Wow fairy play, i think you're a rare mindset in that case who does not feel the need for as much outside confirmation as most of us. Have you always been that way? I definitely have not always been aware if it or able to think about it. It's a much more recent development.
In line with what you are saying however, when i think back about the way i was behaving whilst working at my job as a manager, now i see it like this- the job it's self was the recognition that i could accomplish those tasks and was able to problem solve. I got promoted to that role, that was the recognition from the directors. Just like you said, the degree was the reward, not the praise at the graduation. I've asked my self well yeah you took a managers role, did you think it would be easy? that is why they have managers if everything was smooth running they wouldn't need one.
I've noticed the same type of behaviour across social media. There are lots of people doing charitable acts for those less fortunate then themselves, my self included. But i don't post about it across social media accounts. I don't see the need. There have been times where things like facebook have been used to turn the project into something bigger, for example making Christmas gift boxes for homeless people. If i had just told my friends about it, we would have had probably 10 pr 15 boxes to donate. But sharing that on facebook resulted in over 60 boxes being donated which was truly incredible. So on the one hand it's a powerful tool to bring people together and get the word out that something is going on, but there is also a trend of showing off or bragging about what you have done too. Although i don't suppose i care that if you bought a homless guy some lunch that you put it on facebook and got 100 likes. The homeless guy had some lunch today, that's what matters.
This post has turned into such an interesting conversation with a few different people. Thank you for taking the time to reply :)
I've always been very comfortable doing my own thing and going on my own journeys. I was never one who fit it, nor did I attempt to fit it. I am very slow to make friends, and I'm sure that my lowered need for validation is probably a part of that.
As far as social media goes... I don't even know where to start. There is such a culture of bragging and showing off that is perpetuated there. I have great difficulty understanding it, but there are many things I don't understand about the Internet still. For instance, why in the world would someone take a staged photo to pretend like they were in a place there didn't actually go? I recently read about a girl who pretended, via social media, to visit Paris or somewhere. Of course, she was found out. But I can't understand why someone would feel the need to pretend this in the first place.
As for the acts of charity, Facebook now asks you to "donate your birthday to charity." It's such an odd request... The vast majority of my Facebook friends wouldn't think of giving me a gift on my birthday. Why am I going to ask them for money for a charity instead of a non-existent gift? I think it goes back to the self-affirmation. The act of donating your birthday makes the birthday asker feel good, while the friend who wasn't going to give you anything anyway can now think more highly of the birthday person for being so generous. However, very little good is actually done for the charity. It's like a feedback loop.
And yes, real discussions and conversations like this one are gems. :-)