We all know the "expectation versus reality" jokes we find regularly in the form of memes. We laugh and screenshot them to our friends and say, “Same.” The jokes essentially explain us in our everyday lives. Like this one:
But what about the reality of who we are and the social expectation of what we should be?
Real-life expectation and reality makes a big contribution to social controversies. Whether it be regarding race, religion or even sexual identity, society’s expectations of people create anger and issues when those people don’t live up to them. For example, the Westboro Baptist Church; their expectation is that society will share in their anti-LGBT, anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim, anti-Jew, anti-political beliefs, but the reality is that most people have opposing beliefs to theirs, resulting in large controversy between the Westboro Baptist Church and pretty much everyone else. The thing is, people have different opinions and beliefs, and in this melting-pot of a country we call America, differing opinions and beliefs are something we have to expect and accept.
Another example is the constant expectation of women to be as traditional as they were about 50 years ago. The expectation for women to be thin, quiet, dress-wearing, makeup-covered, conservative, obedient stay-at-home mothers is being smashed by the rise of feminism, and it’s upsetting a lot of people, including some men and conservatives. The reality is that women are on the rise for power, and it’s becoming more and more widely accepted and fought for. The other reality is that people that don’t like it will probably fight back, and both sides of this debate are going to have to give it their all to get what they want.
A more personal example is growing up as a millennial (or any child, honestly). Every parent creates this expectation of what they want their kid to grow up like. Sometimes those expectations are rooted from culture, sometimes they’re rooted from religion and sometimes they’re rooted from the rest of society’s expectations. But the reality hits when we don’t grow up exactly the way our parents had been wanting us to. The thing about growing up in the generation of technology is that there are going to be a lot of differences between the two generations, and the generation gap is only going to become larger.
In the last 30 years, technology has boomed and advanced so quickly before our very eyes. Most parents don’t understand the hype with technology, or a lot of our hypes and trends in general. Disappointment arises when parents see their children so dependent on technology; many kids can’t do their homework without using a computer anymore, and many kids don’t participate socially with others anymore because their eyes are glued to their iPad or tablet, not to mention young teenagers always being on their phones.
Besides technology, our parents lay down a lot of expectations for us growing up. Many families put a lot of pressure on their kids to become doctors. The reality is that yes, becoming a doctor is hard and a lot of work, but the standards have risen since the time they were in medical school and that’s not even including the fact that we grew up in extremely different countries -- where the schooling is very different. The reality is that a lot of us won’t become doctors, lawyers or engineers, either because it’s too difficult for us or because we simply don’t want to.
The expectation is that we’ll live up to them.
The reality is that we probably won’t.
The real reality is that everyone has to accept that.
