A majority of us have heard of the phrase “Jump on the bandwagon”. From Politics, Social Media posts, and overall any debatable topic brings an audience of different opinions.
To not feel left out or be viewed as unintelligent, readers will agree with a popular opinion that they have no background information on, other than the comments of others or the popularity of the subject.
Pluralistic Ignorance is a more in depth way of explaining when a group of people follow others norm. For example, in the picture I posted above, the elephant is joining a political side that he has no interest in but would rather join a certain crowd to not be out of the picture.
The day of the Super Bowl, you often find people going for the winning team just so they’re able to celebrate. Months before they have no intention of going for this team until they see that it’s the most believed team to win the game. This is a perfect example of what jumping onto the bandwagon would be.
While people begin to follow whatever is on the front page of twitter or any other social platform, it can sometimes be false information. Being told false news can spread fast and dangerously if heard by the wrong person. It is important to know the background story before believing, sharing, or joining any discussion.
Currently we heard that a famous comedian was injured in a car accident but we also heard rumors that he was left paralyzed from the accident. The paralyzed rumor was false but it was what followers were sharing because it was being posted everywhere.
Not only is there stories all over the internet that we come across daily, but we have our own expectation on what we share or post. What is funny enough to get likes? What picture is better to post? These are just few of the questions that we can find ourselves thinking about before posting into our platforms.
We begin to create a false reality when we try to post as much perfection as we can onto our social media. The false consensus effect is what we can use to describe the way others portray their fake reality and bring others along.
I personally see all different kinds of social media posts online that portray a false reality and where people are jumping onto the bandwagon. If you tend to read through the comments of posts, you can see when people have no idea what they’re talking about but need to make sure they comment to get likes.
Bringing us back to the likes, in the picture above you can see how some of us will take time out of our day to create a false reality and making sure we get those likes to fulfill our ego or to even fit in with society.
Daily we meet or already know someone who tries a bit too hard to fit in and jumps onto that bandwagon. It is more important in life to live in the reality you have than creating or joining a false one.
Instead of wanting to please others and fulfilling their needs, we need to ask ourselves why do we care. We shouldn’t care, because at the end of the day we live in our reality, not them. So post that unfiltered photo, do your research and join the side you agree on, and enjoy the reality you actually live in.
The Adult Life No One Told Me About 