Being Social

Opens instagram.

11 p.m: Taps on all the stories to see what friends are upto. Checks the notifications. Comments on #MajorTB posts by college and school friends.

(Continues scrolling on insta)

11.30: A notification pops up from WhatsApp. A friend texts reminding about the assignment due the next day. Opens the pdf and starts copying the assignment.

11.40: Makes a snap while doing the assignment on Snapchat and sends to everyone so as to maintain the streak.

11.50: Posts on insta story, restricts the story to only close friends.

12:00:- Friends start replying "padhaku". Replies to each one of them.

12.30 a.m.: Opens Facebook and finds hilarious memes on some celebrity. Comments #relatable and tags 3 other friends. Takes screenshot and sends to WhatsApp groups. Chats and guffaws with the friends for a while till everyone doses off.

2.00: Keeps the phone away but a notification pops in from you tube about the release of a trailer that is happening the next week. Checks the teasers.

3.00: watches all the related videos from you tube recommendations.

4:00 :Bored yet inquisitive, checks the trends on twitter. Adds a few tweets to all the trolls and negativity.

5:00: Endlessly reads tweets and stalks the eminent ones involved in controversy on Instagram. Suddenly realises the assignment is pending and decides to do it in the morning. Checks mail and realises there are many more pending work to be done.

5:15 :Opens Pinterest finds quotes about hardwork and posts on WhatsApp stories.

5:30: Puts a story on Insta titled "Insomniac" and sleeps.

Did you find it relatable? Yes?

No, this is not my schedule . I think this is how most of the millenials and GenZ are living their life. Only on the screen. Only in the virtual world. For validation.For instant gratification.

No, I am not someone whom these habits eschew. Yes, most of us are guilty for living our life like this.

Do you remember the last time you had a one-to- one heartfelt conversation with your neighbours? Oh, you are not on good terms?

Okay. Do you remember the last time you had the morning tea or milk or coffee with your father 6 in the morning? Oh, you had just slept!

I will not be writing this just to make us all feel guilty about how our generation is wired with an algorithm or how our day to day lives are coded to do the specific works only. Lets talk about the wider idea.

Until I watched The Social Dilemma, I would loath myself for my increased screen time, for being so active on social media. Hey, but wait! Is social media only a luxury that it used to be or a necessity?

Lets answer this:-

I don't think I will be able to attend my classes and do good in college without Whatsapp(Most of the assignments,the class links are shared on whatsapp). I will hardly be able to network with peers, alumni without LinkedIn. Instagram, Facebook is essential for all kinds of competitions and society work.

It is not just us to blame. Yes, digitisation has made everything a click away but at what cost? All around us we can only see fake news being circulated, hateful trolls taking a toll on our mental health. Chaos, hate negativity enveloping us.

More often than not, after reading two opinions, I find myself in a conundrum. I wonder which opinion should I second and defend?

After reading two different statistics for an event, I find myself in a labyrinth wondering which is credible? Which source should I trust and quote?

And if someone chooses to have no opinion on a topic, he/she is considered and branded as privileged. Privileged because that issue doesn't effect them, so they don't decide to stand up for it.

Often friends argue and have a banter about political parties which strains their friendships,solely based on social media posts.

The purpose of social media was to connect us and now it invariably divides us, tracks us, keeps a watch at us. Have you read 1984,where George Orwell addresses this issue? Have you read the line "Big Brother is watching you"?

Oh, I forgot, reading is too 60s. I am sorry, I forgot we are millennials. We have phones.

The other day, I was talking to a friend about a course in finance and now I get ads on YouTube, Instagram, Google about the best sources to do my course from. This helps me in selecting my course. But then I am continuously tracked down. I searched for "ethnic wears" on Myntra and now I am scrolling and stalking some influencers' page on Instagram that was recommended to me through ads. After wasting an hour scrolling on insta and checkin' for trends I lampoon myself for wasting time hardly realising that my psyche is being used here. My psyche is being used for someone else's benefit.

I am not going to say, that 'The social Dilemma' baffled me or I didn't know about it. It's just that impact happens when a collective conscience decides to acknowledge a problem, a habit or a behaviour. The social dilemma has been able to do so.

And as it was written in 1984 by George Orwell

"Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."

I hope we realize the importance of this quote sooner.