Illustration by Sami Seyedhosseini, Photo Editor.
Every year it becomes more and more difficult to speak up about how we truly feel. We over complicate how the conversation can go in our mind. What if I say this and my friend doesn’t want to be my friend? What if I say that and I cause problems at work? What if I start an argument?
That is where it all starts. The fear that you are different and you don’t want to piss off your friends or seem uncool. So then,. you sit there uncomfortably rethinking your own thoughts. But you know what? At least you said something. You expressed how you truly feel.
You speak up. You say exactly what’s on your mind and your friend leaves. Great. You had the strength to speak up and they didn’t have the strength to stay. Your big idea could be a business opportunity. That can turn your life right around! You can leave the function satisfied that you said what you had to say. You aren’t haunted by the what- ifs.
In our oversaturated world with lots of social media use and AI, our own unique voices are fading into the background noise. No one has the ability or desire to speak up anymore. Whatever’s trending, what headlines we see in our feed, what our friends are doing has a dominant role in how we behave and how we think. We aren’t just consuming, we are absorbing. We see what is being said and we take it as it is and become it. We are blending into the same role as the rest of society.
When we watch TV shows and movies, many end up on TikTok reacting to what other people are saying. Not only is that impairing your original thoughts about what you just experienced, but if your thoughts weren’t the same as the past 20 videos you just scrolled by, it makes you second guess yourself. So you start to overthink your opinion and you just rather not say anything.
No one has a difference in opinion anymore, and for some reason it’s becoming impossible to say your opinion without instigating a fight. Or we do and we are uncomfortable lying in our lost identity.
I think the problem isn’t that people are too scared to speak up. The problem is the people who have an issue with the ones who had such audacity to speak up. Take a look around and see what happened to the world. We are more divided than we have ever been because having an opinion has become the ultimate weapon.
Your own perceived thought is what you have of you that is new and fresh to the conversation — and you’re just throwing it away. It hurts to see the world become so polarized and hostile because of different opinions. There was a time where people would choose friendship over political parties. And so what if your friend disagrees with you? We don’t all have to agree on the same thing all the time. Besides, that makes room for an open conversation.
People have forgotten how to have a difficult conversation. Because we spend so much time on our screens, we are so used to hiding behind it and therefore don’t want to face the reality. It's better to just accept it. We would rather just agree and move on. Or in worse cases, we've become so consumed by our own algorithm that we can’t even bear the thought of the insane ideas that come from someone else.
A difficult conversation, which is just an adult conversation, is something no one wants to have anymore. I don’t know if we forgot how or we just got too scared of it. It’s probably both. Having a difficult conversation, when done right, is just humans connecting. Of course, for it to be done right, you have to be open to sharing your opinion and listening to someone who could disagree with you.
Maybe we feel that sharing our opinion won’t do any good.
Speaking up for yourself doesn’t cost you anything, not speaking up costs you everything.
Why did we let it get to this? To the point where a person has become less important than their words? Why do we pay a price for speaking up?
We need to reevaluate not what we speak, but how we react when others speak.
Your opinion and the confidence you have when speaking is a part of your sense of self. Don’t be scared to say how you truly feel. Once you do that, you are led to where you’re meant to be. Just because society says so, doesn’t mean we always have to agree.