Why can’t the majority of people think for themselves?

What have we done to get us to this point in life where people are far more concerned about what other people think of them, rather than what they think of themselves?
Do you think the majority is aware of this problem?

Because being an individual isn’t a natural state for people unless they’re encouraged into it.
Think about it – your entire life you are living with/for your family. Once your birth family has less sway it is replaced with the family of your friends.
It’s a survival trait on some level – people who are exiled from groups must suffer horribly. There’s a reason why this used to be one of the worst punishments you could get.

I have a theory that we spend too much time on social networks like this and we listen to a ton of opinions (most of which completely worthless). We forget mechanically that we are thinking alike and we become more dependent of our fellow species. A lot of people don’t know how to spend a valuable time with themselves. We think about other people so much that we don’t have time to daydream! @Bird, I don’t believe in your last paragraph. It must be the other way around – to get the fuck out of the group where you feel like you’re punishing yourself.

Well, it’s the worst punishment you can imagine if you want to be in the group.
If you couldn’t give a fuck, then it doesn’t really matter one way or the other.

I don’t remember when exactly but it was a decent time ago when I found this article. It makes perfect sense.
http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Class/Psy301/Niederhoffer/Articles/spotlight.html

I don’t think the majority is aware of this problem. I am sure that some people understand it, but they forget it afterwards. Or at least they don’t act like they are aware of it, which is surprising.

It’s so observable that the least popular, most awkward people I know are those who are terrified about what people are gonna think of them, and always trying to calculate what they think they might be supposed to say. The people everyone looks up to are those who couldn’t give a shit what people think of them. Be on that side.

Social conditioning. This society would never work if people think for themselves.

What would the world be like if everybody thought for themselves? I mean a society would work for the people who believe in it’s principles. If you chose and understand those values then it’s possible it can work. Things just would NOT be the same.

@DantheMan That would require the destruction of this society and the creation of a new one. That seems to be what’s happening now, fortunately.

The reason why we are capable of complex logical reasoning is probably because we live in complex societies where it actually matters what the rest of the group thinks about you. It’s the basis of our social nature, and our forebrains evolved probably as a result of keeping check of how we feel about others and trying to reason what others feel towards ourselves.
In other words, the fact that we care about what others think about us is the reason we think at all!
What makes you believe it was ever different?

I dono what ppl think, it doesn’t matter :)

People can’t think for themselves because we have, somehow, developed a society where by many people think they have a ‘right’ to many things, without actually having to work for it. And when the things they do receive go completely tits up, they again have the ‘right’ to have it replaced or fixed without having to work towards it. It cyclical. And I see it in one form or another everyday.
One good example today was workers ‘rights’ the government should be providing jobs.

To answer your question, I’d say over population was a big contributor. Over population mixed with an over changing perception of cool and whats pretty. Over time people just wanted to be liked by other people.
I think that music has a relation to a form of intelligence, I see it every wheres. Sure smart there’s a group of smart folks who enjoy many genres. But there’s a lot of deep intellectuals who make music and instead of the average mindless girl at a bar.

I believe that caring about what others think of you definitely serves a purpose for the basic things that keep us alive and healthy, such as taking showers and not killing others. Sociopaths will kill somebody because of the fact that they do not care about what others think of them (i.e. the criminal justice system). But I do feel, especially here in America, that society has unbalanced this (individual thinking vs. caring about what others think) to the extreme. I don’t give a shit to a certain extent about what people think about me as a person, but I do to the point where I’m not going to go around acting a fool and disrespecting others.