Why You Need To Stop Pretending You Don’t Care
By Ari Eastman
I’ve never been ashamed to admit I care a lot about what people think. I care what you think. I read all the comments, messages, tweets. I really care, but it doesn’t haunt me. Being on the internet in a public way since age 14, I have learned how to filter out hatred from ever penetrating too deeply. I started a YouTube channel at the height of my own awkward stage in life, so I grew pretty numb to any personal attacks. I learned to let it go, and understand it’s natural that not everyone will like me, think I’m funny, agree with what I say, etc. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still care. I do care. And the thing is, I think we all care but we are so afraid to say it. We think it’s a sign of weakness, but this is so far from the truth. Caring about others is the ultimate strength.
We think if we claim to not care it somehow magically transforms us into these superhuman invincible beings. If you don’t care about something, it will be powerless to hurt you. Nothing can hurt because you have wasted zero time investing in it. But the reality is every person who has shouted, “Whatevs. HATERS GONNA HATE!” (Yeah, T-Swift included) is reacting to something that stung them. Someone said something that shot a slingshot into their carefully protected ego.
