Written by: Vivian Blanco
People nowadays, including myself, have let society affect our thoughts and behavior, but one thing that has caught my attention a lot is that we have let them influence the decisions we choose either in a good way or a bad way. Sometimes we don’t pay attention to our surroundings but our society has a very important role in our lives when it comes to making decisions. How? Later on, in this article, I will present to you my opinion and facts about how can it be good or bad.
It is often said that society isn’t always such a good thing for us. From my point of view, many people around us do not have good intentions when it comes to helping. A lot of people can be really selfish and focus a lot on themselves manipulating our way of thinking and lying so that all we choose pleases them. A UMass researcher found that “60 percent of people lied at least once during a 10-minute conversation and told an average of two to three lies”so it normal to mistrust people. Society by lying or saying irrelevant comments can change our ways of thinking. I have realized that some of the most common insecurities start to build up thanks to what others say about us. We stop doing things we would like to do, things that sometimes reflect who we really are inside just because we take these comments really seriously.
However, some people can influence us to do the right thing, looking for our good, giving us good advice. A research from Forbes says “Zenger Folkman identified a database of 577 leaders who’d taken a self-assessment measuring the extent to which they preferred giving advice versus allowing others to discover an insight themselves. Using the self-assessment, we identified 133 who had a strong preference for giving advice. We compared their results to 123 leaders with a strong preference for allowing others to experience independent discovery”. Personally speaking, close people like friends and family are the ones who push us most of the time to choose things that can lead to a good result. They listen to us and give us advice that affects, in a good way, our ways of seeing things. Their comments convince us to focus on what we want so we can choose things that can benefit us. With this, I am not saying they don't criticize our actions and ways of thinking. As far as I'm concerned what close friends say to us is what we pay more attention to, so when they say something that offends us it can hurt us the most. Anyways, they are the people who pay more attention to our feelings than others so when they give us advice they look for a way to say reality but taking conscience of how we feel trying to help us do the right thing.
In conclusion, society can harm us but can also push us to do what is correct. It’s up to us to realize what’s their intention. We need to do what shows who we are and that the results of our decisions bring good for us but also to others. We should never forget to ask ourselves if what we are doing is what we want or what others want me to do. Always do what makes you feel comfortable and never do things only focusing on what would please others. You should not take everything literally, do not let everything influence in all your actions and decisions.
Sources:
Cook, G. (2016, June 14). The Hidden Social Forces That Guide Your Decisions. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hidden-social-forces-that-guide-your-decisions/
Umassscience. (2002, June 10). UMass researcher finds most people lie in everyday conversation. Retrieved March 22, 2020, from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-06/uoma-urf061002.php
Folkman, J. (2017, May 18). Advice For Those Who Believe They Give Great Advice. Retrieved March 22, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/joefolkman/2017/04/20/advice-for-those-who-believe-they-give-great-advice/#3cd453e44741