Social media is utter madness!
It is a treacherous and deceitful world of lies and pretence. One can easily feel trapped amidst the likes, views and shares.
The Who, What and Why questions of the world have been feeling lonely lately. It's perhaps worth addressing them from time to time. To what end, you might ask. Well, even if it doesn't meet a specific end, it would surely keep an inquisitive mind alive.
Remember the Renaissance? Oh wait, did you prefer the Dark Age?!
Back to social media.
It has been an immense boon to us. Specially in times like these when we are confined within the four walls of our home, our state, our country...depending on those colourful graphs and numbers that the COVID tracking sites put up and refresh every minute.
It has become so easy to connect with our loved ones. Everyone is literally on everyone's fingertips.
It is a fact...all sorts of long distance relationships... friendship, family, love... none of them could have been sustained under these circumstances through the Postal Service alone.
However, there is always a flip side!
It annoys me how everything is packed and locked in a box these days. Yeah, I mean the phone and the computer.
If I have to connect with someone I open the box and speak. If I want to hear back from someone, I open the box ten times an hour to check if they have bothered to respond back.
It is annoying how FaceTime now stands for videos calls and not people actually "face"-ing each other for real and spending quality "time". Okay, COVID ruined it bigtime but anyway, were we still not having real conversations when we met face to face. All that mattered was taking Insta worth selfies or creating new posts for the feed.
We had lost the human connect long before COVID. Let's face it!
To be honest, I had made my peace with it. Okay, people now are all about FOMO and YOLO...and that is so evident all over their social accounts. It is kind of ironic how you can have fear of missing out when you are in reality missing out on the whole Human Experience!
Another thing that bugs me like crazy is the desperate need to seek validation. It confounds me.
The need for approval has forever eluded me. Perhaps, I am odd. Perhaps, others need a better perspective. Who's to say!
Wait, don't go yet... hear me out.
I get it! Fame is akin to massive acceptance...the acknowledgement of one's achievements and an overwhelming validation of one's talents.
Somehow I find it extremely disturbing.
On a not so unrelated note, I am often asked why I don't pursue photography actively anymore. I shrug off the query with a nonchalant "Huh"...
Two reasons:
1. I wanted to spend more time experiencing and quenching my thirst for the Human Experience...that is way more important to me than capturing the experience. FOMO YOLO and all that!
2. At that point of time (pre 2015 days), almost everyone who had sufficient funds at their disposal, took up a DSLR and called themselves a photographer. It was a major turn off for me, honestly.
I didn't feel the need or the urge to seek mass approval. The quality of photographs being churned out on social media by these "photographers" was super diluted now, so was the audience's expectations. I didn't feel like playing the game anymore.
I do have a couple of friends who are exceptional photographers and I have been fortunate enough to have done some quality photography in their company (2011-2015 days) and I still follow their work and share mine with them. Come on, I have this in my genes. How can I not be friends with the camera!
For those who don't know, my maternal great great grandfather was a pioneer in the field of photography and videography in India. My eldest maternal uncle has taken up the reins now.
Read more about my grandfather (one of the founders of the Hungry Generation) and my family history on the web: My Awesome Ancestors
Evidently, I never quit photography. I just don't put them out on social media anymore, at least not with the purpose of getting one million likes. A photograph is a moment frozen in time. It is a beautiful memory. A photograph taken by me is my memory, created by me and the Universe, captured through my lenses, my visual compositions...precious to me. Not for public consumption. Even if it was posted online, it is only because I wanted to share the memory, not because I am looking for public validation or approval for my talents.
The desperate need to seek approval is sickening. Am sure, as we speak, some analytical mind somewhere is already working on some research in the field of mental health studies along these lines.
A whole bunch of us have lived our lives solely and completely in the pursuit of approval and acceptance. Is it not suffocating? I find it exceedingly disturbing.
We have been programmed to seek appreciation and approval. Behavioral psychology, anyone?
It is a random competition where the talented is fighting neck to neck with the mediocre by the sheer power of numbers.
Some of us go to such lengths to attain approval that failure leads to self destructive behaviour. The fear of negative outcome pushes us even further down the hole till we spiral out of control.
There isn't always a Wonderland down the Rabbit Hole.
I won't lie, I try but I just cannot align myself to this behaviour. I find it pointlessly painful and I love my mental peace and a good night's sleep!
In a world where dinchak performers are hated and viewed a zillion time and artists are rumoured to have bought views, I am too ordinary to even try!
What is 1 Lakh anyway, just 0.0001 Billions... so those many reasons why!
