Influence

    A few months after quitting watching YouTube, I was looking back on some of the things I had strong opinions on, and it suddenly hit me how I don’t believe them anymore. Did I simply change, or was I influenced? This is one of the many revelations I experienced after quitting social media, especially YouTube. Humans are easily influenced, we have always been. Look all around you, everything from how religion spreads to how a sales person sells you a product. We are constantly being influenced by other people. Some are quite obvious and people have learned to recognize them, but some are hard to pick out as they don’t mean any ill intend. I have nowhere near the qualification to talk about such a wide and complex topic. But what I can do, is share my two cents worth.

    I get why content creators are called “Influencers“, and why every single one of them hates that word. No one want to influence others with their opinion, but it just so happens that when you watch these people every day for months or even years, they tend to play a big role on how you view things. Parents always makes sure their kids don’t get into bad friend groups, but in this day and age, it’s who they watch they should be worries about. But it’s not always black and white. I am not here to blame content creators, and neither should you. It’s our own responsibility to know what’s a valid point to share and what’s their personal opinion.

    Personally, I don’t believe we can have fully independent opinions. However much we try, we will always be influenced by someone, one way or another. It might be our parents, friends or the hundreds of people we interact with. We can never quite know. And in some cases, you might be better off being influenced, as you might make a better decision because you were influenced by someone more knowledgeable than you.

    Okay, so everyone’s trying to influence you, and it’s our responsibility to not get influenced in a bad way. That much is clear, but how do you go about it? What helped me was taking a breather and not jumping to conclusions. The best way to do that is just sleeping on it. A good night’s sleep can really help clear your thoughts. Apart from that, always be self-aware, and ask yourself if you actually believe in the things you share. And always, always do your own research first. 

P.S. Before you go, let me ask you this. Do you agree with me, or am I just influencing you? 😉