Why I Write And Why I Think You Should Too
Tags: watercooler
Published: 2021-01-08 13:41:13

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title: Why I Write And Why I Think You Should Too
published: true
description: Spread love and positivity
tags: watercooler
//cover_image: https://direct_url_to_image.jpg
---

I have been trying to write on and off for some time now. One of the reasons for this is because I have always been a reader and this just seemed like something I should give a go to given all the random stuff floating in my brain because of all the reading.

Another reason is that I am the type of person who likes to share anything funny or interesting I find with people I like, to the point that it can be considered annoying (maybe).

But while these are reasons I started to write and share stuff, the reason that I plan to continue writing is not one entirely related to me.

And I am writing this article today because there are people in my life who have told me that they want to start writing too but haven't done it for some reason or the other.

One reason why I think most of us hesitate to put ourselves out there - be it via a post, a blog, a YouTube video, or any of the myriad ways possible today - is that we worry about what other people will think of us or our content. Another is that we don't think we are good enough in something or there are many people better than us already on a platform, so no point in us sharing something that will not add value to anyone or something that has already been said by someone far better than us.

All of these are of course very valid reasons. Another reason which I have heard is the lack of time, which I personally don't buy because if something is important to us, we can mostly find the time and means to do it.

Coming to why I want you to start writing; I want you to write because I think you are a good person. You may not be an expert in anything and you may be saying the same stuff so many before you have come and said but you will write something that means something to you and maybe ten years down the line a teenager will click on it and comment that this is all they needed to hear that day.

The thing is there are a lot of negative news headlines, articles, videos and posts being shared today and for good reason. As people, we tend to dwell more on the negative stuff and this is what a lot of media outlets like to feed on.

I haven't looked it up but I am sure if I do I can find plenty of content promoting bigotry and adding to mental health stigma and racism and gender inequality. Basically there is quite a lot of content spreading hate and fear.

And I think that for every piece of media spreading hate and fear we need at least 10 spreading love and inclusion, again because we tend to dwell more on the negative, so we need the positive to outnumber the negative by a good margin.

So that ten years down the line, when a teenager uses the internet to look up stuff and they find one article on body shaming they should be able to find ten articles promoting body positivity. If she sees one video telling her that she is a loser because she did not secure a rank in one exam on one day, there will be ten telling her to not let society determine her self-worth.

It is important because we now consume all of our information from the internet. Sure I read books too, but I choose which books to read mostly from the internet when someone shares it on their Goodreads page or I read a quote from a book somewhere and then look it up.

All this negativity generally doesn't get to me. But that is because I am now at an age where I don't let these things affect me and my thoughts that much. But I daily see people younger than me - my own siblings, my juniors - suffer from the same self-doubts that I went through all because I didn't share my own journey when I was going through it.

So to anyone who thinks that they have something to say and they think that they don't have the skills or the audience for it - I believe these things don't matter as much. Do not write for your peers. Write for the 5 year old you. Write stuff that you hope kids today will get to read more of. Write stuff that promotes diversity and inclusion, stuff that spreads love and positivity and not hate and fear.

It is going to be a terrible tragedy for us if decades down the line, students are still messaging their connections on LinkedIn asking if them being from a tier-3 college ruins their chances of getting into a good company. 

Do not let society define your self-worth and write to make sure the next generation can create new problems of their own to suffer from and not continue to suffer from the very same things that trouble us today.