It’s your world & we’re just living in it

DIVING INTO THE MAIN CHARACTER TIKTOK TREND

By Elizabeth Karnowski, Staff Writer Illustrated by Emma Gray, Assistant Art Curator

“You have to start romanticizing your life, you have to start thinking of yourself as the main character because if you don’t — life will continue to pass you by.”1 The main character complex has become a rising trend on TikTok. If you’ve ever imagined yourself being in a music video or a dramatic scene in a movie, that is the main character complex at work. Acting as the main character is a powerful dynamic — it’s dreamy, invigorating and a feeling we should strive to feel more. When you romanticize yourself, it almost feels like an escape from the real world. People thinking of themselves as the main character can be an empowering experience. Through your eyes, you are the “it” person and that’s all that matters. While it’s important to live life to the fullest and have these empowering main character moments, this complex can also be harmful. One thing that makes life so beautiful is making mistakes — it’s part of the human experience to be wrong and flawed. Valuing and celebrating the life you’re living is beautiful but does not exempt you from flawed human nature and inevitably messing up. The main character complex is similar to the phrase “I’m not like other girls,” however, there are some clear differences between the two. The main character complex focuses more so on taking control of your own life, whereas the phrase “I’m not like other girls” focuses on being the main character as a way to impress other people. When you ‘become’ the main character of your life, you should avoid sitting on a pedestal. What happens when we all think of ourselves as the main character? Then whose story is it? If everyone around you is the main character of their life, what does being the main character even mean at all?

According to “On Being The Main Character of Your Own Life,” by Michael Karson, a professor of psychology at the University of Denver, being the main character doesn’t mean everything is always about you. “Recognition that everyone is the main character of their own story can lead to a sense of ensemble, by which I mean devotion to the quality of the experience rather than to one’s role in it,” Karson wrote for Psychology Today.2 In some ways, it’s almost impossible to say who is the main character. When hanging out with a group of people, everyone’s storylines merge into one. It’s more important to savor those moments rather than to fight over who is taking place in whose story at that moment of time. If embodied correctly, the main character complex can allow us to unify within one storyline. You must believe you are the main character of your life, because who else would be? If you aren’t taking the path you want to take, no amount of waiting, planning or imagination will get you there.3 Likewise, you have to push yourself through the difficult times in life because not everything will be handed to you just the way you want it.

Thinking of yourself as the main character isn’t necessarily narcissistic as long as you use your mindset as a way for bettering yourself and not prioritizing your life and opinions as more important than others. ■

2 Michael Karson, “On Being The Main Character of Your Own Life”, Psychology Today, January 6, 2015 3 Nicolas Cole, “How To See Your Life As A Game--And Yourself As The Main Character”, Medium.