It’s come to my attention how obsessed our world is with numbers.
We have some kind of scale for everything, a way for us to measure anything and everything and thus a way for us to judge one another. Although this is super helpful in more ways than I count, sometimes it can be consuming constantly putting ourselves in these categories and seeing how we measure up to the people around us.
We’ve created a world where numbers are who we are to one another.
GPAs. Body weights. Height. Attractiveness. IQs. Social media post likes. Clothing sizes. Salaries. Age. Car value. House value. Social class. Race. Gender. Sexuality.
All of these things are related to numbers. They rank people and create certain stereotypes among people. Lower grades create the assumption that you’re stupid. Body weights and clothing sizes correlate with judgments of being too fat or too skinny. Salaries go along with how well off you are money wise.
We’re constantly ranking ourselves and putting ourselves down for not being on one side of the scale, whether it’s higher or lower. Although I know we need measurements to survive, I’m here to ask: At what point did the scales define us as human beings? When did how much we get paid for our jobs or what size clothing we wear make us who we are?
Okay so someone who makes $100,000 a year has more money than someone who is on welfare but are they happy? Are they a better person? Regardless of how you answer those questions, think about why numbers mean so much to us and why we feel the need to be superior to others.
Equality is a difficult topic.
In the eyes of the law, it should hold true. In terms of everyday society and people in general, I do not think it’s possible.
The thing is, everyone will always be different and that’s beautiful in itself. The differences that we each have are the most important parts of ourselves. These differences make us all more cut out for certain things. Some people are destined to be doctors while others are more accustomed to being fine artists and that’s amazing! But each person should be given the same opportunity to do each of those things regardless of how they measure up on a scale of social class, race, gender, sexuality, etc.
It’s hard not to look at the numbers all around us and feel something towards them. Whether that means being upset about a B on a test you really wanted an A in or gaining 5 pounds instead of losing 10. If there’s anything I want people reading this article to know is that these numbers are just numbers and although they are meant to be informative and uses to simply create definition to our world, do not let them bring harm to your visions of yourself.
