Do you believe in authenticity/being yourself?

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I kind of don’t. None of those are well-defined terms. I guess a better term for me would be sustainable. I can sustain changing the way my voice sounds since I hate my natural voice with a passion. I’m used to changing it, so it’s no big deal for me most of the time. I can also dress in a way where I more or less blend in, but still express myself. I like style to communicate for me a lot of the time. I’ve also tried to get better at keeping up with current events to avoid talking about special interests.

Back in the day, when I would try to "be myself", others told me that I should stop trying to be someone else.  These were the same people who told me to be myself in the first place.  Nowadays, being myself means not caring what other people think in regard to whom or what I should and should not be.  I feel better for it, too.

I don't worry much at all about trying to be what someone else wants me to be.

I have never been too sure what "being yourself" actually means. I feel like I change to fit in with people at work etc. I work as a hotel receptionist and I am always polite to guests checking in and smile at them - but to me that is not who I am. I suppose I am good at acting!
However, I don't follow fashions (never have) and I prefer to wear all black clothing as it makes me inconspicuous. I guess that is being myself?

I think the more dedicated writers on this topic [Kierkegaard/Sartre] were concerned with being authentic to ones-self - by avoiding self deception.

A lot of people values are prepackaged and downloaded from their culture. Being authentic to to yourself sometimes means being a misfit. SO it that senses, i am authentic. Extremely and awkwardly SO.

I very much like the idea of being myself and being authentic as opposed to being a fake. I don't do much pretending, but the way I behave towards people can be rather different to the way I'd behave if I just let myself go. I feel I have to filter everything so as not to hurt people's feelings or weird them out. I used to feel it as a great strain having to be that way, particularly not feeling allowed to lose my temper and tell people what I think of them, but I suppose over the years I've become used to it. I don't think it's wise to throw all discretion and inhibition to the winds. I think the idea of being yourself just means try not to interfere with your nature so much that you become a complete fake, don't lose yourself in social gloss and schmooze. I don't think there's much chance of that happening to me. I can't even pretend to be interested in what somebody's telling me, I'd feel I was being dishonest if I did.

I do notice that some people come over as more genuine than others, and I prefer those who do, even if they're grumpy. I don't like having to figure out whether people mean it when they give me compliments, and if they don't truly like something about me, I wish they wouldn't tell me that they did. I can't stand it when somebody posts a picture of a their kids on social media and a load of people wade in saying how beautiful they are. I don't believe they all really think that, I think most of them just make it up to ingratiate themselves. I wouldn't like myself if I did that.

No I believe "my true self" is never good enough so am always working on a better mask to present to the world.

I believe in "being polite." It's not really "faking."

When I was in my 20s, I used to want to present a "rebellious, Beat image." People saw right through me. I was actually a very "square" type. So I acted more like myself as I got older. I acted like a person who likes to dress sort of conservatively----but is "liberal" in thought.

People tend to associate "being nasty" with "being real." I really don't agree with that.

You're not "faking" if you treat people like you want to be treated.

As far as other people are concerned...honestly, I learned that most people just believe a load of hogwash; jumbled together, accidental messes from the bad side of emergent complexity. I stopped taking most people's advice awhile ago.

I just do what I need to do.

The idea of 'being' myself never made sense to me. I wasn't the type to fake success. Attempting to weave and maintain a web of lies was far far far more work than reward, and no matter what you'll always be found out unless people just don't even care to bother. Instead, trust was a far more valuable resource to build on.

At the same time, though, if I didn't catter to the whims of the less ethical and intelligent people with power over me I'd only suffer for it and gain nothing, not to mention how useless trust is when the ethically compromised are involved. And I'm a strong proponent of mutualism, so I don't care to treat people who'd harm me with much ethical consideration.

And in any case, the bigger issue regarding 'myself' had always been who I am (as in, I had no idea), which often went by the wayside because of the more pressing problem of how to deal with all the problems I was facing, and the mountainous lack of answers to all my questions.

So my answer would be no, I don't believe it because for me it's a stupid idea.