Imagine A World Without Mirrors

by Janielle Beh on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 8:16pm

Imagine, a world without mirrors.

Wouldn’t that be horrifying? But hey, on the flipside, it might just be liberating!

Imagine not being relentlessly and continuously reminded of the seemingly one most important thing in the world, YOURSELF.

Yes, waking up every morning without feeling obliged to look at yourself in the mirror. Yes, not periodically checking your face on the reflection of your phone. Yes, going to the mall, but not really buying things for yourself because your appearance isn’t the first thing on your mind.
Imagine the amount of extra time you would have, not caring so much about how you look, because well frankly, it doesn’t matter as much as what you say or do. Because, I do think, your actions, words and attitudes do matter more than how you look or think about yourself.

We never realize it, but we’ve slipped into a very narcissistic existence; we, the generation of youth and technology and fashion – and not to mention Twitter and Facebook. We forget that just 5 years ago, people would never have imagined spending THIS much time checking their phones and tweeting every few minutes or posting random crappy mobile photos or ‘checking in’ and letting the world know where their latest hang-out is. It’s frankly ridiculous if you pause to think about it from a safe distance.

Imagine if you weren’t constantly reminded of how you look.
Imagine if you didn’t constantly face the social pressures of ‘updating’ the world about your ‘happening’ life.
Imagine if you didn’t have to wake up every morning and be reminded in the mirror of how good or bad you look.

Wouldn’t we all be a little more selfless creatures?

I imagine if we weren’t continually conscious of ourselves and what others think of us, we would be so much freer to think of others and to love people with all the kindness and love we can give.

I don’t think society has ever been more selfish than now. Girls and guys have never been more vain and self-conscious than before. The pressure is constantly eating at us. Everywhere we’re bombarded by images of beautiful, perfect looking people. There is however, no information on how these people behave and what they say or do in real life, which might be far from admirable.

Life is so much of a farce nowadays. We’re all influenced by this destructive selfishness, gnawing at our insides, killing our thoughts for other people, making us even more self-centered. All we think about is what we want to do, where we want to go, what our plans are for tomorrow, what our friends think of us. No wonder, even though we are supposedly a very ‘social’ generation, there are actually more lonely people now (in real life, not on Facebook) than there were in the past when there were less social networking and sites helping people to look for a guy or girl friend! It’s ridiculous. Rather depressing don’t you think.

Imagine a world without mirrors. Literally, or figuratively. Imagine if all of us thought of ourselves less and put others first, before our own selfish plans and desires. Wouldn’t life be much more meaningful and memorable? Because as you think more of others, others would also think more of you. And it goes round and round.

~ j a n i e ll e