Granted we're such a social species that every decision no matter how personal will be informed by the influence of other people to some degree. But you can still consciously choose to weigh your options yourself instead of letting others do it for you. I think society has become so much more hierarchical and restrictive as of late, if not downright oppressive. Not in the way a feudal society was, but in a way where those hierarchies and arbitrary rules are more subtle but more numerous. The following is a tangentially related observation, but maybe the reason autism is such a big deal now is not because doctors suddenly figured out how to diagnose it, but rather because autistic people struggle more now that they're being born in huge cities surrounded by millions of people they can't easily relate to or connect with, expected to follow a very narrow set path their whole lives, etc