Buckets.
That’s how we tend to place each other, into pre-defined buckets of identities.
It seems that when defining who you are and what you stand for, most people are forced to place themselves into categories which constrain. She is a businesswoman, therefore he must always be serious. He is an artist, so he must be free-form and unstructured. She is a blogger, so she must not be able to get a “real job”…and the list goes on.
While humans use stereotypes and other heuristics to make sense of the complex world around us, oftentimes it comes at the expense of allowing for the nuances and intricates that makes each of us who we are. If you express deep love for intellect and cerebral activities, you’re labeled a nerd without much consideration for your love of urban music. If you have a keen interest in fashion and your appearance, you’re branded a narcissist with little regard for you passion for mathematics. If you display strong love for God and religion, you’re viewed as a fanatic, receiving much judgment if you show your affinity for revealing clothing.
When I first got onto social media (which for me is largely Instagram), I took a look around and was often disheartened by the lack of representation of professional men & women who show more than just their work life. I love intellectual thought and stimulating conversations, and I certainly like to see accounts which featured everyday career professional and entrepreneurs as they navigated the highs and lows of their profession. However, I never really felt like I saw any hints of personality beyond what they deemed as “professional”. It didn’t seem disingenuous, but it also didn’t seem like their real selves, just a sample of the “serious” career professional they wanted to portray.
In truth, there’s nothing wrong with only showing one dimension of who you are. However, in a world bombarded with caricatures of “baddies”, faux-entrepreneurs, fitness “models”, and other influencers who place the vast majority of their lives on display, the content world is skewed to showcase surface vanity metrics rather than depth. The lack of visibility for non-career focused content from the intellects and business world limits what the general public—particularly impressionable young people—view as normal.
Part of my reason for being on social media and starting this blog is to showcase the multifaceted nature of serious professionals. I like books and economics and discussing theoretical phenomena. I also like inappropriately dancing to questionable music, partaking in unconventional body art, and pushing the limit of my physical capabilities. Some of this, yet some of that.
With this blog, I hope to share business trends, relevant events, and interesting economic analyses on one hand, while also discussing fun life happenings, random items that I find useful, and a dash of family life on the other. Essentially, I don’t want to be too prescriptive with what we discuss here. I hope the forthcoming posts serve as sources of information, joy, motivation, laughter, reflection, encouragement, and so many other ways in which a blog can exudes positivity and fulfillment. Most of all, I hope the fullness of my personality and openness of my posts encourages other professionals to be more open about sharing their multifaceted life experiences.
The next generation is closely watching. The thought leaders and professional ought to make sure the young don’t think the only “fun” career paths are solely those which are getting the most “likes”.
