An Insight

I went to and fro, from city to city, this weekend, rendezvousing with different friends and meeting new people. What struck me was how the people we interact with come to build up an impression of us. Furthermore, how easily one can change their personality to influence this and how often they do. 

The fleeting traits that one adopts, which can be said to cumulatively create our personality, take form from a multitude of influences. Some of these I would say include; 

- the social norms, boundaries and expectations of the addressee/s 

- the prior relationship you have with the addressee/s e.g. when you meet someone for the first time contrasted with a long time friend

- Our spatial/psychosocial environment

- Our aims and purpose of the interaction

- The number of people that are being addressed

- the activity one is under-taking, personally speaking there are mindsets for every occasion, a professional demeanor for work, wild for weekends, and somnolent for Sundays. 

As highlighted, there is no shortage of pressure on you as a person to react in a fitting and responsive manner to everyday situations. The fact that society continues to thrive and grow pays homage the very fact that, as humans, we do this very well. I want to say that our illusionary expertise has even deceived ourselves to a certain degree in the fact that we think we have personality. 

The common lack of continuity coupled with the ease at which we can switch up our character made me think about myself. Just as a chameleon changes it's colour we can readjust how we act in a heart beat but which are the chameleon's true colours? Is it the case that ones true character is composed of the features which they exhibit for the majority of a set period of time.

Could it be the case that when alone, paradoxically, is the only time we show true character. Any other state of mind being merely a deviation from the baseline of you. Is personality just an adaptive mechanism to group living and social interaction? If this were to be true then without society we would not have personality. Could we all be exhibiting multiple personalities rather than having one?

We may not have an inherent personality at all, there could be no psychological you. Materialism and scientific discovery would point you in this direction. Personality being illusionary in the sense that we are driven by primitive desires/chemical interactions and our personalities are just an adaption to help us get what we instinctively desire, rather than outward showings of our character and moral nature.