pop•u•lar•i•ty
/ˌpɒp yəˈlær ɪ ti/ –noun
1.The quality or fact of being popular.
2.The favor of the general public or of a particular group of people: His popularity with television audiences is unrivaled.
On my last post regarding this topic I was writing the basic ‘theories’ of popularity. How to achieve it, Who can achieve it, and even the types of popularity that you can achieve. After going through all the technical stuff I have decided to write something a little bit more personal in this post.
I for one have always been obsessed with popularity. I can’t really remember where this realization came from, but I believe that this obsession started in the first year of Junior High School. Ever since primary school I have always been elected to become class presidents and such, so for me holding important positions within the students population is something that I have gotten used to. I still remember when I first graduated from Primary School and went to my Junior High School, I aspired to be the president of the students’ council, in true fashion of what I have been doing in primary school. And apparently as lady luck would have it, I was elected as the president of the Students’ Council, in my first year in Junior High. This alone was enough to propel my so-called social status up there with all the “it” groups. In a sense for most of my school life I have achieved popularity and in way this made me dependent on it.
This all changed when I went to Singapore after I received my ASEAN Scholarship. Thrown into a new country away from my family and everything that I hold near and dear, it was my worst nightmare. I had the worst ever case of homesickness which basically incapacitated me socially. I become very introvert and only spend time with the friends that I’ve known beforehand, and it was a very small circle of friends. I really thought that It will end my popularity streak, but in the middle of the first year I was elected as a part of the Hostel Committee. This helps a lot, as I get to know more people and it reminded me of the days in my Junior High School, organizing events and such. Ever since I became the hostel committee I was able to open up more to other people, get to know lots more people and finally gaining influence within the society. This will repeat again in my years as a Junior College student in Singapore, I was member of the school choir, elected member of the Students’ Council in my school and I became the president of the Students’ Council in my Hostel. To be honest those two years were the best two years of my life so far!
Ok, enough with the reminiscing, my point is that, being always in the place of advantage in terms of popularity made me understand it more as well as allow me to understand the society better. I guess in my years in primary school and junior high, I achieved the second kind of popularity, the ones that we get by virtue of our position and nothing else. I managed to keep close friends over the years from that stage of my life, but I don’t hold any significance influence towards others who were in my batch. But my years in Singapore I believe it has taught me much more, as those experiences has allowed me to develop my character and to a certain extent achieve the first kind of popularity, the ones that you actually make a real connection with the people around you, enriching yourself and others in the process.
Over the years I have also met people with ambitions such as mine who are not as lucky as me. A lot of my friends are so called social climbers and had what I would call as popularity complex (I myself have this same problem). And I suppose it’s not wrong to want to be popular, it’s not wrong to want to be influential and be more than just a face in the crowd. However what’s wrong is when this obsession becomes you ultimate goal which you will do almost anything just to achieve it. I think the biggest crime that you can do to yourself is to change yourself just so that you can gain the attention of the public just to achieve a superficial popularity.
Popularity is important and does help you to create memorable memories in school or in your community, but superficial popularity is not worth it when you have to change yourself and lose potential good friends who are willing to accept you for who you are. I mean sure you can say that life is unfair as not everyone is gifted with the charm, personality or charisma that will allow you to attain the first type of popularity. But that’s life, and I believe that having a few close friends are much more important than achieving any kinds of popularity. From my experience whenever I am in my most difficult moments, only your best friends are there to support you and walk you through those though times. Without my friends, I don’t think that I could make it through those four years in Singapore. So yeah, popularity is great to have, and it’s OK to pursue, but don’t let that cloud your eyes and judgement from what’s really important in life. True friends.
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