Authenticity

Today we will try to decipher yet another convoluted facet of life, which is Authenticity. Authenticity, in my humble opinion, is a very misunderstood subject, and one I feel should have a higher degree of explanation around it. Let’s dive deeper, because there is most certainly more than meets the eye.

Remember, when the peacock struts his stuff the shows his backside to half the world.

– Herve Wiener

An interesting & ironic side of social media is that while we have the capability to share literally every occurrence in our lives with people across the globe, we tend only to share only our best selves. That ensures we get the acceptance & relatability of others within our society, and that is biologically driven behaviour for us.

Today’s world, however, claims to be countering this trend. There is a new school of thought which encourages people to “be authentic”. And to a large extent, I truly believe in this advice. Authenticity is becoming a lost quality, and restoring it sure seems like a positive effort.

Simply defined, living authentically means that we should live in accordance to our personal value systems, and expressing ourselves accordingly. This way, we experience less of an internal strife when dealing with the niceties of social interactions and situations as well.

And people who live authentically see tremendous benefits as well. There is a solid correlation behind living authentically and sense of fulfilment. According to numerous studies, people who live authentically experience better relationships, have better decision making abilities and have a higher sense of self worth.

However, there is one catch to authenticity, which I feel gets lost in translation in today’s day and age.

Degeneration of Authentic Living

We have talked about how context is such an important component of proper interpretation of subjects in the past, which you can read about here. Being authentic also has context, which we looked at in its definition. Understanding your personal value system is a prerequisite to it. But I feel like people miss out on this aspect.

Additionally, since we live in the age of social media, everything is getting subjected to colloquialism. Consequently, “being authentic” turned into “being yourself”, which reduces the complexity of the definition, and makes it more susceptible to misinterpretation.

That is the reason why we see a lot of people claiming “the way I am is perfect” as authenticity, which I feel is a very superficial way to understand this convoluted and complex concept. (I know, a lot of c’s). The detriments caused by this are way more than the benefits, because this is giving rise to a culture of “self-worship”.

The concept of “self worship”

Contrary to authentic living, self worship is a concept where in a person has excessive admiration for oneself. This causes people to have a higher degree of narcissistic tendencies and an inflated sense of self importance. This makes it difficult for them to maintain healthy relationships.

We all know someone for whom being right and important is paramount, even when it sometimes comes at the cost of a negative perception in front of important people in their lives and strained relationships with coworkers, friends and even family members.

Consequently, they are labelled all sorts of coloured words, toxic being the most commonly used in today’s hip lingo.

The solution

Now, what is the way out of this predicament? Is there a way to not fall prey to self-worship in the name of authenticity?

Well, the first thing I can think of is an acknowledgement of the following fact.

Having pride in oneself is one thing, but self-worship leaves no room for improvement. 

Second, as we discussed a few minutes ago, values should be the predecessor to the proclamation of authentic living. One should give enough time and consideration to choosing what one values. That way, one can prevent falling prey to arrogance and self-worship, while maintaining a healthy and positive attitude.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this.

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