world around him is proportional to the understanding of the self. The war is between man’s spiritual calling verses the dictates of the body, mind & senses for material pleasure which is technology driven consumerism.
Lord Krishna explained “senses are notorious in their ability to drag the mind into deeper into illusion. They tempt the living being to seek immediate gratification. With honest detachment & through the control of mind the self realised man can understand the true self & the world around him. Such a man is continually aware of his action, reaction & interaction with inner & outer world.
Yes it is important to change with time but few things done traditionally is best for our higher good. One of them is self discovery process which should be learnt from people to people contact, learnings from our parents & elder’s experience of their life, our teachers, meditation, self solitude, bona fide leisure unaffected by social media, reading lots of good books to know answers of our life issues. Having real time experience of life, making real life followers by inspiring someone with our genuine line of thoughts & principles and some actual friends instead of being in bubble of cyber fantasy. Making millions of pseudo friends & followers but end up being lonely when we really need one in our life.
Modernization of IT & communication process has become the driving force of social evolution. While it is evolving day by day humans are walking back on a path of doom. Humanity less human driven by material sense of satisfaction in this cut throat competition led economy is drifting humans away from each other & the day is near when we will turn against each other. It’s high time collective as whole need to realise their higher self which is much bigger than this 3D world.
I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have generations of idiots.
Albert Einstein
innermostbeing 