From the very beginning of life, we start to shape ourselves in light of someone. Being a little bit mature, we tend to set someone or something as a standard of life. This is termed Idolization. We start to idolize others when it is time to be our own powerful being, and that’s what drags us down in the run of life.
Idolization of Personalities
Everyone has come to existence with an individual identity of their own. Life’s meaning is to strongly uphold the glory of that identity. Having a unique character and life goal is something we all can’t achieve. Those who set their standard of life based on their satisfaction are the ones who shine in life.
We start to idolize admirable personalities mostly during our adolescence. Adolescence is one of the most vulnerable stages of one’s life where one go through mental difficulties. In this vulnerable time, wanting to follow in the footsteps of established personalities may lead one to think of oneself as a failure for not being able to lead the life as his/her idol used to lead. Adolescence is the period where one has to start walking on his path based on his conscience. Cause we all are not the same, we face different circumstances. It is very unwise wanting to follow other’s path.
Rise Of Toxicity
If idolization takes the shape of obsession, it desocializes one from others except for the fanbase of that specific so-called idol. One tends to defend his/her idol in any case. He/she forgets that to err is human. Every deed and decision of their idol is justified by them. That’s why toxicity starts to grow within them.
The aforementioned problem becomes more disturbing when the wrong person is idolized. Newer generations often tend to idolize the personalities of the entertainment industry. But most of such personalities don’t have an ideal background to be idolized. Such idolization gives rise to a badly grown-up generation. (There’s an article on Adolescent idolization of pop singers: Causes, expressions, and reliance, You can give it a read if you want to know more deeply about it. You can find tons of such articles on this. Here’s the link of one: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226798341_Adolescent_idolization_of_pop_singers_Causes_expressions_and_reliance)
Idolization Of Professions
Another form of idolization is the idolization of the profession. It is mostly fed to the teenagers by their parents, teachers and others in the family. It is a common phenomenon that parents often influence their children to idolize some specific professions of parent’s choice. Also, society influences such idolization as well. Though it is thought to be for the benefit of the children, it may affect the opposite.
The idolization of Profession snatches away the freedom of one to choose his/her career by ownself. In Asian countries mostly, parents often emphasize professions like doctor or engineer or, in some countries like Bangladesh where I am from, society emphasize the younger generation to have a government job because they think it has a secure future (I don’t know about how people thinks about government job in other countries, but here in Bangladesh, it is seen as The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs). Such idolization puts pressure on one to achieve that profession by any mean. For that, often one has to put away his profession. Some go through a tough time not being able to get that profession, and some spend their life doing the job they don’t love to do.
It’s time that we have encouraged our upcoming generations to walk their path, give them the liberty to choose their profession as they like. Great personalities should be acknowledged with respect, not idolize. And everyone should have the freedom to choose their profession, society should not idolize some professions and ignore others. Everyone is not meant to be the same. Everyone should be unique, their Own Powerful Being.
