On New Year's resolutions, social experiments, shame, and.. emojis
So I wanna share a little experiment I did this year. While others had their New Year's Resolutions something like weight loss or good vibes or stay healthy or whatever, this past year I decided to do something a little different. As stated in this post, my resolution this year was to exclusively use noses in all my emojis :-D
Sounds silly, but I really learned something. Every single time I typed one.. Every. Single. Time. I was hit with this wave of embarrassment and shame. Cringe. Everytime I typed one, the exact thought went through my brain of "This is it, someone is gonna make fun of me, someone is gonna roast me for using a nose in this smiley face."
Reddit, YouTube, tumblr posts, asks, Twitter, twitch, minecraft chat, misc gaming chats, discord, texts to my friends, my family, group chats. An entire year of be-nosed faces. You wanna know how many people said something? How many people decided to throw a joke in my direction, even a passing comment at the person openly being cringey?
Everytime I went to type one of these guys :-) I was overwhelmed with "Oh god, someone's gonna care! Someone's gonna make fun of me!" Only to never once get it. Not a single comment. This resolution started as a joke, something that popped into my head somehow and I thought would be goofy and fun. But it genuinely taught me a lesson on shame and on being yourself. I was SO convinced everytime someone was gonna insult me, someone was gonna notice. I mean, come on, noses on smileys? In 2021?? Really?? How cringe, right? On the internet, where people are ready to jump down your throat at a single infraction, toxic comment sections, reddit karma, tumblr and twitter clout, playful jabs from friends, surely SOMEONE would say something, SOMEONE would be That Guy.
Nope. No one cares. In the most kind of beautiful way: No one cares. Your quirks that make you you, the things that get labelled as ~cringey~ or weird, weird interests, weird ways of talking, whatever. No one cares. Just be yourself. This experiment has genuinely been so much fun and I'll probably continue doing it because look at how much better this is :-D! Look at the joy! :^D Look at how creative I can get :°D Isn't that fun? C-: Look its "OTL" but with a nose: QTL ! :-D Doesn't that make you smile? :-) Doesn't it just connect with your younger self, throwing around XD and ^_^ without a care of being cringy? Of what people thought of you??
Be silly, be goofy, have fun, live a little, put noses on your smileys ^.^