#RT Drowning from Within

Shallowness is prevalent among us. Most of the incidences of shallow people are unaware that they are actually drowning from within. And most of the time, shallowness originated from sheer boredom and from discontentment of their own lives. There are several characteristics of a shallow person. Few of which are intolerance, insecurity, being judgmental, hypocrisy, tactlessness, materialism and flashiness. The proof of being intolerant is the desire to get rid of all unattractive being. An example of insecurity is the delay presentation of the significant other as a result of possessiveness. Jumping to conclusions and failure to acknowledge others opinion, on the other hand, is a manifestation of being judgmental. While being pretentious is an evidence of hypocrisy. Misuse of words and misrepresentation causing emotional damage to others is an attestation of tactlessness. High value of material possession and flaunting these possession fall under materialism and flashiness, respectively. If you have fallen under the categorical classification of being shallow, it is not too late to start changing.

It does not require much thinking on how relevant this editorial is for me. It briefly discusses how college students, such as me, would undoubtedly come across shallow people. It categorizes and gives examples on how to identify a shallow person. Although the examples are limited, the readers are given the space to think in between the lines. It does not bombard the readers with broad ideas to comprehend nor does it give narrow ideas to reflect on. It justifies the author's purpose to simply write about them and call for change for those who are willing to do so. There may be other intentions not explicitly displayed on this article but moreover, it somehow reaches an audience with an audacity so strong that it gives each reader a different reaction varying from anger to acceptance.

I, myself, am guilty of some symptoms of shallowness such as being insecure and judgmental. I think this is subjective, though. The examples given are not exactly the type of insecurity and condemnatory act that I manifest. I am not a perfect being so it is safe for me to say that it is normal for me to become insecure and at times succumb to judgments as a defense mechanism. I do agree with Alton that these are symptoms of shallowness but I must emphasize that these only become concrete categorical basis if it is consistent and innate in a person. Consistency would play a huge role because a person may be insecure and intolerant for a time being because of circumstance he or she was placed in such as anger and the like. Innate being a critical point of categorization because for a person to be shallow, as defined by the author, he/she is unaware of the present state, he/she denies of the symptoms and he/she disproves it altogether. I also agree that there may be instances that may be so pressing that some symptoms may be seen as last resort. Intolerance to physique less than yours and flashiness of material possession may be brought about by peer pressure but must not be even considered a choice.

As I have mentioned there has been varied reactions to this article, some of which are intriguing. In a pool comprised of 15 students, there has been a few retaliation approaches. Most of the students reacted fiercely to this article. "Mali kasi kapag sinabi mong mababaw ang pagiging insecure. (It's wrong to say that being insecure is being shallow.)" Congruent to my spin-off, the generalization may be unsupported but still must be acknowledged. "The one who wrote this must have no idea that he/she is shallow." This is what I would interpret as defense mechanism on the speaker’s part. It requires tremendous amount of humility to accept that you are indeed shallow and to insult yourself in some form to accept this requires greater amount. "So what if you flaunt what you got?" So what if you rather keep it to yourself? "Ansakit nya magsalita. Tactless din sya." This is a sign that the author has reached within and was able to target what is supposedly to be changed. This isn't tactlessness, this is frank. None of these hypercritical criticisms can rule out one feedback. "People need to be reminded that we are capable of change. This article is an eye opener." 'Nuff said. :)