43. Originality, a most precious commodity
Why is it that when you decide you’re going to buy a new knitted jumper, the following week you see more knitted jumpers than you’ve ever seen before? They pop up out of nowhere, yet they’re in plain sight. If you go looking for it, you’ll find it. The same is true for our thoughts, feelings and actions. When you decide that you’re going to try and take up running, you notice more sneakers on sale, people running more in the streets and the existence of a local running club becomes apparent.
Aside from fiercely defending people and things we claim as ours (read my previous blog on this here), we can’t help but feel possessive over things we discover ourselves. It just feels better having an original idea than receiving a recommendation from others sometimes.
It only takes one look into social media comments to see tens, hundreds if not thousands of people sharing your niche opinion on a certain topic. Although it’s warming to see you aren’t the only person who thinks Shannon Noll should have won Australian Idol in 2003, the comment “I haven’t had a single original thought in my life” rings true. Ignore the negative tone and connotations this comment brings, your brain popped out that thought regardless!
Hamish and Andy’s latest podcast segment ‘Extreme Empaths’ is a prime example of people finding a sense of belonging when realising they aren’t alone in their sentimental ways. Listeners share their niche empathetic habits for typically innate objects which makes me feel less crazy for sympathising with the coat hanger holding my heavy woollen trench coat.
Over on TikTok, users like Kelley Heyer show off choreography skills before the dance trend accidentally grows legs instantaneously, becoming a pop culture sensation. Heyer’s dance to Charli XCX’s “Apple” from the Brat album went viral bringing thousands of people to replicate the dance and join in on the trend. Feeling a lack of credit for the song’s success, Heyer made multiple videos about the originality of the dance, believing that she should be invited to awards shows that “Apple” is nominated at. Although the virality of her dance was a driver and contributor to the song’s success, wasn’t the point of the video in the first place to share her fun-dancey-girl persona to the tune of her song of the moment? Undeniably, TikTok can create great opportunities for success and widespread enjoyment of music in particular. But in an attempt to create fun, Heyer’s originality became her enemy when she didn’t get what she wanted: credit.
People have never been so fierce about protecting their originality yet are eager to express and share it. Perhaps we need to consider if we are sharing as a means of creativity, or as a way to trademark a certain thought, behaviour or dance for Pete’s sake (I don’t know who Pete is)!!
Aside from the comfort it can bring, seeing someone have the same thought as me I kick myself, wishing I had debuted that thought on the internet first. I mean, I’ve been pretending to accept my Oscar in the car for years, but when someone else posts it on TikTok and gets invited to the actual Oscars, I remain a mere daydreamer in a Toyota.
It’s like when you tell a friend a joke at a party and they announce it louder to the group and get a laugh from the group (an unforgivable sin in my eyes). At the end of the day, you chose not to share it with the group to protect your originality instead of deeming others worthy of your great joke. We must focus on what we can gain from sharing instead of fearing what we could lose.
