In a conversation with my friend, we talked about the subconscious individuality complex people hold when they believe someone is ‘copying them’, leading them to develop feelings of resentment towards that person as they feel that their ‘unique’ sense of self is being threatened.
However, I think in this day and age people place so much importance on the idea of being perceived as unique, when it’s actually so much more freeing when you realise that you are simply a curation of everything and everyone around you that has inspired you – even in ways you don’t realise.
For instance, fashion sense.
For anyone to have a genuine ‘personal style’ is incredibly rare (e.g. @tinyjewishgirl on tt circa 2022) (matter of fact maximalist styles like hers are often looked down upon once it ‘crosses a line’ and is seen as ‘too much’. These people are judged for looking too eccentric, EVEN by those who claim to embrace and support different styles. but anyways, this isn’t my point). Your style, no matter how unique you believe it to be, is a mesh and mix of multiple different people that you’ve seen, either online or in real life. This is inevitable considering the rise in different subcultures and styles in the media you consume (‘blank’-core) and personally I think mixing different elements of different aesthetics and sources of inspiration elevates style and creates more room for creativity.
Generally, I believe that forcefully trying to distinguish yourself from the rest without acknowledging that others have inspired you is what leads to an unhealthy individuality complex and causes disconnect within community.
This is not to say that everyone is carbon copies of each other but rather that there is NOTHING wrong with not being completely unique and that we should embrace the role that others play in our self expression!