When someone smiles at you or gives you a compliment, what would you think? Would you be grateful and think about how that person went out of their way to talk to you? Or would you immediately think of what they actually meant because they could not possibly be genuine? What is easier?
I'm hoping we all are grateful.
However, I find that it's so hard for people to take compliments or react to nice things well anymore. We are constantly trying to find the alternate meaning or motive. As usual, I blame the media. For one, our whole lives have been lived through advertising tricks and double meanings. We catch on quickly and become immune to obvious ads. However, where we go wrong is when we apply it to actual life. Not everything has a double meaning! The media has caused us to be overly skeptical. We can no longer trust a friendly gesture or the words from one's mouth.
Another cause of this would be the movies and TV shows of our generation. A show isn't a show without drama. The lying, back-stabbing actors are only playing lying, back-stabbing people. So many programs depict high school, which makes it even worse. Now, we can relate in a way. But it is not the same. Drama and conflict does not equal getting the guy. Life does not have to be filled with drama to be interesting. You don't have to have drugs and alcohol to have a good time. People are not always lying. Please do not think that is how the world is. Our reality is altered, thanks to the media. We get these false pictures engrained in our minds and want that picture to be reality so badly that is becomes reality. We don't even realize how skeptical we are. We don't realize how uneasy we feel when we see a smile. It is real. This is real life.
I agree with what you are saying about the whole now-a-days people don't trust each other and that we are looking for double meaning and we are skeptical and what not and I think media plays a HUGE role in that, but I also think we are naturally raised to be like that. We are born pretty selfish, and we want what we want, it is pretty hard to help it. We know ourselves the best and it is hard to know how others will act, so some just like to stay to themselves because they do not want to be hurt by others. It is hard (sometimes harder for others) to open up to others and to trust them. Even when it comes to compliments; some just don't know how to take them because sometimes there is double meaning in it. From experience, I've had sarcastic "compliments" thrown at me, so I could get why people could be skeptical when it comes to it, but you are right, we as a society have become very untrustworthy. I wish we all could not have these negative influences from media.
ReplyDeleteI really like this. I totally agree, we have become so skeptical and disbelieving in everything that we're told or what we hear because of what we've grown up seeing in the media. I also agree with Kori though, how we are raised has a lot to do with how we accept compliments, comments, or even criticism. The media has a lot to do with this issue, but it can't be blamed entirely. I really do like this though, because I can definitely relate to always feeling like I can't believe what people tell me, and a lot of it is because it's what you always see throughout movies, TV shows, or other platforms of media.
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