ABOUT SEEKING VALIDATION.

During the just concluded Empowered camp meeting, I was one of the speakers in the panel session. One of the questions we were asked was, "What are some of the problems young persons like yourself face in our generation?". Myself and the rest panelist answered to the best of our knowledge. 

For me, I spoke about how we seek validation as young people, but due to time factor I wasn't able to fully do justice to this point. Now, seeking validation is a common thing in our generation, as people see it as a way of expressing themselves. 

Imagine doing something stupid and then go online to find a quote that resonates with that stupidity or makes it seem okay. As young people we want to be shown that our feelings are valid, in psychology this is called confirmation bias. 

Confirmation bias is a systematic tendency that we actively seek only information that confirms our belief and reject/neglect/ignore information that disconfirms our beliefs. 

Once upon time, I suffered from academic validation. It didn't really seem like a problem initially until it really turned out to be. While it had it own positive effect in making me focused, the negative impact outweigh this. Funny enough, it started subtly, down from crying when I'm not topping the class to attempting suicide for not doing well at my UTME Exam. This taught me that seeking validation can be toxic. 

Young people going through a lot of changes, and tend to have a need for confirming their untamed dam of overwhelming emotions. It's normal to seek validation yet an unhealthy amount or seeking wrongly may become too dangerous. 

Dearest reader, what sort of validation do you seek?

@favvy_Okwans🖤.