Throughout middle school and high school years, one of the most important things to many people is fitting in or being popular. Many people change themselves to fit the trends and fads that shift every few months. The focus on popularity and trends restricts individuals from being individuals and creates a society of clones. Fitting in is so important to teens and adults, that it doesn’t allow people to become the individuals they are; being independent from these things will help one stand out as an individual. Allowing oneself to be independent from these trends and popular ideals they can become who they really are inside and out, and learn to love it. Individualism takes this want for popularity and fitting in and rejects it, to encourage uniqueness and being an individual. Individualism is an extremely important factor in becoming a more independent person, who is happier and holds individual values for particular and convincing reasons.
Individualism is defined by many different people, in many different ways, and is also practiced in diverse ways. It has been been given many definitions throughout history that change as society becomes more modern and more people strive to be the same. Individualism is “the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant.” (Lexico) This definition explains why different people define and interpret individualism in many ways. Each individual has his or her own thoughts and beliefs that can influence the way they perceive the word. Being independent and self-reliant are very important parts of becoming an individual or practicing individualism. By being independent, a person is reliant on themselves for most things, if not everything; these things could include: income, money management and bills, providing food and necessities for oneself, and having individual beliefs and values. By practicing independence and self-reliance, a person can achieve individualism and become their own unique individual.
Being one’s own individual means to truly be oneself and rely on oneself for most things. This can mean not following trends and only wearing clothing that represents oneself, showing individual traits and characteristics, as well as embodying all aspects of oneself. By doing these things, one is beginning to practice individualism. Practicing individualism also means to be self-sufficient, one can do this by providing for themselves financially, meaning purchasing food and health products, maintaining financial stability by ensuring a steady income source, and living completely reliant on oneself. These are both important aspects of individualism; by practicing these things, one can ensure they are true to themselves as well as able to provide for their own individual needs.
Holding individual values and maintaining independence are some of the significant aspects of living in an individualist manner. Individual values are essential to individualism. Individual values could be morals that represent wrong or right to an individual, characteristics that express individuality, and things that are important to one, such as religion, fitness and physical health, and mental health. By understanding one’s individual values, they can learn to determine their own beliefs, thoughts, and political views. Maintaining independence can be done by using these values to change your life style to one that is self-sufficient, as well as standing up for what one believes is right and not altering that, based on the popular ideas of current society. Having individual values such as these and living an independent lifestyle, can allow one to have an individualistic mindset.
One of the most important ideals of individualism, is embracing one’s uniqueness. By embodying one’s uniqueness, as aspects of individualism will be more practical and allow one to live an individualistic lifestyle in an effortless manner. Uniqueness is the individual aspects or characteristics of each individual person. Everyone is different, some more than others, and by embracing these differences people can allow themselves to become their own individual. By determining one’s individual values and beliefs, physical characteristics, and temperament, one can embrace what makes them who they are, and embrace their uniqueness. These differences are essential to being one’s own individual and living in a more individualistic way.
Living an individualistic lifestyle can allow one to learn to love every aspect of themselves, and therefore value their self-worth. Self-love means to truly love who you are, it is extremely important and will make one happier in their own life. Self-love can be challenging, especially when popularity and fitting in is one of the priorities of many people today. This creates a challenge because if one is trying to be like other people, they cannot be their own person and learn to love who they are. By embracing ones uniqueness, one can learn to love the things about themselves that make them different, thus practicing self-love. Self-worth is also important, once one has learned to embrace their uniqueness and has learned to love them self, they can start to value their self-worth. Valuing self-worth means to value who one is, and understand how one should be treated by everyone around them. One must practice self-love to understand and value their self-worth, once one embraces these, they are closer to be a true individualist.
Being one’s own individual can be a challenge in a social media driven society, because social media influencers are always trying to persuade their audience towards a certain path. Social media influencers have become very popular over the last several years, this takes advantage of many individuals who strive to fit in. Most of the trends of today, come from these influencers and the companies they collaborate with. They advertise products to their followers, share current fashion trends, as well as their own beliefs and values. This creates an obstacle to becoming individualistic because so many people strive to be like these influencers. Their collaborations with companies and brands convince followers to use these products in order to have perfect skin, better fashion, and belief in the causes they believe in. This can be detrimental to people who want to live individualistic, because these influencers are everywhere on social media, even if you do not follow them, their collaborations are advertised by the platform. Social media is today’s biggest enemy of individualism, because it encourages people to be like everyone else.
Individualism has been shown throughout human history through many different cultures and religions. These “cultures include the United States, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, and Australia” (Cherry). These cultures focus on the needs of individuals rather than the needs of the group. They encourage individual success and goals as well as celebrate individual accomplishments. Being raised in an individualistic culture can help influence an individualistic lifestyle as an adult, but also cause a reliance on the approval of others. Growing up in an individualistic home, can help one live effortlessly as an individual, while growing up in a group-centered culture can make living this way more challenging. Many individualistic cultures today have been individualistic throughout history, or are developed from individualistic thoughts and beliefs of different groups of people.
Practicing individualism allows people to become more independent, value and love themselves, embrace their uniqueness and become happier in many different ways. Instead of people focusing on fitting in, being popular or becoming what society wants them to be, they should focus of their uniqueness and individual beliefs. All of these things will help one become true to themselves, develop their own thoughts and ideas, and be able to value themselves and be happy for who they are. People should embrace all of these ideas and concepts, while working towards living an individualistic lifestyle and learning to love every aspect of themselves.