Being "extra" has become the norm in modern day society. Whether it be about posting your latest vacation or what you ate for lunch, we constantly feel this need to share our every living moment with people. Some people may be our friends on our social media following, and others may be complete strangers. My question is, why do we share so much information on the internet? Is there really anything to gain from sharing so much? I would say, not really. Don't get me wrong, for family we may hardly see, it is completely understandable to share life updates. To the rest of the world? It is just "extra".
For those who don't know, the word extra is referred to someone who is being excessive and overdramatic when there is clearly a reason not to be. The internet is full of useful information, but it is also full of some extra people; some even make money off of it. Why is that? We reward those who decide to be super dramatic, yet when we acted like that as a child, we were punished. I believe people share their adventures on the internet, aside from my previous statement, to chase the imaginary. They share a post, video, or picture to see how many likes, comments, or follows they can get. What can we really gain from the rising numbers? A desire for more numbers. A yearning for a higher status on that site. We then seek out ways to get even deeper into the hole of attention seeking.
From that, we create more anxiety in our life. Why do feel the need to get more? Why are we so discontent in life? I believe because we choose to be. With how society is, we see new updates, devices, phrases, and more almost daily anymore. We feel the need to play the game of catch up with the latest trends. Because of what we are fed in our media, that creates the mindset of "I must have more". Advertisements, commercials, and pop-ups alike have trained our brains to desire more, even when we don't need it. Now with those thoughts in mind, we then reflect those ideas in our own lives by wanting more likes and followers. The sad thing is, we will do anything to get it.
I truly believe being extra is completely attention seeking. Why do we attention seek? Well for starters, think about how many divided families there are in the world. Think about people who are abused, neglected, or had any time of trauma in their life. From that, they never healed. They tried to fill that void by seeking that love in others way. Most of the time, receiving the attention isn't in the best way; just adds to the already snowballing problems in our lives. We can live a better life than that.
Whether you are 50 years old and happily married or in your teens just trying to get through high school, lets all start dealing with our problems. We don't need to broadcast the sandwich we just made to complete strangers. We don't need to have people take friendship tests to see how well people really know you. We don't even have to do stupid, and sometimes dangerous, challenges to go viral. Lets find the root of the issue. Lets tackle what is really bothering us in deep corners of our hearts. To some, that may mean going to talk to a professional counselor. To others, that may mean journaling. Whatever the solution may be, lets just stop seeking validation from others. We should be confident enough in ourselves that we don't need the reassurance. Lets all stop being extra. We are worth so much more than a million hits.
