self-worth = self-trust? (Week 9)

I think that Emerson brings up so many interesting points in “Self Reliance,” but the thing I kept finding myself thinking about is how we can be expected to find our self-trust in a world that is so focused on conformity.

I don’t think that it is totally possible to achieve this “self-trust” without a high level of self-worth, and in the world that we live in today, self-worth can be hard to remember. I like to think of self-worth as the intrinsic value that someone has for themselves, completely separated from any achievement or external factor. Self-worth has to do with an inherent value that someone gets the second that they are born and doesn’t actually go away; people’s perspectives about their self-worth are all that varies.

On the other hand, self-trust is the confidence individuals have in their own instincts, judgments, and abilities. These are all things that can be affected by external factors such as performance. For example, if someone in the past has not succeeded in a task, it is fair to pass the judgment that they are not good at that task, but their ability to complete the task or not does not actually affect their self-worth.

I have found that People’s perspective about self-worth typically has a lot to do with external factors, and therefore, how they feel about themselves in this sense can vary drastically. One thing that I find does a great job of making someone question their self-worth is social media.

In this digital age, I find it difficult not to feed into social conformity since there is constantly so much that pushes people to want to be the same. Social Media, I think is a huge factor in this conversation. Social media platforms do a great job of reinforcing conformity by promoting certain standards of appearance, behavior, and success that are so widely consumed. I think that building self-trust, especially in the face of external pressures like social media, requires a whole lot of intentional effort and self-awareness. These are things, though, that are hard to come by without being faced with hardships that help change people’s perspective of reality.