The Like Button
a stream of consciousness about being liked.
Validation is a weird thing.
We’re told not to seek it out, yet it seems like society places a signficant value on the idea of validation. Think ‘like’ buttons on Instagram, Facebook, GroupMe, LinkedIn — and pretty much any social media platform that exists these days.
Think stats, awards, recognition, “40 under 40” lists — things that bestow a great deal of recognition and external validation on quite honestly many well deserving individuals. I strongly believe that the world is full of way more unsung heroes than mainstream media is able to acknowledge — but maybe that’ll be the topic of another post.
This post is about the notion of validation — how much we need to be liked, secretly crave it, or savor it when we are the recipient of such praise.
Some seasons of our life are the opposite of what would win any sort of public congratulatory message or praise — they are ugly, difficult, challenging and sometimes expose the more shadowy side of who we are.
The interesting thing about these seasons, is that while they are not glorified, and often hidden from public view, they tend to be the secret sauce — the incubation period that lead us to the moments where we seem to be standing on top of the world.
People who figure out how to take those moments and turn them into opportunities understand that while as a society we sometimes laud humility, and how the desire for validation shouldn’t be an intrinsic human value, it’s a game-changer in elevating a platform or a profile for some benefit or goal.
Do you seek to be validated? How do you respond in its absence?
