Humans suck. So many of us are messed up in the head. We compete over the pettiest things, such as weight, grades, social media likes and clothes. It's so absurd that we care so much about these insignificant things. But we can't help it. It's in our nature to care and be stupid, to live life like a competition. This is why we feel the need to compete with our friends.
Society has developed a hierarchical structure in which we see those around us as competition for our individual success. This is what is different between an individualist society versus a collectivist society. Neither are better and both have there pros and cons, but in our current environment at UCR, it's an individualist society, so I'll talk about that. Even before you were an official student at UC Riverside, you were already competing with your friends for spots at a university and state colleges. This competition was inevitable, unless you weren't deciding to go to college. Community college is an exception, but if your goal was to attend a university since the beginning, then you were also competing with your friends who had the same goal since the beginning. This competition therefore, led to everyone competing with grades and GPA. The higher the GPA, the more respect you earned and the more recognition you received from colleges. As for the competition in weight, social media likes, and clothes, that's all because of social reasons.
We compete for social media likes to build reputation. The more likes you get, the more popular you seem and the better you feel about yourself. Social media likes are just a way for people to feel better about themselves. If you have more likes than your friend next to you, you feel like you're better than them, you may not have intended for that and that might not have been your goal, but you can't tell me a little bit of satisfaction doesn't come from that. Feeling that you're better than your friends can really alter self-esteem. That's why we compete over whether we look better with our clothes,weight, or physique. We want to look good and attractive in order to attract others. I know this is going to sound really corny and science-y, but whatever it needs to be said. Our goal in nature is to find companionship and because of that, we are constantly competing with our peers to find our future partner. We need to look more attractive than those around us, including our friends, if we want to find those we want to spend the rest of our lives with. And so we fight over clothes and weight and physical appearances. We need to look superior and look capable of supporting our future companion. Yeah, it's harsh to say that we need to seem better than our friends, but that's life. I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but it does apply to a lot of people out there. It sucks to think that your friends, people you share your secrets with, your hardships, your sadness, your trust, your happiness, can potentially take away who might've been your soulmate. But the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be happy with your life. Just keep your head up and live life.
