The Illusion of Choice

When something starts to dictate the personality you are growing up to, it is no longer influence, but a hidden authority you are under while being free.
To be able to freely express and form opinions is something largely missing from the dynamics of society in the present world, ironic though, as we have lot more platforms to do so than we had years back.
Even the pair of shoes we buy is somehow not dependent on the comfort we need, but rather under the influence of someone we see on YouTube trying to convince us we need 150 pairs of shoes, matching with all shades of clothes to exist on the face of the earth. While this post does not mean to be disrespectful to people monetizing out of the time we spend on the internet, it is high time to think about what kind of content we are getting exposed to on a day-to-day basis.

It is not necessary for you to buy a lehenga which your favorite actor wore at their wedding to be able to have a successful marriage.
It is not necessary to have the latest camera phone on a trip to be able to enjoy the beauty the place holds.
It is not necessary to post a story every time you step outside of the house when you are dealing with some serious mental health issues.
While I am not denying the fact that there might be a few people who get meaning to their life while doing these things and might enjoy this, it is very important to separate out the meaning of life from the bubble of influence that the internet in general has formed around us.

What one needs to understand is how smart the people actually behind this revolution have been to be able to show me a post about what I have been thinking. Let’s see how the circle works.
You saw a person your age getting married, while you are barely working 9-5 and coming home to an empty house, you forgot to see the struggles the person faced while navigating the beautiful relationship they have built over ages, cried themselves every night they had a fight.
While you see a YouTuber vacationing in the best outfit, we forget to see the messy divorce they went through which they did not post on social media.
While you see 15-year-old kids forming opinions on the latest social media gossip, they are completely unaware of the newspaper article which had the most amazing things science is achieving with each passing day.

It is human instinct to chase the feeling of fun, but what social media does not teach is how to deal with life when mobile phones are not a thing anymore. Data says, 90% of people my age become anxious when they don’t have their smartphones with them. We might not realize this as we go through this, but this is an alarming situation to be part of. When every advertisement we see gets multiplied ten times, when we see it on Instagram or Youtube, it gets under our skin, when we start arguing with our partner, friends, family justifying the post we saw last day on Instagram.
Before our minds could realize it, the opinion sits in the subconscious mind and we could not break through it unless it impacts us in an adverse manner. Something similar I came across this very popular Netflix series, Adolescence, again a recommendation from Instagram itself..from what I could gather. I can only imagine what my mind would have been today if I saw content at the age of 13, such as that I see today as a 26-year-old. Well, I have lot to say on that topic, so we are getting back to that some other day, having said that it’s hard to filter out the good and the bad from the pool of things we are exposed to, parenting might be a hell of a task. To be able to separate out what the internet shows us versus what we actually wish to see is a cycle which seems to be never-ending.. How do I filter out what actually is my opinion or what is made to be my opinion because of some reel which I came across? It confuses and tricks my mind into believing that I actually have a choice.

So, then what is the solution? To stop using mobile phones? Well, it does not make any sense.. We do need them to communicate with friends and family…Well exactly this, this was the basic use case of the mobile phones and the connectivity, everything else is an add-on, an entertainment- something to help us get through alone time, but not through lonely time. No, you won’t fix a bad day by mindlessly scrolling through your phone. So, I try to be mindful of what content I am exposed to, how much I let it get to me and how important it is to separate out my day and personality from this endless world of mystery, opportunities, opinions. Easier said than done I guess..