Have you Installed Threads?

If you ever had the privilege of meeting an artist – not a content creator – an artist – you would understand that what you end up consuming the entire day is basically a fungus for your brain.

I was in class 7 when Facebook came around. We would decide the timings on the landline phones for which we used calling cards and then meet our friends in the chatroom. At that time, I did not understand the Capitalist motive behind this website. I am sure it was different back then.

However, today I have read too many books and understood too many equations to make head and tail of things. I am now updating my blog after almost a year. Why? Because I do not write for a living. I write because I want to because I love to. And the previous year has not given me that bandwidth for writing. I was busy focusing on things that do make my living.

But what if writing was my career?

I would have needed a platform to showcase my talent. I do have this website and my Instagram page.

But is that enough?

Well, no.

Then I would’ve had to promote it. And I’d have had to make content that would get promoted by the algorithm. I would have had to make it sellable and relatable to the audience. Something an average reel scroller would understand easily, double-tap, and share with mates.

Basically, I would have had to be mediocre and like everyone else. Because my standing out, authentic content would not align with the algorithm.

Now, all of us are in this filthy habit of scrolling reels. Aren’t all makeup videos in the same format? Everyone is telling some story while doing something to their face. Aren’t all dancers dancing to the same trending song?

Tere waste falak se mai chaand laaunga…….

Right? Right?

Aren’t all poets having the same tone when they say similar lines in different word combinations? Have you heard any tricky words or unique rhyme schemes?

Muskurao…

Gar hai sir pe chath, pet me khana….

Rings a bell?

If you are into quotes then maybe all of them talk about the genre you currently are suffering from and need to justify.

I am not trying to deliver a lecture about how social media is toxic for you and all of that. You know these things. You are fully aware that there is capitalist ideology behind this. Creators need your views for their bellies. Artists, sadly, die of hunger. Being an artist; either requires a belly too full to worry or a belly too empty to care.

However, the place of an artist is getting worse in the current day and age because the audience does not have the IQ to identify and understand art. Ever since Threads has come into the limelight, I am irritated and frustrated because all of you are going to wind yourself up further into this herd mentality.

You will add another social media app on your phone screen thinking -why not? Instagram will promote it – as it did with reels. So, content creators would have no other option but to obey the algorithm. You all will make your minds occupied with yet another fungus and you will just get worse every day.

You might think I am putting myself in a place of superiority and belittling others who indulge and enjoy – content. Well, yeah – I am.

Because I take out the time to read books. I take out the time to learn about things instead of debating about them after seeing 3 posts on Instagram about that topic. I do use Instagram. I use it as a platform and also as a means to connect. But I do not let it paralyze my ability to think, learn and grasp.

I know four languages and I can proudly say that I have read and understood the true literature in all of them. I understand economics after reading books on economics, not after seeing 3 ways to make better financial decisions. And if I don’t know something from authentic sources, I just shut up!

So, if this write-up makes you feel outraged. I am glad.

At least, you will stop and think what are you feeding your mind the entire day?

In this day and age, it is difficult to stay away from your screens. I am not asking you to attain nirvana and the ultimate peak of self-discipline. But can’t you just start consuming better things on the internet? Can’t you enroll in courses? Read books? Learn a thing or two? – From real sources!

And please do not tell me that you relax while using social media. That is just physiologically impossible. Yeah, you could say you are lazy and addicted to the familiarity social media creates in your mind. You are happy with the mediocrity of the information because you want to stay away from the things that actually lead to some personal growth. You are too tired to make a difference. You enjoy the gossip vloggers give you because it is always better to compare your lives with others rather than change your own.

My little piece of blog is not going to reach 100K and 3.2M followers. I am not sure even if the conversion rate of this write-up would even be 1%. But that is okay. I am glad to have a platform where I can share my growth mindset with this current generation of stagnant people.

I am happy with my attempt to make a difference because even if 1.2M people do not validate my art, even if not a single person does it for that matter – I have upgraded my mind enough to not seek it from anybody.

If you could read between the lines, you would realize that 90% of your so-called entitlement issues which you misunderstand as mental health issues, stem from overconsuming the social media fungus.

However, social media in itself is not an Evil Devil. The algorithm, the creators – they do not produce mediocrity and make you the victims of stunted growth out of the will of their hearts. It is the other way around.

You – as the audience – choose to view these things; it is the numbers that they carry from you that finally shape the output because the incomes of so many rely on your viewership. Brands and businesses get marketed, ads run, and the economy rolls. Who can blame someone for trying to make a living using modern tools? I don’t even blame capitalism here. I think some people are smarter than others and hence they use their resources to make money. I am appreciative of smartness.

I just feel sad for the average common man who has no intention to grow. You enjoy your entitlement by seeking validation based on the general premise and live in the false paradise of your unfathomable intelligence. You pick up trendy words and make them lunch table conversations with your peers and talk about things you know nothing about as if you have spent years imbibing knowledge in that area.

Since most of you have the same source of information – social media, you gather some more validation and you go back to living your same mediocre lives where nothing much really changes because change begins from – within!

Most of you are now thinking that there have been so many changes in your life already. You have moved ahead in your career, you make a lot more money, you now have a spouse and kids, and so on and so forth. But have you changed? Have you become a better person? Or are you living the same story in a different scenery?

Are you traveling the world or just being a tourist? Are you enhancing your real-life experiences or are just putting comments on the official humans of Bombay? Do you really understand left-wing right-wing politics or you have just chosen your wing and you blindly go for the movies that are from your side? Do you really read your spiritual scriptures or get outraged and run around to save your God?

Stop. Ask. Answer. Learn. Grow. Change.

And please – don’t install Threads. In fact, delete that Snapchat as well.