The need for identity

In all stages of life, we are forced into categories. We are associated with certain groups. In school, we are grouped into classes. In college, we are grouped according to our branch. At work, we are bracketed by our designation. We are also bracketed by our performance in various aspects - "He is a gold medalist" or "She sucks at chemistry".

However, we have this driving need to establish our identity in society. How can we achieve this? We try to associate ourselves with a certain set of categories that will uniquely identify us. For e.g. 'He is a god fearing, heavy metal fan'. Or maybe, 'She is an engineer who writes poetry'. The problem is, its quite difficult to determine this unique set of categories. We are aware only of the small set of people we have been exposed to. So. we concentrate on distinguishing ourselves from the set of people we know.

This need is probably what inspires us to learn new skills, read vague russian authors and the like. The urge to learn is probably a secondary need.. a by-product of the need to establish one's identity. This hypothesis is the result of the following observation. The rate of meeting new people grows rapidly from infancy to teenage years, peaks at about the age of 25-30 and then dips. This trend mirrors our urge to learn, to try out new stuff. Some people peak earlier, some later.

The above hypothesis has an interesting ramification. The more unsocial we are, the less likely we are to evolve, to learn. So folks.. go ahead, mingle and learn :)