Page 15 - Issue 55

ELITE VOL.1, Issue 55, May 2023
ELITE
VOL.1, Issue 55, May 2023

giving them much of a thought. We’re
picked up by currents of information,

thinking that we conform to the
“right” opinion just because it’s the
loudest or most present in our lives

until we become like parrots –
adopting and echoing beliefs that we
don’t really understand. One of the
most recent examples of this
phenomenon is the Afrocentrism/

Egyptian origin debate. We had people
Collectively, we live in a bubble of
discussing the topic in a respectful
recycled ideas and there is nothing
manner, using historical evidence and
inherently bad about this, but it begs
facts that could be easily traced.
the questions of “why are we so scared
However, there were a group of
to stand out?” and “how do we escape
(mostly young) people that took to the
this cycle?” I guess the answer to these
internet to talk about the issue with no
questions depends on a lot of factors,
scientific backing using aggressive and
but the takeaway here is that
racist vocabulary. Unfortunately,
conformity is not always a good thing.
things that go viral on the internet are
We cannot expect change if we keep
rarely the tame posts and videos, but
seeking the same sources for
rather, the loud and aggressive, so
inspiration, and we certainly cannot
seeing people go around sharing such
fully develop as individuals if we
content is nothing new. If the creators
aim to act the same way everyone else
and sharers of these offensive posts
does. My question to you, dear reader,
took a few minutes to critically think
is how do you show your personality in
about the content they were engaging
your day to day activities?
in, we would have seen a better
outcome to this debate. Impressionable

youths are the biggest victims of this
phenomenon, but older people aren’t
completely safe either, as they spend a
lot of time on social media platforms
consuming propaganda and news

reports without questioning their
purposes or sources. Again, the
solution to this lack of originality in

thought is because we don’t spend time
critically analyzing everything we hear,
see, and consume on the internet.

14