Skip to main content

Adaptively Authentic or Imposter?

In a recent class on authenticity, many participants preferred being able to project an acceptable image of themselves rather than being authentic. Though immediate reactions to this sentiment echoed concern, it later seemed rational. Tech today is great in its ability to quantify scientific achievements. Tech also has given birth to the phenomenon of immediate quantification. Numbers are all around and describe everything, immediately. Popularity and traction today is quantifiable and even friendship is measured using numbers. Numbers, but, describe only situational constructs. So, if numbers are the end, authentic means are no longer necessary to create those situations as authenticity is needed for time-tested creations.

I took a train from Chennai to Delhi late December last year. This was the first leg of a long vacation in the Himalayas and I was excited returning to the places I had once walked on as a child. My fellow passengers were a variety of people and the group would have excited the researcher I am today as the perfect sample. The mix also meant the thirty-six hours would eventually result in a few friendships and a few judgements. Nevertheless, I had this goal in mind to be the popularly remembered one among the lot by all. My idea was to make as make people happy to spend time with me without anyone figuring out the agenda I had. It wasn’t easy because of the composition of the crowd, but eventually I got the hang of it. Slowly we formed sub groups within the compartment and started sharing life experiences that we thought were relevant. These groups were on similar ages, similar languages and similar food preferences; and some members even overlapped, forming the group of overlapping members. To each group I changed the way I spoke, my body language and even my anecdotes. If all the people I spoke to came together, they may describe the true me better than I could. The journey was exciting beyond measure and it was like playing a game I had designed. Eventually, I had made friends from many walks of life and had heart-warming invites to visit homes and ‘stay-in-touch’ requests. I had fun.

When I got back and later described this scene to a friend, she described my actions as inauthentic and expressed that I’d rather made one true friend than be popular among many, in different portrayals. It seemed logical to argue that point of view, but I was authentically trying to play different roles, true to each and unique among.


Authenticity cannot be hidden, neither can its lack of. But to sacrifice authenticity for immediate gratification seems less fun, as it requires great thought and effort and could be never-ending. People have an opinion about how other people opine and here bias plays the double agent. If content is driven by opinion, then authenticity is questioned. This could even be considered, and excused, as how things work in the high paced connected era. 

However, if morality is sacrificed for opinion, authenticity dies and with it the confidence in one’s true self. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Different? Unique? Similar?

Sometimes the human population in the immediate vicinity of anybody’s has to be looked at from a height of about 200 feet above the ground. The closer we are to things, the value and importance we attach to it could be that much irrational. Nevertheless, it is an interesting observation all the same from that height. It becomes difficult to make out who’s who from that elevation and many barriers start to feel out of place to put on these creatures walking around below like tiny ants, purposeful, yet lost. Rules may need revisions and goals may need tinkering from this height. This is not airplane height where the world becomes a beautiful pattern of art, this is just high enough to remain significant and to look for relevance. Until hovercrafts are made available, this elevation must remain a metaphor. History says rulers divide, I tend to disagree. Rulers group, not divide. Smart ones do it nonchalantly, dumb ones obviously. These groups are beautifully similar within and dangero...
1 comment
Read more

I Want To Be Happy When I Grow Up

“I cannot teach anyone anything, I can only make them think.”  - Socrates Motivation comes from within. Be it money or satisfaction or self- realization . There is no extrinsic motivation. Tall claims that, but I stand by it because I know not otherwise. My motivation comes from the ever present something that makes or breaks me do something, anything. Motivation is a result of need, and need is the relative difference between the desired state and the current state. Those are but just words. What do they mean? What does motivation even mean. The leaves move because there is wind, and because there is wind we can define air. Such is the case with motivation. A being exhibiting a goal oriented behaviour of often classified as someone who has motivation. There was a chuck in my life where I did not know why I did what I did neither did I know what was it that would make it know it, nor did I know what I really wanted to do. General judgement was lack of a purpose that re...
1 comment
Read more

Is Learning All About Skilling Up?

The recent Reskill and Transcend theme of Samanvay 2017 made me a little nervous. There were these bunch of young professionals, most of whom have never set foot inside an organization yet, talking about reskilling. And here I was, almost 30, in an existential crisis of almost losing relevance. The major reason behind it is the changing perception of technology taking over every ounce of human need in accomplishing a task. The brain says its not true, the heart agrees but where then is this fear originating? I do not think technology is for all to fear. Learning technology is like learning how to use fire or the wheel. Just so fire was created did not mean who did it prior went out of style, it was the how that changed. The how is what is skill, the why, on the other hand, is much more fun to know, appreciate and enhance.  This, however, does not mean the role of skills is discounted, it only puts it in its place. A persons skills, or the lack of, account of the maximum volume...
Post a Comment
Read more