Not anymore, I grew out of it. I’m in my mid-40s now, and after decades of being the weird, nerdy guy who had people wondering whether he might be gay because he doesn’t have a girlfriend (spoiler: yes, he is) I’ve given up caring.

People I’m close to will talk to me instead of talking about me, and everyone else can talk whatever they want. I don’t need to know what they’re saying about me because I don’t need the whole world to like me.

Personally, I also don’t participate in gossiping about others at all, and I find it disgusting how many people think they have a right to judge others.

I think it highly depends on who does the talking. If it’s people I do not care about, I am also not interested and/or bothered. If it is people that mean something to me I AM interested in their opinion about me which they communicate while talking about me. I will not go „out of my way“ to find out what they are saying, but I am curious at least.

No, definitely not bothered. But it wasn’t always this way. I was very self-conscious from my teenage years up to the first few years when I started working full-time.

It was only when I started working that I had to learn to deal with it. I was always taking feedback and criticisms very personally and as an introvert, felt extremely down plenty of times.

I taught myself to see things from the perspective and scale of the world - 7 billion people out there, what does it matter that a few people think of what I do, or what I am?

Of course, cutting out social media definitely helped a lot too. I still have my accounts, but have stopped using them actively, at least the ones that expose my personal life.

With social media out of the picture, I was comparing myself to my peers a lot less and spent much more time on productive things instead - learning a new language, skills, picking up new hobbies and all.

It’s not easy, but it is liberating once you figure it out.