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Showing posts with the label human psychology

Take Inspiration, But Value Yourself

I honestly first understood the purpose of close reading fiction just last year (something most people probably don’t know), in part because I started writing more but also because I had an excellent teacher that inspired me to explore literature deeply. People create stories to show their perspectives on the human condition, every book you’ve read, movie you’ve watched, and song you’ve listened to follows this trend. And this is also the reason we enjoy these forms of media, we get either relatable or unique ways to understand how the world around us works. I think this is a known idea that has been documented before, but there’s some subtle nuance that can decide whether interactions with media are overstimulating or transformational, and that lesson extends into almost every aspect of our lives, including in the ongoing ‘fight’ against AI. It goes without saying that we are heavily influenced by the media we consume, and this media potentially has a lot of power over us. When we sta...

The Harmful Effects of Group Dynamics

Through evolution, humans have become social creatures. It's beneficial to communicate and collaborate with others to achieve things that aren’t possible alone. But as the nature of groups of people changed, so did the dynamics of these groups and the people in them. Group dynamics define a significant part of our identity and our choices because it's easier to conform to an established identity than to think differently. And this can have detrimental effects for a society in the long run. Everyone holds beliefs, but an inherent part of having an opinion is disagreeing with the opposite, which is difficult without a group to support you. Humans have evolved to antagonize “out-group” individuals. This is from a primal need to protect their scarce resources from other people who are fighting for them. As human thought and technology evolved, people naturally did the same thing with ideas rather than resources. Protecting their ideas involves fighting with the mass of people that ...