Why popularity doesn't matter

By M.Farouk Radwan, MSc.

Everyone wants to be popular

Everyone seems to want to be popular. Teens wish to be popular in school, ambitious businessmen might want to become popular in the business world and even the ones who are already popular might want to become more popular.

And yes even me. After all when i created that site i wanted it to become popular. let me make it clear that i am not saying that being popular is bad. In fact it's a good goal that reflects ambition however some people get popularity wrong and as a result lose their self esteem.

Many people mistakenly assume that all popular things/people are good and that all unpopular people/things aren't good enough. This fact doesn't just make those people feel bad but it also greatly affects their self esteem.

But the 1 million dollar question is: Is that assumption true?
Well let's find out.

Why popularity doesn't matter

When i made an analysis of the popular websites and Apps i discovered that so many games made it to the top chart where as so many useful apps didn't make it. This might seem too logical, after all we all like to play games but the illogical part is why some great and useful apps never became popular?

I can give tons of answers to that question but for now i am only going to give an answer from a psychological point of view. Most people prefer to escape and procrastinate than to work on their goals.

In other words if a useful goal setting App was released then it might never become as successful as candy crush just because most people are too afraid to pursue their goals. On the other hand the majority of people want a distraction from their real life and this is why games become popular while many useful things don't.

Do you remember the famous book the secret?
It's one of the most famous personal development books and it sold millions of copies.
At the core of the popularity of this book lies the fact that most people want things the easy way even if it's not rational.

The Secret book was advertising a very simple message to people "How to get everything you ever dreamed without doing any effort". By just thinking about what you want you can attract it to your life. A concept that appeals to all people who don't want to do any effort or who prefer not to fight hard for their goals.

What about 50 shades of grey? The best selling novel of all time. It's actually a book targeting sexually repressed women and it hides that fact well by covering it with a romantic story and using a psychological concept such as the transfer of power to make the novel more interesting.

What i am trying to say is that while some popular things become popular because they are really good some other things become popular just because there are enough people to believe in them.

Superstitions are popular

I was researching the history of superstitions for the last couple of weeks and i discovered that millions of people believe that knocking on wood can protect them from evil eye. I discovered that this Myth came from the fact that ancient people used to believe that fairies lived in trees and that by knocking on wood the good fairies can be summoned for protection and the bad ones can be distracted.

There are so many popular things that just don't make any sense and this is aligned with the fact i mentioned before that humans are anything but rational.

So what's the purpose of this article?
I still want you to try to be popular, if that's what you want, but i just want you to understand that not being popular doesn't mean that you are bad or defective.

Be confident. You are great.

2knowmyself is not a complicated medical website nor a boring online encyclopedia but rather a place where you will find simple, to the point and effective information that is backed by psychology and presented in a simple way that you can understand and apply. If you think that this is some kind of marketing hype then see what other visitors say about 2knowmyself.

The Solid confidence program was launched by 2knowmyself.com; the program will either help you become more confident or give you your money back.

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