I’m sure everyone here has seen these kinds of articles. “An Open Letter to my Ex Best Friend” or “An Open Letter to the Guy Who Broke Me” or something along those lines. They are running rampant all over the internet, shared by every teenager who finds these articles to be “SO true”. You honestly can’t get through your Facebook news feed without scrolling by 10 article shares, captioned only by a single emoji- usually “praise” hands.
When did our generation decide that we can no longer express ourselves?
Our generation has succumbed to “retweets” and “reposts” and “shares” in order to describe how they are feeling. And to be completely blunt, it’s a bit discouraging. Society has been engraining into our minds that we are no longer able to think for ourselves. I admit it, I’ve fallen victim to this as well. Of course we read these articles and think to ourselves, “Wow, this is exactly how I feel” or “Wow, I would totally say this to someone if I could”. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
What’s wrong is that no one actually takes risks anymore.
We simply share an article we agree with and hope that the person we are thinking about when reading it will see it, magically know it’s about them, and run to us with open arms, ready to fix whatever issue we are avoiding. Young adults are so afraid of confrontation that we hide behind our laptops and cell phones instead of actually fixing our problems. Society keeps shoving it into our faces that we must fear offending someone. Everyone is forced to be so politically correct, that no one says how they feel anymore! This causes us to cower in the corners and use other people’s “non-offensive” vocabulary in an attempt to spare a few feelings.
Do you want to know the worst part though?
Media has turned our generation into a slew of passive aggressive, cowardly robots that cannot express themselves. You can see this in EVERY aspect of our lives. Dating, (Can we really even call it “dating” anymore?), friendships, schoolwork, jobs, etc. I could ramble off a list of statistics to prove my point, but I think it’s safe to say we can all see it. Until each of us makes a conscious effort to go out of our comfort zones and confront our issues, that is the future we hold.
But you see, YOU are the only one to change your future.
Rather than share that article about “The Guy Who Got Away”, go and actually get closure on the issues that made him “get away”. Go patch things up with your ex best friend. Instead of sharing an article about how much someone you respect means to you, TELL THEM YOURSELF. Isn’t that a profound idea? Actually using your own words to describe how you feel. Crazy, right? No. It’s not crazy at all. You have no idea how much your words can mean to someone. Nothing in this world is more heartfelt than being vulnerable and saying how you feel about something or someone. So stop letting others decide how you feel and what you say. You have the power to decide, use it.