How People Around Us Influence Our Lives

It is important to focus on the people around us, who we interact with, because they can help to shape the way we act and think. The people in your life can have a profound impact on your life. Knowing what you want for your life and sticking to it helps with the cognitive dissonance.

I also make sure my social circle has some common ground, that could drive us in the right direction. This means, that if some of them do something, that I think it would alter me in a negative way, I don't go out of my way to be friends with them anymore. It's not like I'm going to change my mind about anything, but at least I won't associate with them as much.

The same thing goes for my work environment. If there are certain people, that I feel will cause problems, then I avoid them completely. This includes coworkers and even family members if needed. It is in our best interest to try and avoid people, who are going to bring us down. I'm sure many of you reading this can identify with this idea.

Values

The other main idea, I want to bring up with this post is values. Many of the people, that you interact with, have their own values. A value is a person's fundamental beliefs about what is right and wrong and how people should act. A person might have a value of honesty, and another person might have a value of loyalty.

These values can play a role in how to react in certain situations, or can even dictate how you look at a situation. This can be difficult to recognize, but it's something to think about.

Take for instance the idea, that most people have of doing what's right even if it means personal hardship. A lot of the time this is a result of their value of honesty. Not everything in this world rewards the honest man. It's important to think about the values, that are affecting your thought process.

We often think of our values as static things, that are carved in stone, but they are more like a spectrum. They can shift over time as we learn and grow, and they can influence the way we think about certain situations. So it is important to recognize other people's value and act accordingly.

Influence Of The People Around Us

We can never expect to make the world a better place, just by ourselves. It takes the right combination of people coming together at the right time doing the right things. It is through these small influences, that we make a difference. It is important to try and understand the people and factors around us. Their ideals, goals, mistakes, successes, and values.

We should not only recognize what is going on with them, but also take the time to understand it, because if we don't understand it, we can't change it and if we can't change it, then that means everyone else's freedom and happiness are in the hands of the few. That's not something anyone should sign up for.

If we can help it, we should always try to change the world to a better place. There's no point in living in a world, where everyone is miserable if we can help it. It is good to know, what the world is like, so that we can best prepare for the situations, that are likely to happen.

A lot of the time, when I'm trying to figure out how to approach a social interaction, I ask myself "Is this in the interest of my freedom and happiness?" If the answer is no, I don't bother. It's a waste of time and it's not going to make my life any easier by getting wrapped up in it. That's not to say, that I never take those risks. It's just that I always have an exit strategy.

Online Social Networks

We often use social media accounts to keep in contact with old friends, make new ones, or sometimes even find a date. And while these are all good things, there is always the potential for trouble. It seems that there's always someone watching somewhere. Your posts, other people's posts, comments, likes, dislikes, photos, everything. Even if they don't do anything major it's best to be careful.

Of course that's not even counting all the secret groups or forums you can find out about. I've seen people get blackmailed and targeted, because of what they said in a forum or got posted on a photo. There's plenty of awful things out there on the web and it's best to stay away from anything questionable. We live in a day and age, where everyone has a voice. You have to keep that in mind at all times.

How Social Media Newsfeeds Influence Our Lives

How we approach our lives is heavily influenced by the newsfeeds that we see. Everything from what we like to what we post, to who we're friends with, and even which groups we join or not. If we only saw the newsfeeds of our friends and only saw the good, then everything would be fine, but unfortunately we see the entire picture. We see everything and sometimes, that can have adverse effects.

For instance, if we see a lot of national tragedies we're going to be more likely to become discouraged and stop trying to improve the world. This is obviously a very real danger in today's society. Even if we don't have the means to help, we can still spread the word about what's going on and try to raise awareness.

Obviously this can also work the other way around if we see a lot of nice things and are having a down day. Seeing a bunch of photos of cute animals or fun parties can definitely make anyone's day better.

The newsfeeds of others can be a bit of a double-edged sword in this case. On the one hand, they can make us happy if we're having a sucky day, on the other it can make us envious of people having fun and get us into trouble.

Remember that even if you're not famous or part of the influential crowd, you can have an effect on those around you. Don't do anything, that could potentially hurt your friends or influence over them.

Of course every now and then issues pop up on the newsfeeds. Sometimes it's something, that you actually care about and other times it's just a lot of useless posts.

Impact On Mental Health

Severe cases of depression and even thoughts of suicide have been known to occur from excessive use of social media sites. This sounds very serious and something, that you definitely do not want to happen. How can this happen? Why would one person's social media use effect another? Well, it's all in the research.

A common belief among the scientific community and site-admins alike is that our social media use is tied to our real life socializing. If we have a lot of friends, who we don't talk to in real life, this can cause us to feel left out or like we're missing out on things. However, if we have a lot of friends in real life and talk to them, we can get the urge to talk to more people on the internet or log into our social media sites.

The other factor is that as we spend more time on these sites, we begin to take on their culture. We start using words, that the people who run these sites use. This can lead to confusion when we're trying to use slang, that is unique to these sites.

To a lesser degree, this same factor occurs with music, video games and other hobbies we may have. The people we interact with online may tend to have a similar background and interest in things we do, leading to greater social interaction and a deeper understanding of one another.

Both of these can be very positive things, but if not managed it can lead to severe depression. This is why it's important to take breaks from using these sites. If you're feeling down, it's best to just step away for a little bit, rather than using the internet to fill the void.