We’ve heard it and seen it everywhere: the onset of an apathetic social attitude adopted by teenagers today all across the nation. Strolling through school, you can instantly spot numerous males with the same style, same drink in hand, possibly matcha, and to the dismay of many, the same “nonchalant” personality. What a coincidence! For context, the term nonchalance is described by the Cambridge Dictionary as a person “behaving in a calm manner, often in a way that suggests you are not interested or do not care.” The rise of acting aloof in situations that do not call for such behavior suggests that it is manufactured cool.
Ultimately, this raises the concern, “Who are we performing for?”
Teenagers are no strangers to trying their best to fit into social circles. As a teenager myself, I can personally relate to assimilating for the purpose of simply being part of a community. Sharing common interests with others will most definitely assist you in social interactions. However, an issue arises when we gear our identity around others for the sake of being “liked” by the majority. Within our society, identity shaped by the flow of social media trends could only be driven by our innate desire to be accepted.
Conformity is safe, so we adopt a herd mentality to compensate for our lack of completeness.
In conjunction with our willingness to jump onto the bandwagon of fast fashion trends, there has also been a noticeable increase in mimicking online personalities. There is a lack of effort when it comes to curating style and even more so for our interpersonal relationships with others. Individuality seems to have been put on the back burner. The deeper issue is that we are becoming so accustomed to following trends that it seeps into our social interactions with others. We have become slaves to the hamster wheel of social trend cycles. Wilfred Trotter, an English surgeon and sociologist, describes the herd mentality phenomenon in his radically acclaimed book Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War.
“Suggestibility is the cement of the herd, the very soul of the primitive social group. . . . Man is a social animal, no doubt, but he is social because he is suggestible.”
As Trotter proclaims, we are gregarious creatures that allow ourselves to be influenced so long as we are a part of something that provides a sense of social security. Conversely, by being regulated under a group authority, we relinquish our freedom to choose our identity and deviate from group norms. The ironic side to all of this is that adopting the nonchalant attitude, despite it being a trendy persona online, can weaken your connectivity with others. Engineering a marketable persona comes off as disingenuous and overly self-centered. After all, humans undeniably crave authenticity.
An important thing to note: nonchalance as a personality characteristic that was already present in the individual without being inspired by social trends is absolutely normal. Cloning behavioral attitudes ripped off of TikTok is not.
Some might argue that it is reasonable to mimic personalities and while there may be justification, the core issue of allowing yourself to be vulnerable to something as fluctuating as trends remains. One must be able to form independent thoughts without the subjugation of an outside influence. This not only translates to fashion and personalities, as mentioned in earlier paragraphs, but also political and ethical beliefs as well. Building a strong sense of self can aid in reinforcing individuality and preventing oneself from falling to the prey of the social hamster wheel.
At the end of the day, teenagers will continue to experiment with their self expression. Nonchalance is not the first behavioral trend we have seen grow in popularity among teenagers nor will it be the last. As long as experimentation is done without taking extreme means to conform, choosing your identity can be exhilarating and even radical! Forsaking trends, once the performance ends, who are you beneath the mask?