The Downside of Adaptation

Are humans doing ‘Adaptation’ wrong?

Life’s ability to adapt is a subject that has always fascinated me. The way echidnas evolved backward feet to dig better or Lithops succulents evolving a rock-like appearance to avoid being eaten by predators blows my mind every time I think about it. Inevitably I start thinking of the ways modern humans adapt and while I doubt we’ll be growing backwards feet anytime soon, I feel like our adaptations are mostly psychological and social.

It reminds me of my first life drawing class with a nude model or the first time I went to a Korean bathhouse (I’m aware both involve naked people but I swear it was unintentional, haha). You feel awkward, you don’t know where to look and you mostly just want to get out of there but once you realize no one even notices you, you sorta get used to it. Likewise, after a handful of life drawing sessions I got completely used to the fact there was a completely naked stranger posing in front of me. The model could be tangled up like a human pretzel, full junk out and all, and no one would even bat an eye.

I would argue that these are good adjustments. But what of the negative things we adapt to without noticing? Those things we assimilate subconsciously. Sneaky little things that cause discomfort the first couple of times but eventually we end up accepting like, for example, letting people walk all over you, bullying from family simply because “they’re family” or not confronting people when we catch them lying or gaslighting us.

We’re adapting to things we shouldn’t be adapting to. The cool kids these days call it “normalizing”. We become numb and just let things be. But they shouldn’t be. Can we make the conscious decision to not habituate to certain things and behaviors, to settle?

I, for one, decided to stop allowing people to disrespect my time. Another small adaptation that I’ve acquired recently after moving to a new country and that I’ve decided to reverse is not greeting people when I enter a store or an elevator. It just doesn’t feel right to me.

Adapt or die, but you might also want to be careful not to let your adaptations kill you. It’s all in Darwin after all…isn’t it? So, what is one adaptation that you would like to willingly reverse?

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