The video delves into the evolution of human population growth and how technological advancements have influenced our ability to create and maintain connections. The speaker highlights that the world population reached 8 billion in 2022, emphasizing the role of modern technologies, such as transportation and social media, in transforming the way humans socialize and expand their networks beyond their immediate circles.

Additionally, evolutionary science is discussed as a key factor explaining the social behavior of humans, relating it to the survival of early populations that thrived in groups. The importance of evolutionary traits in socializing for survival is underscored, alongside a detailed exploration of social masking, a coping mechanism that modern individuals often use to conform to societal expectations.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. predators [ˈprɛdətərz] - (noun) - Organisms or animals that prey upon or eat other organisms. - Synonyms: (hunters, attackers, carnivores)

The traits of the early humans that, you know, isolated themselves, right? They hunted on their own. They, you know, moved on their own. They didn't want to be around each other. They were easy targets for predators.

2. ostracized [ˈɑstrəˌsaɪzd] - (verb) - Excluded or shunned from a society or group. - Synonyms: (excluded, shunned, rejected)

To blend in, we have to act like we fit in just so that we are accepted. None of us want to be ostracized.

3. introspection [ˌɪntroʊˈspɛkʃən] - (noun) - The process of examining one's own thoughts or feelings. - Synonyms: (self-examination, self-reflection, contemplation)

Through introspection and through feeling comfortable enough to talk with the ones that love me and the ones that care about me, I realized that I really had a toxic relationship with masking.

4. dysmorphia [dɪsˈmɔrfiə] - (noun) - A severe form of body dissatisfaction involving preoccupation with perceived physical defects. - Synonyms: (body image disorder, body dysphoria, somatic delusion)

I have come across people who have suffered body dysmorphia, who have had pressures put on them by their family or loved ones.

5. conform [kənˈfɔrm] - (verb) - To comply with rules, standards, or laws; behave according to socially acceptable conventions or standards. - Synonyms: (comply, adhere, fit in)

Social masking is a coping mechanism that helps us to conform to societal expectations and norms that are expected from us, right?

6. coping mechanism [ˈkoʊpɪŋ ˈmɛkəˌnɪzəm] - (noun) - Strategies or methods used to deal with stress or difficult situations. - Synonyms: (adjustment, strategy, stress management)

Social masking is a coping mechanism that helps us to conform to societal expectations and norms that are expected from us, right?

7. empathy [ˈɛmpəθi] - (noun) - The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. - Synonyms: (understanding, compassion, sympathy)

Embracing vulnerability and opening up to others, it opens up the doors to genuine connections. And it fosters empathy between us.

8. vulnerability [ˌvʌlnərəˈbɪlɪti] - (noun) - The quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally. - Synonyms: (susceptibility, exposure, weakness)

Embracing vulnerability and opening up to others, it opens up the doors to genuine connections.

9. authenticity [ˌɔːθenˈtɪsɪti] - (noun) - The quality of being genuine or real. - Synonyms: (genuineness, originality, truthfulness)

authenticity is a superpower and it can transform our lives and relationships.

10. rediscovery [ˌriːdɪˈskʌvəri] - (noun) - The act of discovering again something previously forgotten or ignored. - Synonyms: (reacquisition, reclamation, recovery)

And so I had embarked on a journey of self discovery, or rather, self rediscovery.

The Art and Curse of Social Masking - Maryum Zaman - TEDxYouth@AmericanSchoolDhahran

So I wanted to start by asking all of you to make a guess. I want all of you to guess. When is it that you believe the world reached 1 billion people? Was it in the 1500s? The 1600s? The 1700s? Just make a wild guess. Now, I'm sure this year may surprise you, but we reached 1 billion people in 1804. That's only 220 years ago from now and 218 years ago from when we reached the 8 billion population mark in November 2022.

So you must be thinking, well, how does. How does our human population growth relate to socializing and building connections? How do they relate? Well, let me explain. So there are many factors that go into human population growth, and one of these are our modern technologies, right? I mean, we have buses, cars, planes, ships, and then we also have the Internet, social media.

Now, I'm not here to debate whether or not social media is a form of socializing, but I am here to say that these technologies that became developed and publicized in the last 200 years, they had a great impact on how we socialize today. Through these technologies, we have accomplished a feat that our ancestors could have only dreamed about. Our ancestors, I can tell that they were most likely not even thinking about anyone outside of their small circles. But we have the ability to know about all these different races and cultures and languages, right? Through these connections that we've been able to grow with these technologies, we have found ourselves in this interconnected web. We have found ourselves growing because of our many, many connections.

Now, these technologies have told us how it is that we've grown in population size. But evolutionary science tells us why it is that we socialize. Why is it that we have this tendency to seek out each other? Well, evolutionary science tells us about survival of the fittest, right? Sorry. To revive that biology lesson that you all probably might want to forget. But traits that helped a population survive, these traits get passed down to the next generations. But traits that didn't help population survive while these traits. Traits died off, right?

So now if we look back to the early human populations, right? The traits of the early humans that, you know, isolated themselves, right? They hunted on their own. They, you know, moved on their own. They didn't want to be around each other. They were easy targets for predators. They made it very easy to get attacked. And so it is through that easy, like the. Through the ability that this isolation provided for these predators that these human populations were able to die off. But then the human populations that we've descended from, the human populations that moved together that hunted together, that lived together, they defended each other against these predators. They made sure that we were not individual targets, that we masked each other.

So I've established that evolutionary science tells us how it is that we socialize, why it is that we socialize, and technologies tell us how it is that we've improved our human population growth so much at that rapid speed. Now, I want to go into a very specific aspect of socializing, and that is social masking.

Now, what is social masking? Social masking is a coping mechanism that helps us to conform to societal expectations and norms that are expected from us, right? To blend in, we have to act like we fit in just so that we are accepted. None of us want to be ostracized. And so that is where social masking comes into play. There is this one very popular phrase that is in social masking, and that is fake it till you make it. Fake it till you make it. It is true to an extent, right?

I mean, when we come in and we try to get to this target behavior or this target like to become okay. When we. When we want to achieve a target behavior or achieve a target action, we instill ourselves with this fake confidence. And with this fake confidence, we are able to achieve that action. After time, that fake confidence that we initially instilled ourselves with becomes real confidence. And that is how the fake it till you make it system can become helpful. But it's not helpful, and it can have detrimental effects.

If we use this system to put in fake confidence in ourselves to achieve a target behavior that we believe would make us accepted by society. This is when the fake it till you make it system has horrible effects on our mental health. Now, I don't want to speak about social masking just because it's a very prevalent issue in our society today, because it is. But I want to speak about it because I have firsthand experience on its effects. See, when I was 10 years old, I experienced a devastating loss in my family.

And it was after this loss that I found myself and my world flipped upside down. I knew nothing of the emotions that I was going through, and all my emotions were unprocessed. But I really wanted to avoid how the community was going to treat me after that, right? We don't want to appear weak. We don't want to be treated like fragile. We don't want to be treated like a glass that's about to tip over and break. None of us want that. So what I did is that every single morning I woke up and I decided to put On a mask.

This mask, it entailed happy smiles, it entailed laughing, it entailed just acting like a normal elementary schooler, and then later on a regular middle schooler, right? But then as time went on, I realized that this was not the way to live, that this was not the way to live my everyday life. And it is with this realization that I found myself having the strength to try to take off this mask.

Through introspection and through feeling comfortable enough to talk with the ones that love me and the ones that care about me, I realized that I really had a toxic relationship with masking. This mask threatened my entire sense of identity. The thing is though, you don't need someone to pass away to realize that you have this mask. You just need to be a person, right? I have come across people who have suffered body dysmorphia, who have had pressures put on them by their family or loved ones. I've come across people that are just really, really stressed about school.

I mean, school can be very stressful. And I have come across people who took it very seriously. But we have to realize as a society that this way of thinking is completely unhealthy to not just us mentally, but us as a society, as a community, that if we continue to think this way, we are just hurting ourselves more. By following these contradictory and impossible society norms, we are just encouraging these to continue on, and thus we are continuing to follow them. And then we're continuing to hurt our mental health.

By figuring out my way through all of this, by figuring out how to unmask, I realized my sense of isolation that I was feeling with that mask on. And so I had embarked on a journey of self discovery, or rather, self rediscovery. I allowed myself to be vulnerable and to share the pain. And with that came a weight lifted off of my shoulders. So when you're put in that social situation where you feel like you have nothing else that you can do, and you feel that you just need to put on a mask just to get through day to day life, that there should be alarm bells ringing in your head, there should be some sort of danger sign flashing in your brain, because that is not the way to live. That is never the way to live.

Embracing vulnerability and opening up to others, it opens up the doors to genuine connections. And it fosters empathy between us. It fosters understanding between us. authenticity is a superpower and it can transform our lives and relationships. When we embrace our true selves, we inspire others to do the same. And with that, as a society, we can heal. We can come together again and we can just accept each other for what we are. Not just small parts of our identity, but as our total identity, everything about us.

While social masks may provide temporary comfort, it's not worth it. It hinders our growth and prevents us from experiencing meaningful connections. My personal experience always serves as a reminder to me that authenticity requires courage, it requires vulnerability, and it requires self compassion. Let us strive to unmask ourselves and encourage others to do the same. By sharing our true selves with the world, we create an environment where empathy thrives, where genuine connections flourish, and where healing and growth can occur.

As we embark on this journey of self rediscovery, let us remember that authenticity is not about perfection, but about embracing all of our imperfections. It's important that everyone can understand that being someone else all the time is not the way to live, that it's okay not to appeal to everyone all the time. Together we can create a world where social masks are replaced with genuine smiles, where vulnerability is celebrated, and where authentic connections can thrive. Thank you.

Human Population, Technology, Evolutionary Science, Social Psychology, Motivation, Authenticity, Tedx Talks