The obsession with difference?

Question

just putting some thoughts out there...

I'm 17 and going through that stage of life where i wonder what the hell everything is about and is it all worth it? at times i get frustrated and angry at society and the people in it...one current thing on my mind is an apparent obsession with 'being different'.

So whats it all about? if these people truly are 'deep', or 'different' or 'themselves' then why is there such a strong need for them to prove it? especially when the majority do so by adding it to 'myspace' (as an example) in an attempt to let the masses know how unique they truly are!

it seems another 'trend' that people are trying to follow in order to validate themselves... but how are they different when everyone else is doing the same thing?

the frustration comes from wanting to change something which i can't.

It feels more than a simple expression of yourself and i think this is maybe where my point was missed. Why is there such a need for the expression? Yes, these people may truly believe that they are more of an individual than the rest of us - but why such a strong need to prove it? it feels to me that the way in which they do it is nothing more than a contradiction of what they are trying to achieve...

some good responses so far

Answer 1

When I was your age, I spent my last year in high school constantly "observing" the behavior of my fellow classmates. I would watch the cheerleader/jock group, the cast-offs, the long-hairs (70s), the chess board group, and the hoods (hoes & knife carriers) as if I was studying the sociology of high school. This was long before the internet, cell phones, and text messaging. (Kids passed notes). I made mental notes all day long and then spend my nights discussing things with my mother who had a college degree in pyschology/sociology.

They were spending all this time and effort to be "different" but they all look like the other people in their peer group. It was the safety in numbers thing, I guess.

I was involved with dramatics and music, so I was pegged with that group. I identified with some of them, but I mainly did things to please myself. I was also involved with art, which helped me to grow as an individual.

Many of the kids were just trying to find themselves. They wanted to be 'different' but the same as their friends. I never figured that one out. I wanted to tell them "YOU ALL LOOK THE SAME!!"

Answer 2

I would first like to start by telling you that you are a true intellectual, and are most likely destined to do some great work and make a difference in the world.

Secondly, what makes you "different" is the fact that that you have the drive to make changes to what you feel needs to be corrected. That is a wonderful thing, and being "different" in that way, is ideal.

Thirdly, I would suggest that you take a trip to the library and read everything you can in the philosophy section. I have the feeling that you would make a tremendous advocate as a representative for those who suffer from injustice.

You're going to be a great person. I wish you the best for yourself and all those who are counting on you!

Answer 3

I am 30 here's my take...


I grew up in a generation (or maybe town) that different was looked down on....

I was very creative and placed importance on self expression.

I was out cast for it....

now I see a generation (that you are part of ) as a hope to change that.

look at the great depresion -it caused that generation to place all energy on work and career as a means of survival, with little time for deep bonds on a emotional level with children


then look at the baby boomers as the children of the great depression children (follow?)

The baby boombers created 'free love' (total overdose of physical affection and detached love for all)

the flower power worrior's children (of which I am one) longed for a more spiritual sense of love...not just physical and open ended, but pure and holy again......

you are on the cusp of the transition between the rebound of the superfucial generation and that of the individual.....

Be greatful for the age of self expression, it is moving your generation into an awareness of breaking free from the mass consumerism my generation is fighting to tear down....

I am so proud of younger ones who have absorbed this truth and express it

We as a global community need more stable and secure individuals!

Who by the way are then able to pull themselves out of 'sheepdom' and be of real use as a collective.

Answer 4

Im pretty sure im goin through the same thing (all though i am attachted to myspace)

i agree with you...if people are infact "different" or "themselves" then we should be able to tell...

...for example, there is this girl on my school bus who claims she is an induvidual yet every thing she is into, is the craze at the moment!!!!


i say "**** 'EM"



but also saying this i probably do follow the crowd to much then i'd lie to think

Answer 5

in accordance to the first question. jointly incompatable. the first is truth and the 2d phantasm. the first in non attachment and the 2d is entire attachment. the first is infinate and limitless and the 2d is restricted and finite. One is reality and the 2d separates one from the reality. 2d question. No. Love is already helpful. Why attempt to attraction to close it even as the very motive to finish which will separate you on your experience from the resource of that Love. Love is many stuff on many degrees and is fullyyt ungraspable in it really is limitless nature for the recommendations. it really is the recommendations that tries to cluch and draw close and under no circumstances the middle. The recommendations can not own that it really is it really is totally personal author, that which it already is. it ought to in hassle-free words manufacture a idea of that which it needs to own and fool itself into beleiving it has truly possessed the project even as it has in hassle-free words managed to own an photo of the project it really is an phantasm. imagine about someone who obsesses about funds and spends their finished existence hording and scheming or maybe dishonest because their obsession has led them to believe that everybody is out to take their funds. They push human beings and Love away jointly and faster or later they awaken to comprehend they are demise and all they have spent their lives gathering will turn to airborne dirt and dirt. they have traded existence itself it really is genuine for a tiny ingredient of existence which isn't genuine. i imagine the more effective major question is why the opt to obsess? keep on with that thread to it really is resource. All issues that search for to split us from truth are worry depending. What experience or situations have presented about this worry (ie abandonment or worry of abandonment) The obsession itself is a reaction or defence mechanism shaped around the resource. you'll might want to discover the resource with a view to launch the opt to obsess. Obsession may bring about addictions between different issues (transference) because they are an similar in nature yet variety in hassle-free words in style. in case you aren't getting a weed by the muse it really is going to proceed again better and evolve into distinction sorts.

Answer 6

I kno what mean, its like , How can u like someone tat has no interest and do their best to pretend. Just to manipulate us personally. I'm trying to still find out what the true meaning to what unconditional love by people's own opinion , yet I'm all getting less talking , but if u ask any people including myself what unconditional hate is , oh sure people gallop in to place their bet.

I think unconditional hate brings love to people and animals than pure love.

Answer 7

your right. no one is really individualistic. I attribute trying to be different to people's attempts to be a somebody as opposed to a nobody. They want to be the star in the night sky that is brighter than everyother. In this way, people feel, they'll have some sort of impact on the world.

Blame hollywood.

Answer 8

Why frustrate yourself? Frustration is the cognitive experience of creating a desire for something and then not getting it. Frustration and anger is when we want something (from society in this case) who have no obligation to give it to us.

Save yourself the misery. Society owes me nothing.

Answer 9

We children of the sixties and seventies are somewhat to blame for that atitude. We lived by it until we realised, that in doing so, we were more alike than ever. So we quit it, got a job and went to work.

Answer 10

"Every individual human being
born on this earth has the capacity to
become a unique and special person,
unlike any who has ever existed before
or will ever exist again."

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, b. 1926
AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIST &WRITER