Sunglasses and Identity: The Hilarious Psychology of Decision Making in Dark Glasses

The Sunglass Brigade:

Sunglasses have become a fashion staple. And why not? They have a coolness about them that makes everyone look posh and neat. There was a time when wearing Sunglasses was just to protect our eyes from UV radiation. But that was also a time when we depended on wall clocks to tell the time.

I mean, where selfies dominate social media and in turn, our fragile sense of self; where dark circles are getting darker due to insomnia and the greed to finish off watching the next K Pop series in one night, it only makes sense that we hide a lot under those dark brimmed glasses. Isn’t it?

Sunglasses or Status Symbols?

Sunglasses have become so important that the most materialistic Punjabi songwriters also can’t help but write about it. Take the case of Badshah, he usually writes about Lamberghanis and Ferraris when he gets free from objectifying women and spreading ideas of materialistic dominance. He also wrote about the Sunglasses: Kalachashma, anyone?

And whether you’re comfortable admitting this or not, Sunglasses and their big-brand logos also double in as cool status symbols. I’m not saying they don’t serve a purpose! They do. Wearing dark glasses while driving on a bright sunny day is cool, literally. They act as dust screens on long drives. 

Sunglasses Gone Wrong!

There was this time when a lady was arguing furiously with a poor street vendor about the color of a cloth in a gloomy flee market and the poor vendor was helplessly venting: “Chashma nikal ke ek baar dekh lijiye madam!”. Let us assume that she had a perfectly clear understanding of the colors.

Even so, would it hurt to take her dark chocolate brims off just for the sake of the poor man? At least he’d sleep in peace knowing that the lady at least knew the color of the cloth she didn’t buy but argued about!

Sunglasses and Just-Look-Cool Philosophy:

If done right, Sunglasses can make any outfit look cool. We can all agree there. But what’s up with the chronic need to go overboard and wear them in dim lights and closed spaces? Be it the gloomy interiors of a museum or a bustling street market approaching the dim darkness of the dawn, these glasses never come off. And I always wonder, why! Can coolness be an excuse to be totally impractical? Is it?

I feel horrified and embarrassed for people in Sunglasses at places requiring an elevated sense of vision. I mean, Why visit an art museum wearing those dark glasses when you can’t enjoy the beauty and richness of its vivid-rich visual detail?

Why do you wear those dark glasses in those dimly lit restaurants where they play lite instrumental music while I sit there saying silent prayers HOPING that you don’t trip and fall face down on my smoking hot coriander- lemon soup!!?

Sunglasses and Identity Crisis:

I don’t want to make you all reflective with guilt-trips telling you how the visually impaired can never see the beauty and brilliance of the world while some of us choose to numb our world down with Sunglasses. 

Sunglasses here are just an analogy for all the things we do to keep up an image, for false prestige, for feeling ok to present ourselves to the world. It is a reminder of all the money we spend on things we don’t need, just to uphold our fragile status quos. 

We all do so many things unconsciously without looking into what we are doing and for what reason. You do it, I do it, my landlord does it. But every time we choose to do something against our informed common sense, we are placing a higher value on something other than it. And it can be fun, in an eye-opening kind of way to discover that.

We wear sunglasses to art museums and dark interiors, not because of our inability to identify it is taking away a part of our visual experience from us; but because we place more value on looking constantly “cool”. And when we inspect this fixation with the constant need to look better, we may find a deeper insecurity or desperation for approval, or just plain love for the damned dark glasses.

Whatever the reason is, it is ok. As long as you are consciously choosing it.

First Article Concept by: Mr. Krio

Developmental Rewrite by: Pavani Sairam