Our Fascination With Numbers

I wonder about this fascination with numbers.

Grades. Money. Viewership. Word count. Pages. Number of Facebook fans, friends and 'like's.

There is a derivation of self-confidence - perhaps even outright glee - as these numbers increase.

Have these numbers become cheap drugs to boost one's confidence? Have they become substitutes for the spiritual emptiness, the existential angst that we feel?

These numbers look so reassuring. Clean. Angular. Neat. They promise rewards. They bring joy - fleeting joy but, nevertheless, still joy. And this joy drowns all voices of discontent, all those voices that whisper 'something isn't right'.

These numbers distract us from finding what that is truly hurting, truly missing and requires soothing.

Sometimes, chasing after numbers is a choice that we make. To scale the corporate ladder, to fatten our wallets, to live in a larger penthouse. To have legions of online 'friends' or high number of page visits.

And, sometimes, obsessing over numbers is not a matter of choice, but a matter of survival.

What a strange world, this world of ours.