Of Knee-Jerk Reactions and Short-Termism of Modern Life.

So I took a break from the world of internet for around 44 hours.

And boy, do I realize how the world of the internet is intertwined with the world we live in. In fact, the extent to which the two merge is so unreal that without the internet, you do feel more distant from the things that are happening around you.

I chose a convenient day to skip my daily access to the internet: May 23, also the day the results of the general election results in India. While I was able to follow the results as they came on TV, the fact I blocked myself from social media till the next evening allowed me to miss most of the social media reactions to the results. It is not that I didn’t have an opinion, but I looked at the events differently from most others who seemed to have really strong and polar opinions to the extent that it felt like everyone was at war with each other.

Now, as much as I understand that people do have strong political and ideological inclinations, but the extent to which people were expressing their opinion, in many cases belittling or praising entire sets of people for ‘voting the way they did’ (ignoring the fact that within these set of people, they would have voted differently) made me confused. Politics is not something with which you can brushstroke entire communities with, but rather it is very nuanced with multiple factors in play which benefit different parties.

But let me get back to my point, which is: well, I might have missed out on many of the reactions and the trolls and memes that came out from the elections. But think about it, did I really miss out on a lot?

Forget about the fact that it is about politics, so many things happen on the internet in a day. Or an hour. Or heck, a minute:

That is a lot indeed.

But are we really missing out on anything?

Yes, there is a lot going on, on the Internet: you have sad Facebook memes shared by your friend (which you already saw on Reddit) and you are obliged to like for no reason, the latest selfie or self-praise post your friend put up on Instagram, a very informative post on Twitter about the speed of Google searches, that crazy combinations of meme on a dank meme you saw on the Dank Memes subreddit, yet another Quora answer about why Narendra Modi is the best thing since sliced bread, a snap streak to maintain with 30 people and a weekly update from your friend on what all he does in his life on Medium.

That’s a lot of information.

Do you really need all of this?

Probably no.

But isn’t it inevitable? Like you said, the internet is intertwined with the real world. And you have to shaft through tons of things to find the things we truly need.

Before I continue, let me say that the Internet has done more good for the human race than many inventions. It truly has made the world smaller, and increased access to information previously available to the elite. People can communicate more than ever and these are good things.

But, especially with Twitter, the Internet has led the way in reducing people’s attention spans and removing nuances from conversation. People stop reading beyond the headline and fall for outrageous clickbait titles and form entire opinion on people and things just off things on the Internet which are deliberately presented in a way to further other’s agenda. We are just puppets in these people’s world.

Twitter’s 140 character limit (now 280) has played one hell of a role of making everything a binary thing. Now, either Lionel Messi/Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest player in the history or a huge bottler who was over-rated (definitely nothing in between, because we don’t do middle ground). Donald Trump is either the most sexist, racist, inept and horrible president in US history or a blessing from above who came to show America ‘ the light to salvation from the libtards ’. Nobody cares about debating the real issues anymore because we just need to attack people ad hominem. The outrage culture against just about anything, twisting things out of context to suit their agenda, and stir negative sentiments is very very strong. I even had the privilege at being the end of such outrage and it sadly makes me smile.

Smile because we are just used to being angry.

Imagine the amount of Hulks that would walk across Earth if they were all exposed to gamma rays?

Guys, just chill. Literally.

Save your energy for things that make you happy, give you a sense of satisfaction. Don’t waste it on people who really won’t give two s**t about what you think of them. It’s just not worth it.

Take a break. Breathe. (well, if you don’t you die, but that’s beside the point). Get a different perspective. Try and think from different angles and not just your own. You will realize the world isn’t against you, you are just turning on yourself. Social media is inducing that sort of jealousy within you when you see others do things that you wish you were doing (ignoring that you are probably doing what they want to do).

You are feeling overwhelmed with the information bombarded at you daily. It’s okay. Relax. Rome was never built in a day. Don’t compare where you are with where others are because everyone is at a different stage of development of their life. Just enjoy life as it comes.

Well I guess it’s time to wrap up my random thought blog. I mean, you want a conclusion? Guess you will have to settle for an unplanned ending because I didn’t really think this through and I was just writing what came to my head. Call this clickbait if you want!

P.S. If you enjoyed this, give it some love (by clapping) and share for awareness (if you want!). Also, I am available across social media! Be it Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn!