During this past week, however, my husband was working late every evening, and, instead of amusing myself in productive ways, I added the Owned application on Facebook. I am still not sure what possessed me.
I derived a great deal of pleasure out buying my friends and strangers, but my ego was inflated somewhat by the bidding war that apparently ensued over my ownership. By the end of the first evening, my value had gone up from L$1 to a whopping L$90k (L$ being the virtual currency within the application).
I still log in every now and again, to see if my value has increased. I am not sure why I do it, but it makes me smile every time I notice that my value has increased.
Why do we continuously measure our own worth based on the perceptions of others? Surely, as capable, intelligent human beings, we should know that the opinions of strangers have no influence on our lives. In fact, I should not give a rats arse about the fact that some guy I have never met living in a country I would probably never visit paid a lot of virtual money to own my picture on a web site that is pure frivolity? Actually, I should feel a little insulted that I am simply merchandise, and my value is measured on appearance rather than my personality and capabilities.
Eleanor Roosevelt said once No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. The same is true about feeling superior. Ultimately, we control our own emotions, whether we like to think so or not.
Of course, there are situations where one cannot help but feel a certain, based on the actions of others. But, should we allow the simple actions of others to influence our overall opinion of ourselves?
Even the most confident of people I know are influenced to an extent by the actions of others. We are not islands, and it would seem that the larger the population grows, the more reliant we become on the opinions of strangers.
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