Magic as a social tool.

Mark · 02-23-2012, 01:01 PM

I'd say it depends on how you approach it. If you learn magic merely to impress your friends and to try to get a girlfriend and such, you probably won't be serious enough about it and you most likely will end up looking like a 'guy doing tricks' instead of a 'magician'.

That said, there are people who teach magic to others for the sake of boosting these people's self-confidence (it is easy to teach a self-working card trick to someone who lacks confidence in the real world, that they can go out and are able to connect with others using that card trick, easier than with other art forms really). In that case, the art would be merely a social tool (of its purest kind), unless the person in question wants to move on in the art.

If magic is learned (and taught) for a totally different reason than the magic itself and there is dedication towards that goal, this is not a bad thing. An example of that is that magic is taught as a confidence-booster as described. (If you do that, you would still have to make sure that the art remains its secrecy though, not that whoever you helped out ends up exposing it. If the person wants to move on in the art, this would definitely be the best-case scenario.)

If magic is learned for the magic, you better be serious about it, or about trying it. If it is learned with the goal to merely impress friends and getting a girlfriend, I'd say this is a bad thing because in this case there usually is a terrible lack of dedication, which in case of actual magicians and in case of for instance the confidence-boosting is very present, regardless of what the dedication is aimed at.

02-23-2012, 01:01 PM	#1
Mark Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 935	I'd say it depends on how you approach it. If you learn magic merely to impress your friends and to try to get a girlfriend and such, you probably won't be serious enough about it and you most likely will end up looking like a 'guy doing tricks' instead of a 'magician'. That said, there are people who teach magic to others for the sake of boosting these people's self-confidence (it is easy to teach a self-working card trick to someone who lacks confidence in the real world, that they can go out and are able to connect with others using that card trick, easier than with other art forms really). In that case, the art would be merely a social tool (of its purest kind), unless the person in question wants to move on in the art. If magic is learned (and taught) for a totally different reason than the magic itself and there is dedication towards that goal, this is not a bad thing. An example of that is that magic is taught as a confidence-booster as described. (If you do that, you would still have to make sure that the art remains its secrecy though, not that whoever you helped out ends up exposing it. If the person wants to move on in the art, this would definitely be the best-case scenario.) If magic is learned for the magic, you better be serious about it, or about trying it. If it is learned with the goal to merely impress friends and getting a girlfriend, I'd say this is a bad thing because in this case there usually is a terrible lack of dedication, which in case of actual magicians and in case of for instance the confidence-boosting is very present, regardless of what the dedication is aimed at.