“The rise of nonchalance is the death of intention”.
A month ago, I saw this quote on an Instagram reel while doom scrolling for what might have been the 3rd time that day. Occasionally, my algorithm will randomly pop up with existentialist, heartbreaking reels that I have grown to not mind, as it is just social media; there are lots of other videos to care about.
But for some reason, this stuck with me, and got me thinking: how much life do we waste away trying not to care?
“Performative Male”, “Male Loneliness Epidemic”....Over the course of this past year, social media communities have created terms that isolate people within their own feelings and lifestyles. It has become a trend that the less you show, the better. The more mystery and “low profile-ness” we go about the world with, the cooler we are. Expression, as we know it, has been replaced by the art of lying low, because, ironically, that is how we get the most attention. And frankly, I get it.
Nobody wants to be seen nowadays. Social media is too invasive, we’ve given way too much power to likes and followers, algorithms are scary personal. The only way to escape is if we all collectively decide to just act like we don't mind anymore, when secretly, we all care. It’s just that everybody is too busy trying to show as little as possible of ourselves and who we are to realize what we are doing.
The next thing is it is inevitable to have a hundred profiles that look the same. When we start narrowing down what is cool and what is not, we end up not wanting to stay out of touch. Our feeds become shopping malls rather than spaces of self-expression, thinking things like “I need to get this because all the cool girls are wearing it”. But again, we are nonchalant, so we don't actually care.
We put and post ourselves in pre-packaged boxes so that everything can be easily digested once we hit the “post” button.
But boxes can become pretty lonely over time. And it is seeping into our real lives as well. How many times do we pretend like we are fine when we are not? How many times do we choose to post the picture from behind instead of the one showing our smiles because “it is cooler this way?”
How much power have we given to conformity to not even notice we’ve taken the fun out of things?
My only suggestion: start caring again. I realized the other day that in order to start caring, we need to stop caring.
Stop caring about looks and opinions, and start caring about things that truly matter to you that get us out of the social media loop. Do things with intention, even if it means that you’ll draw a little attention to yourself.
If you don't know where to start, here is a list of things to care about:
Or a million other things that bring back the human in us.
"The rise of intention will be the rise of expression” - a phrase that I would love to see the next time I scroll through Instagram.
Sophia is a BBG from Argentina and loves making and listening to music
All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.
