Society has a critical attitude which results in both positive and negative effects. This attitude has many far reaching effects on our lives. I will discuss three positive and three negative effects of society’s critical attitude.
One positive effect of society’s critical attitude is that it challenges people and force them to excel and aim higher. This may enable them to accomplish things they might not have accomplished or do things they may not have considered before their self-realization. For example, I was told that I needed to start earning more money, if I wanted to have a good standard of living for my retirement. Therefore, I decided to work towards getting a college diploma and a university degree.
A second positive effect of society’s critical attitude is that it leads us to self-examination, which can lead to self-improvement. For example, Mela, the wife on the television show “Trading Spouses”, was critical of her husband. When he planned a special meal and built a bench so he could propose to her for the third time and also presented her with a new engagement ring because she lost the first two rings he gave her, she responded so critically that the host of the show, Dr. Phil’s son, had to talk to her about it and tell her that she hurt her husband’s feelings. After Mela thought about her actions, she concluded that the host was right, so she apologised to her husband. Her husband remarked that it was hard for him to please her. He also said that his belief in their dual love helped him to cope with her. He then accepted her apology.
A third positive effect of society’s critical attitude is that it may help us to realize that we are happy or content with our lives and ourselves. For example, a guest on Oprah’s show stated that after struggling with her weight for many years and gaining more weight than she lost, she started to analyse herself and found that she was more content when she was not dieting. The guest felt she was fine the way she was and she was going to stop trying to live her life to please others.
Now, I will discuss the negative effects of society’s critical attitude. One negative effect of society’s critical attitude is men and women are having unnecessary surgeries that can sometimes have devastating or fatal results. For example, some people have cosmetic surgery or gastric bypass surgery because they do not like their body image. Even though the possibility of disfigurement is still an issue, thousands of people still have unnecessary plastic surgery. People have been known to die while on the operating table or die because of complications that develop after the surgery, such as infections.
A second negative effect of society’s critical attitude is that children are being told that they are fat when they are not. For example, my four-year old niece has been told by her paternal grandmother that she shouldn’t eat too much because she could get fat. My niece is now a picky eater because she is conscious of her weight.
A third negative effect of society’s critical attitude is that people feel dissatisfied with themselves to the extent that they contemplate or actually commit suicide. For example, there are young people who become dissatisfied with their lives because they feel they don’t have the ideal figure or weigh the right amount. They compare themselves to their idols and start down the road to bulimia or anorexia. When that doesn’t work, some may choose to give up entirely and decide life is not worth living.
In conclusion, realizing that society is critical has both positive and negative effects, so we should all think what effects we want our words to have on the listener before we speak. Also, we should remind ourselves that words are a powerful tool than can be used to either bless or curse. Think before we speak at all times.