Asocial Media

Social Media is about voyeurism. Wanting to see what is happening in another person’s life. And I am beginning to find it a bit odd!

Such was not always the case. I found a lot of solace in Social Media for a very long time. Reasons could be many – to be in touch with lost friends (that’s good), to see what is happening in the other person’s life (why?), to feed one’s own addiction of perverse voyeurism (??) and the need to be accessible to the whole world. And be accepted, of course!

Now a few questions do come up in my head like what the need may have been to put myself out to the whole world? Was it to be acknowledged and to seek their approval? I guess so. What drives a person to seek approval from the virtual realities they call friends or connections.

The motives, if primarily are to network, to find work, is still acceptable. Many marketing strategies have been adopted worldwide that teach professionals to use social media to build on their businesses and to reach out to the masses so that they get work. There is an integrity in this “in your face” marketing. The motive is clear – to be in your face. Its honest at many levels.

Its when a person wants to be known and be famous wearing the mask of wanting to help the world, supposedly, by sharing quotes is where I am beginning to feel a disconnect. The makings of a pseudo intellectual; I have been there too. It worked for the time it need to but it doesn’t titillate any sense any longer. I didn’t help anyone. I just got X no of likes and comments. Some things that rung a bell with people may have been imbibed but whose credit is it? Obviously theirs. Then why did I feel a sense of narcissistic power?

I guess media in every form has a common goal under the garb of educating and entertaining – to instill a deep sense of fear about the world that we live in. Pick up the newspaper and the news that catches your eye first is about an explosion, murder, obituaries, rape etc. Switch on the TV and the channels with the maximum TRP are the “saas bahu” serials where in every episode there is crying, deceit, anger, jealousy. Change the channel to see a channel on animals and what do you see? A channel where the Tiger or Lion is killing its prey. And our eye balls are clued till the time the poor antelope or deer is not ripped apart by the biggies. Switch to a supposedly holistic channel and you will have a “guru” give some “gyan” about to improve your life by wearing stones, rings, metals etc.

Have we lost faith in God and our own humanity that we need to keep feeding into our fears by interacting (hardly interacting because response time is slow) with gore? All this is gory.

I attended a lecture about Obsessive Compulsive Disorders and Addictions a while back and one of the strongest addictions that were spoken of were the internet and technology. And it scared the hell out of me because it made me think of all the times, I chose to be on the internet pretending to work so I didn’t have to help in the kitchen. I hid from the true realities of a beautiful life to beat something that lacked within me – the confidence that its all great. That is what happens when you break the connection with your heart and just use the mind.

There may not be anything wrong in being a mind thinker – lots of great people are. The problem may begin when the connection with the heart is not restored and renewed from time to time. To give benefit of doubt, sometimes a situation demands, like prolonged sickness, to shut the connection with the heart because I find that it is extremely difficult to be a caregiver by being emotional. Life becomes about rules and regulations, procedures, maps, directions, duality etc. For the time, it works; it is great. But then the heart is where the beat is – the rhythm is. And if you are essentially a heart thinker – this switch if not regulated properly, can create havoc, if the switch is not put back.

Sometimes an electric shock is required to realise that the heart doesn’t need the internet or the social media platform which have the ability to consume you. Sometimes, you need a jolt to hear your heart beat. Sometimes, you need you.