this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
1481 points (88.5% liked)
Showerthoughts
29874 readers
470 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Avoid politics
- 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
- 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
- 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I always had unwavering respect for the elderly, thinking they all had such abundant life experiences that their worldviews, understandings of life, and wisdom should be incomparably deeper, more profound, and more insightful than mines.
But then I started working a part-time job at a gas station and realized that, no, people live such repetitive lifestyles that their wisdom becomes stagnant after they hit 40. And then they decline. No, not because of their brains aging, but because most of them only communicate in the echo chamber that is their small hometown and narrow social network, and because they get all of their information from the news channel which is more often than not opinionated.
I don't know why I'm rambling about this, but I won't stop.
Some time ago, I watched a self-improvement video that advised leaving your hometown to pursue growth. I was skeptical because I thought: "a literal whole town should have enough space to grow and enough different people to meet to be able to learn; this guy is arguing so intently on why you should leave your hometown, but I think he is blinded by his own life experiences-- I believe that towns are big enough that they cannot be said to be restraining, he is simply blaming his prior lack of growth on his hometown".
But now I think I underestimated the cultural echo chamber that a town can be (especially a small one).
People are too comfortable in their hometowns.
This isn't to say that leaving your hometown will turn you into a wise meditator, but what it will do is put you in a foreign environment which will stimulate growth, and it will force you to adapt to new ways of thinking if you don't want to be miserable.
All of this may or may not be completely wrong and merely a product of me tying together a bunch of wrong conclusions that I came to because I spent too much time thinking in my own head without looking for other perspectives and inputs. I'm this skeptical of myself even though this is a very obvious and self-explanatory subject because I have seen too many others do it.
(I wrote in absolutes for the sake of readability.)