Posts by shadowgull42

rustynomad23 said:I agree with this; there certainly comes a point where the general population's worldview is fully formed, say between the ages of 15 and 18.

Ideally, every new experience should shape our worldview and influence how we perceive future information.

However, we find ourselves daily in situations where the same information becomes contradictory when viewed through different lenses.

Yet, it was that very information that initiated the creation of the worldview in the first place.

At what specific point does a worldview begin to deny the information itself?

It seems you’ve landed on age 12, though I personally suspect the more significant structural formation occurs even later than that.

It certainly would be. I honestly don't know how many people actually possess the willpower to dismantle their own prejudices or consciously ignore pervasive stereotypes. I can't claim—not even close to being able to say—that I am immune to this in every situation, though I do make a sincere effort...

Regarding that influence, I believe hollowdrifter5 hit the nail on the head:

hollowdrifter5 said:Life experience, age, sheer luck, the cultural mindset of your neighborhood, whether you actually have access to information—all of it. Everything shapes how you view the world.

If we assume this worldview hardens by a certain age, is it even possible to shift your perspective later on?

I’m convinced it is. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve caught myself saying, "Actually, looking at it from a different angle now..."

Denial happens when someone makes a snap judgment about a person or an event based on some flawed, deeply ingrained piece of misinformation, and subsequently shows absolutely zero desire to re-examine that stance.

rustynomad23 said:At any given moment, we absorb information that passes through our own unique "prism," shaping our individual perspectives. Even when presented with identical facts, one's resulting stance varies wildly from person to person.

One might call this prism a "worldview," though that term feels somewhat one-dimensional to me. We often encounter people with similar outlooks yet positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum—recent news cycles have certainly highlighted this phenomenon. In my pursuit of a more multidimensional understanding, I prefer the concept of a "prism" that filters data through multiple variables.

What I am curious about is this: at what age does our "prism" fully form?

Is it primarily shaped by upbringing, education, and intellect? Or are there other hidden factors at play?

If we assume this lens solidifies by a certain age, is it actually possible to change it later in life?

If anyone can recommend literature exploring these specific inquiries, I would be most grateful.

In my view, it begins incredibly early in life, though ideally, it should continue to evolve throughout one's entire existence.

We are both blessed and cursed by the fact that we "must" keep learning until our final days. As times shift and people change, we have to constantly upgrade our prism, perhaps even adding an entirely new layer for every significant experience we encounter. 🙂

I can't help but feel that those who allow their prism to freeze in some early, stagnant stage are the very ones we end up labeling as primitives, narrow-minded, or just plain obsolete.

feralhound17 said:I’ve noticed I sleep way better when I’m absolutely wiped out from work or hitting the gym hard—basically, once I actually hit that REM stage.
If I’m just sleeping lightly and catching every little noise, I never wake up feeling rested. It’s like, I’d feel refreshed if I could just crash hard enough to dream and stop registering everything happening around me.
Also, I’ve realized that sticking to a strict bedtime and waking up at the same time every single day is pretty much a life-or-death matter for me.

Nicholas Gonzalez8 said:Facts. I am telling you, I’ve learned this the hard way through my own chaotic trial and error 🙂

And yet, I am somehow still drawing breath. 😁

It is difficult to even begin to articulate my sleep schedule, if one can even call it that. There are stretches where I’ll manage a few disjointed two-hour bouts scattered across a twenty-four-hour period, and then there are those darker stretches where I might go thirty hours without blinking, only to crash for fourteen straight hours once the exhaustion finally wins. Occasionally, I’ll fall into a semblance of a "normal" rhythm, though naturally, it never aligns with the sun; I find myself drifting off around six or seven in the morning, only to sleep for another seven or eight hours before the world starts moving again.

It’s even harder to put into words just how much my life was consumed by college. i Work is a grind right now. Honestly, focusing on my degree is the only thing that actually feels relevant, so I might as well lean into that for a while.

The issues first started surfacing around the age of twelve or thirteen, if my memory serves me right. Back then, I actually thought it was some kind of superpower—I’d pull those all-nighters, getting maybe four hours of sleep, and walk around feeling absolutely invincible. 🙂

Exercise, diet, stress—it’s all part of the equation, I suppose, though I’ve come to realize that my mind is the primary culprit in this little drama. The reality is that there are nights when I lie there staring at the ceiling for an hour or two, unable to drift off, which makes forcing sleep a completely futile exercise. But more often than not, it isn't an inability to sleep; it’s a refusal. I’m haunted by this persistent, nagging sensation that if I finally close my eyes, I’m just wasting precious time—as if going to bed is somehow an act of surrender, a way of letting life pass me by while I’m unconscious. 🤷