Identity and Dependence on Approval

Contemporary human life is increasingly organized around approval and validation. Social media amplifies performative identity, while education is largely reduced to economic utility. These developments are often criticized as cultural or technological distortions. This work argues instead that they reveal a deeper existential structure: human identity itself is historically and psychologically formed through dependence on external approval. While human consciousness possesses a unique capacity for self-awareness beyond survival needs, this capacity remains largely unused. The dominance of validation-based existence limits genuine understanding and reduces intelligence to an instrumental function. By examining approval as the foundation of identity, this essay explores the purpose of human consciousness and the conditions under which understanding—rather than performance—may emerge.