How does one feel needed within society? This question, while seemingly having many answers, also has none at all. In less philosophic terms, our belief in personal usefulness as a society is declining.
Commonly known as “Derealization,” the feelings of misunderstanding, loneliness, and vague victimization have begun to plague our nation among young adults, teens, and some even older. Whether this emptiness is because of social media or a belief that everything of stature has already been invented (or discovered), more and more people are becoming detached from their waking lives.
Derealization refers to an estranged state of mind that involves the profound feeling of detachment from one’s sense of self and the surrounding environment. To be present, but absent. To have eyes, but cannot see. This is a feeling that pulls at your soul and threatens to kill every part of your being, purely from the fact that you cannot feel in the first place. This personal isolation has affected 58% of young adults in recent years who claim to lack “meaning or purpose.” Moreover, leading to creative deficits around the world.
Purpose can be a difficult topic because it can only be found internally. Just as people are born knowing their life’s goals, a greater amount has to discover it on their own. Many people who struggle with finding their purpose suffer to derealization or fall into a depressed state. Derealization can be caused by mental discrepancies like Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), abuse, or stress. However, with social media pushing comparison to the forefront of our minds, it’s creating a difficult environment for personal pride.
Feelings of alienation are appearing with the broad scope of social media, exposing normally small communities to all types of people. Its repulsive information numbs the mind and gives the average person too much exposure of events uncorrelated to their personal being. It sparks doubts on whether they’re doing enough or wasting their lives away. For diagnosed mental disorders, medical treatment might be necessary. Otherwise, the American Psychiatric Association explains the best strategies to combat personal disconnect are by cultivating meaning though caring for others or service, gratifying durable relationships and having young people experience their lives as more than just a sum of achievements.
Creativity is the sole bounds on which innovation is made. This can be in artwork, literature, academics, technology, or physicality. With 90% of US adults saying there is a mental health crisis occurring, it is a clear theory that individuals are more involved in destructive mental cycles than putting their creative talents to use. Vulnerability of teens and young adults towards internal issues has skyrocketed, directly contrasting the external fears parents had with their children in the 70s: reckless driving and drugs.
All creative ideas come from the brain and with destructive mental patterns the ability to have free thought is replaced by worries and fears. This directly impacts a person’s creative outlet. Writer, Jonah Robson, explains the lack of effort in modern art in Campus Life. Robson expresses that he “found it hard to respect the effort” behind some of the art pieces because he wasn’t able to see the time, technique, or creativity put into it. Henceforth, the very essence of art itself. The interruption of a subject. Derealization stops people from valuing the feeling of the process to making something. Instead, just doing it to have a product there. With more people using the word “creative” in aspects of every part in their life the true meaning is diluted.
Although, we have not stagnated in all forms of creativity. Technology is another form of creativity and has helped support people in transportation, digital knowledge, household machines, and AI. This is another form of creativity, as technology itself was built from an idea. But, in a literal sense, individual artistry and new modes of expression are rarer than previously. Mainstream media has capitalized on an individual’s want to fit in, causing united subcategories that only live to separate and label.
To help get our society out of this mental block we need to engage more as people. Not just in groups, but to recapture the things that make us human. To live is to feel yourself. We have to begin working towards feeling human in ourselves, recognizing our emotions, and finding modes of expression to fuel our creativity. Purpose is difficult, 58% of people today agree with this, but purpose is not defined by one thing. Personally, I believe it’s the state in which makes art inevitable.
