I feel like in this day and age everyone is so obsessed with their idealized version of themselves.
A version that has been imprinted upon us by social media to be a successful multimillionaire, a famous influencer that everyone adores...
and if you say thats not what you want to be, the response is often....
'well your just limiting yourself, you not striving to be the highest vibration of yourself, try some manifestation techniques etc'
I feel like social media has exasperated this mentality, because everyone is trying to post the most idealized parts of their life, where they are rocking it as the main character...
and I do that too, I like to post nice pictures
of course its natural to want to share the best parts of ones life but in these times, this is often taken to the extreme, where pictures are manipulated in such a way, that we are looking at a complete fantasy version of peoples life.
From the pictures/videos we believe that the other person is more successful, beautiful and richer than you because they are doing x y z things.
Young people are more susceptible to this manipulation but inevitably we all are, and that's why a lot of people using social media, talk about the negative effects on their mental health.
For many of these influencers its big business to make you feel this way, they are planted by the industry and therefore selling products, that will help you with whatever you feel inadequate about, courses, supplements, make up, clothes etc because if we buy these things we can end up successful like them.
Because I believe most people value success by defining it against the role models around them that they see. And if they see other people being successful for x y z reason they will strive for that. And for the most part success seems to be intrinsically tied to a profession and how much money one makes and how successful they become in that field.
And is it any surprise with all this rise in social media fame and fortune that young children are aspiring to become youtubers, models and vloggers
The very 'reptutable' news paper THE SUN made a study on this, the result were clear...
75% Of Children Ages 6 To 17 Want To Become YouTubers
In a study published in The Sun, three-quarters of Gen Z and Millennials surveyed chose becoming a YouTuber as their most desired career. The same study also found the following statistics: 1 in 3 aspire to be a YouTuber (34.2%)
However there is a huge disparity between the fantasy and the reality
This graphic above confirms that young people want to be in the creative profession compared to other professions but that does not equate to more people working in that profession.
I honestly believe that this is because of the education system and the lack of education surrounding the options around creative professions.
I was a child who loved to draw, i was praised for my excellent drawing skills, I seemed to be more skilled than my peers for my age, I had a natural ability and because of that I loved doing it as much as possible, honestly i didn't really want to study anything else except the creative arts, but of course that didn't happen.
I went to a below average school with an under funded art department and was given very minimal advice and direction on what to do in life which I believe has contributed to my lack of success in the arts. Because I grew up in a time of great change, I saw the old systems get thrown in the trash for example when I attended art school, at university level... they had decided to move and upgrade to a techno campus, so all the old machinary for creating old fashioned art techniques like etching were thrown in the bin and flashy new computers arrived.
I had to learn how to adapt and my own success depended on that but at that time I just couldnt grasp exactly what I was suppose to do, like what professions were in need of an artistic eye and skills. All I had been taught about was the traditional options, of painting, illustrating, pottery etc never had I imagined a world of UX designers for APPS, computer game designers, 3D designers, let alone understanding that content creation and the influencer generation was around the corner and I had no idea if I could cut it in those industries because I had never been given the option. I didnt even know properly these things were a thing until some years after leaving university and I felt like I had made the wrong decisions early on in life.
That I wasted alot of time and money because the system itself was not prepared to educate me in the new technological advancements that were around the corner. Its obvious to me know because I have the technology at my finger tips but 15 years ago, I barely had a working computer of my own let a alone a smart phone. So I spent my 20s coasting around from minium wage job to minium wage job, traveling to different countries, doing exchanges and learning about sustainabilty, permaculture, natural building and a load of life skills that can impact the world in a better way, as aposed to working my way up the career ladder to become a 'successful' member of society.
I remember in those years having several awakenings to the corrupt system I was living in and just wanting to retreat more and more into myself and not compare myself to the aspirations of what society views as successful. I'm not bitter about this, I still use my artistic skills but I know longer have that same motivation and love for the creative arts like I did when I was young person and so I no longer have the same passion to be successful with these talents.
Because the measurement of success can be dictated and determined by many factors and that what start we have in life or what school we attend can affect how we view what "successful' is, I therefore think success in the traditional sense is definitely a privilege and I dont really believe in meritocracy
For example: if your parents are entrepreneurs with a 6 figure salary and they enroll you in to private school, you are more likely to view success as getting a place at Oxford university and then getting a job as politician..
However the school I went to, many people were brought up being told they were disruptive, stupid and a disgrace to society, some of these people enviatably ended up in prison, laborers and in low salary jobs.
Its beneficial to society to create this disparity because ultimately the government wants to keep a certain number of people doing certain professions, because who else is going to collect the trash?
On the other hand I met someone who went to an alternative school, they were allowed to explore their own interests, i believe success for them was just following their own interests in whatever means that would be...
This guy was called Krishna Mckenzie and I met him at Auroville community India. Krishna said he was encouraged to pursue his passion and he was able to choose a mentor, he choose Masanobu Fukuoka a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands.
Krishna studied his books, met him and person and became a student of his, practicing his natural farming methods and now he tends to a thriving 30 year old permaculture food forest, Krishna is an advocate of local foods, and has become a national treasure in Tamil Nadu for elevating the medicinal local foods and culture.
And guess what when we live by these principles...we create less consumerism, waste and trash, we recycle and compost...we dont need trash collectors, because each of us should have the responsibility to convert our waste into new life.... why is this not being taught in schools?
Anyway I believe this is a testimony to how we decide to bring up our young people and how they will view success.
Ultimately I dont think success in the traditional sense "money and power" equals to you being a successful human being. There are plenty of billionaires doing shady things, they have money and power but I dont regard them as successful members of society. I also dont think success is an attribute we hold firmly... like now im a top lawyer I am a successful person idenfently, the ideals of success are very subjective and to me they seem pretty transient, we can celebrate our success's one day but the next feel like a total failure. Success is just a feeling and not a true definition of who you are.