Unintentional Snobbery

It is of no news that I have cut back on my use of Facebook. Part of the reason was that I found it dull from the many reposts, as well as the falsely positive projections that people provide regarding their way of life.

What I didn't mention was also the annoyance I had from people bragging about their various achievements, like their first solo performance, their first car, their first child and what-not.

For a long while, I found such posts banal at best and distasteful at worst, especially those with regards to some kind of talent-based performance. Actually that's a lie, what I really found lacking in originality are the replies to it. Superlative posts of ``You are so talented!'' or ``Wow!'' or ``You look gorgeous!'' make me cringe a lot. I mean, okay, so someone managed to get their first solo performance. Whoop-de-do. What's the big deal about that?

Then I stepped back and looked deeper into my own thought process and realised that I was projecting my own experiences upon them and immediately learnt of my error. Thing is, most people lead very mundane lives. Specifically, many people in SIN city are happy to follow the herd and do what the majority/mainstream is doing, without ever stepping out of their comfort zones. I'm lucky because I was different, and had been different for a loooong time. So things like performing on stage (singing, dancing, acting, playing musical instruments, story-telling, poetry reading) are novel to most people but are ``normal'' for me, having done them myself already, vastly predating any of the other things that I am more well-known for.

In short, I was being a snob without intentionally trying to be one.

That realisation made me feel bad. Not bad enough to apologise to the people whose replies/posts I found banal/annoying (no harm was done since I didn't actually take any action from my own feelings), but bad enough to force a rethink on my views of the world with respect to its other denizens.

And that concludes today's lesson of the day: one's experiences are no excuse for disdaining another's achievements.