I Express - Pursuit of expression

It was recently at a party that someone asked me: "Hey? You have already written 50 blogs on interesting topics. The blogs were insightful and thought-provoking too. So, are you aiming to be a life guru, a big-time influencer?"

I just stood there wondering at this 'pre-packed mindset'. What it essentially means is that as my follower base slowly increases I become an 'influencer'?

Is there nothing else apart from being an 'influencer'? Why do we compartmentalize everything in such a hard and fast manner...I wondered.

After a little thought I said: "No, I started my blogging journey to express my thoughts, to share my feeling, and to lay open my life's experiences to people. Whether it was sharing my thoughts with one person or be it to many, it did not matter. My creativity will lose its core meaning and sanctitiy if you add the tag “influencer”. So no I am not an influencer path.

I express...that’s why I called my blog – iBlog (Insight Blog)

Millennials today are influenced by FB, Insta pics and the entire gamut of virtual interaction. They are forever projecting a ‘filtered’ image they want others to see. Their ‘hidden real self’ is cloistered in the cupboards and their wardrobe is filled with hidden skeletons. So in effect what you see is the person's doppelganger.

Why is there this double effect or the “filter effect” I wonder; this virtual image, the visual effect that is seen in every area of life? Is this what we call 'influencing' today?

This is because everyone out there is trying to impact our attitudes, our mindsets. Before we know it we begin to look like "factory production" products just like those whom we "follow" on insta or FB. We speak in the weirdly shortened Whatsapp lingo and use emoji/emoticons to articulate emotions. 

I know that the need and aspiration to look good is as old as a hat. As of today this aspiration is being taken to a bizarre level. Yes, in jest I call it 'bizarre bazaar'.

Curating lives to look good and not to show reality can give rise to a twisted social environment. That is why through my blogs, I express but not influence. I am not an influencer but an 'expressor'!

Influencers are mainly about self-love and unreal life’s metrics. Its about setting such high standards that it is impossible to maintain it. Boosting their page and getting paid advertisements is their main aim. Such influencers only want to pump up their wallets. Simply put, an influencer is about a fat bank balance, being popular and having a million followers.

I want to ask here, where is transformation of a life or touching people's hearts?

The singular focus on impressing our follower and expanding follower base has made us hanker for money, foreign travel and everything that glitters. For all this shine, money is the only essential component that matters. In my experience, I have observed that focusing to get rich leads to depression and other such concerns.

I want you all to recall the blog I wrote on my midnight trek. I remember mentioning that I had undertaken a night-time sojourn to tackle my fears. I was open about my fears and it did not matter that my image as a macho man will come under attack. I was least concerned about losing my followers because I was not showing my human side in face of an challenging trek. (In fact, that is one of my blogs for which I got a resounding praises and claps from all those who read it.)   

Hell no, many situations in life beat that alpha male in me. I am not shy to express that I am an ordinary Joe to feel the fear but strong enough fight it. I am human yet daring to say I am not alpha every day.

How many people will do that? They will project a confident, rocking image about themselves which perhaps is not true.

Through the above, I reiterate the right values and ethos of life. There is neither any misgiving nor any misleading. The virtual world of the “Perfect People” has resulted in many of us become sad and lonely. I wonder how prominent this ailment was before the Internet explosion. However, judging by the number of suicides today it seems that this scenario is a present-day epidemic. 

How right is it to value wrong ideals? To set our bar of fake impersonification of self and allowing others to define us with that yardstick.

I express:

I am on the journey to be an expressor, to build a conduit and do something different and of deeper meaning in this world.

By sharing my insights and experience I hope to show others a different scenario. I have my own set of opinions to shake up my world. And because I am not an influencer but someone who expresses, I strive to make things better for others around me. I will go beyond the visual effect.

It’s my time now to step into my power, be a leader of substance, and have an effective expression. 

“I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

#stayinspired