Yours superficially
Voice over the phone: 'How are you?', the reply was almost a reflex:"Am fine. What about you?". A normal pleasantries exchange over the phones. Normal it appears but when followed by another: "Are you really doing fine", the reply often lead to "am doing okay but ........" Though the situation appears to be trivial, it has been a consequence of a far reaching trend in our present society.
Call it a process of evolution "survival of fittest" our species has long struggle to be dominant or appear to be dominant and has shy away from exposing what appears to be a weakness. Our society has become such adamant to flaws in search of perfection that we forgot to realise we are but a flaws beings. This quest for perfection often lead to wanting to appear to be flawless in every sphere of life.
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The almost universality reach of internet and social media has over-hype this quest for superficiallity in our society. The easy reach of life of celebrity personal, the unending superficial ads across the internet platform has push our society to new levels. New trends good or bad are been easily spread and taken up across the globe. The growing so called social media influencers and social media marketing has impacted our youth like never before. Almost everyone has been on rush to achieve an ideal perfect figure body through the influence of social media. This has led to numerous case of extremity such as rush for unnecessary plastic surgery and even deaths.
While it's true social media has provided us with platform to connect with out near and dear ones often it lead to jealousy, insatisfaction, trust deficit and our needs to further superficially appear to be good. We often heard of stories such as two people meets online and when the finally meet its a totally different person. The exponential growth of computing power and easy availability of editing software has partially contributed to this. Moreover, the control of users to only post which presents them in good light has compounded the situation. This has further reduce the effectiveness of social media and has left genuine people who want to connect with each other in a disadvantageous situation.
The rush for perfection has also shaken the integrity of marriage and lead to the rise of divorce case in our society. Like in the case of social media, most sensible person often try to hide their true self to their partners while in courtship and this made them thought that they are a perfect match. This often comes in the form of pressure from friends and family through their advice and suggestions. However in long run ones cannot truly hide their true self and it is bound to show up leading to a fatal unbearable relationship. The easy availability of porn material and the superficiality of love making also play a role in the breakage of marriage institution, not knowing that it is been choreograph to make it appear seemless. A personal reason why I love the series "The Big Bang Theory" is the awkwardness of the character and how they accept each other despite of it. In particular I like the character Amy and Sheldon in how they learn to accept each other, from the first time they meet to how they play out winning the Nobel prize together is just indescribable.
Further, this quest for perfection and flawlessness has often manifested itself in a resume. A typical resume/DAF often has space for weakness and more often than not the weakness stated are glossy and rather appear to be strength. Maybe it's simply because people are advise to put it that way or maybe those on the selection side want it that way in first place. No matter what the choice maybe, we seems to have lose originality and honesty in us. No wonder a "failure resume" took internet by strom not long ago and caught attention of many in academics and industry alike. Whatever the intention of author maybe it reflect to us the very superficiality we had been chasing to achieve.
Though by now it might appear that superficiality has been only a problem of individual and that organization are shielded from it. Yet a matter of fact and more dangerous is the superficiality of our public institutions. Not putting the blame particularly but the attitude of the present government to reject any ratings which downgrade them is particularly disturbing. Not that we shouldn't questions the veracity of such ratings but opposing every such creates a negative impression. Though I must concede that consistency and integrity can be of a paramount weight in the functioning of public institutions, this shouldn't shy us away from accepting the fault which might have creep in despise our best efforts. No doubts that there is a huge pressure from opposition party and the need to win the next election, might force the government to defend its not so fruitful schemes and activities. However, I am of the view that the need for superficiality of our public institutions in the long run can be reduce by been more open and responsive to the voice of citizen such as expanding the scope of RTI and Lokpal.
Though "Honesty is the best policy" qoute is on the fingertip of everyone of us yet we seems to have long diverted from it in reality. It not all loss while we are alive and breathing, we can choose to accept our own fault and those of others. We could be less judgemental when someone shares us their dark side or weaknesses and assuring them by sharing ours too. A little more of understanding and putting ourselves in each other shoes will go a long way in accepting the reality making it easier to face failures or hard situation. The frequent use of likes of NSA by our public institutions will only widen the gap of trust deficit in our society. While it has become vital to be on social media, we must not be carried away by it and instead use it as a tool available to us for furtherance of our reach and connection. It is of paramount importance that parents and elders should instil on youngers one that everything on social media is not what it is..
Lastly, we need to accept the flaws in ourselves and that of others. And remember we are all in the process of becoming a better version of ourselves in whatever way we can. Let's not trap ourselves in the cycle of lies by projecting ourselves as a perfect being.
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