Which societal norms and behaviors have you realized are mostly done because of brainwashing or obligation?

I feel like I could’ve started living a more authentic and happy life sooner if I’d come to realize that I was only doing certain things out of obligation or because that’s just what I was socially conditioned to think I should do.

I wanted to create a list of some of these things hoping that it could help someone. It could even include something like not falling for basic marketing tactics.

My contribution to this is the need to get good grades just to be a perfect student and to get into a prestigious school, and not actually caring about learning the subject. I felt like I was obsessed with the numbers, the accolades, prestige, awards, titles, etc. I would cram information at the last second, get an A, then forget it, and somehow I felt accomplished by that even though I would then forget everything