Everyone wants to be a neophile. Only the old and feeble are afraid of change or the fear of fading away as technology outpaces them. As college students, we are supposed to be ready for anything the world has to offer; we must remain completely flexible, ready to change at a moments notice. We are meant to crave change, the uncertainty it brings, and the thrill it gives us.
No doubt many of you reading this are exhilarated to experience the transition from high school to college. For once in your life you are finally free from your nagging parents, those select high school friends you never really liked, and that one teacher everyone learned to despise. High school is now behind you, and you are finally ready for the future and the inevitable ups and downs awaiting you.
And yet the same uncertainty brings about a wave of nervousness. What if you really do need your parents? What if your new friends are even more annoying than your old ones? Or even worse, what if your new college professors are straight from the bowels of Hell (don’t worry the professors here aren’t that bad). Before you know it, your precious thrill is replaced with a fear of what is to come. Without you realizing it you have instantly become a neophobe.
Even the best of us succumb to this pressure of stress and anxiety. People are only truly comfortable with change as long as it is someone else experiencing it.
Sure it is fine to save the earth as long as I do not have to do the recycling. Sure it is fine to raise taxes as long as it is not my tax bracket doing the raising. Sure it is fine to improve health care as long as I do not have to pay for it. And God forbid Mark Zuckerberg try to change Facebook for the hundredth time.
As much as our society praises and worships change and innovation, it is human nature to fear the uncertainty it brings, and for good reason. Why change something that isn’t broken? Why risk everything just to improve things by just a hair? But without a healthy dose of change, progress would remain stagnant and we would still be using Facebook v1.0. The 900 million active users and the success Facebook has seen would merely be a pipe dream if Zuckerberg and his team remained pleased with the status quo (so quit complaining about timeline, it’s the best thing to happen since sliced bread). On the other side of the aisle, we are still stuck using the same Craigslist built in 2000, merely because its current CEO is afraid of advancement. Today Craigslist serves as a relic of a past in a sea of technological and design innovation, all because it has avoided the inevitable for as long as it can.
So I urge of you to embrace it. Yes, the possibilities are endless and anything could happen, but that is what is so beautiful about change. For the first time in your life you get to redefine who you are.
As difficult as it may be, try to purge those high school acquaintances from Facebook, and for the love of God, leave your high school romance behind. I am not telling you to lose who you once were, but do not let the past hold you down. Accomplish what you were set out here to do; become something greater than what you once were.
Yes, you could remain who you are now, stagnant and never changing, but then you would not be any different from Craigslist. You will be left behind, as others experiment and advance.
So promise me to avoid stagnation like the plague. Become something great, exciting, and new. Become the next Facebook.
Bolanos is a junior majoring in political science.
