How to Think For Yourself

   In these times of fast media and ever-growing Internet we are under so many external influences that it can be difficult to know when we are thinking for ourselves. Unless you are a discerning, very aware person, you most likely don't even know when your thinking is not your own.
Not that all outside influence is bad or detrimental to forming your own views,be being unable to think for yourself can make you miserable at best, or a puppet of someone else's programming, at worst.

Admittedly , we are all born into societies or cultures where the norms and customs are already established. We have little choice but to conform to a large degree to what is already in place. This is not necessarily a bad thing , how ever , it can be confining and controlling if we accept everything blindly and never question the status quo.

As a example , how many of us feel the need to keep up with'the latest'? We wear clothes ,listen to music and follow trends that the media tells us we should in order to be cool. Marketing companies create ads that hypnotize us into a herd mentality as we fall into debt , wear fashions stressing out over it. Before we realize it, we are living lives designed for us by the powers that be and without our conscious participation.