We are living in a Silent, Noisy world.
Today morning I was trying to fix my old analogue clock. I would not really call it ‘OLD’ as such because my parents gifted it to me, during the Christmas of 2016.(Only 2 years back) But I am calling it old because in a society ruled by digital fanatics, something analogue would rather be considered ‘old’ apart from being called noisy and a ‘waste of time and money’.
When I had heard someone at the clock shop calling an analogue clock noisy simply because the needle makes the sound of ‘tick-tock’ each second, I wondered that if we are finding an Analogue clock noisy, why aren’t we finding the world noisy enough? The problem lies in the fact that we are living in society which is making noise silent and vice versa.
For instance, head to the social media or even petition websites like change.org, there are millions and millions of people voicing their opinions on a daily basis. They are trying to make a noise about topics that often need to be voiced but are doing so in a silent manner. But tell me, has this really made a change? We might consistently talk about issues such as rape, sexuality, gender, politics and religion on the web but just as we are talking or writing about these issues, these issues are still occurring in the background. Just as we voice our perspective on terrorism, terrorist attacks are taking place. Just as we write our outlook on politics, corruption and bribery is taking place. Just as we are writing about ‘rapes’, men and women are still being raped.
So, has the social media really changed the world or are we living in a fantasy world of emoticon or ‘bitmoji’ illusions? You might think that we are lucky and extremely fortunate to have freedom of speech, movement and social choices. We are lucky to not have dictators such as Adolf Hitler ruling our world. But let me tell you, we are still being ruled by certain dictators. And their names are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And do you also want me to name its allies. We, the public are in fact the allies of the social media world. And we are their soldiers. And the head of the army are the political figures, marketing agencies and selfie king and queens. So if one ‘chief army’ official with a million followers on the social media says something very good about a certain XYZ product, we all would run after the product without really knowing what it the product does!!!
This is called blind faith and the science of brainwashing.
The same science used during Adolf Hitler’s time or during any other dictatorship reign. We are brainwashed to believe things that have not been proven. We are brainwashed to laugh at Comedy Videos in the form of emoticons, on Facebook (Even if the videos are not really comic). We are brainwashed to take selfies throughout the day and repeatedly posting it on Facebook. This reminds of the time I had gone to a restaurant few weeks back with my family. I remember a group of friends sitting on the next table. Each with their own set of phones, catapulting their arms in front of themselves clicking pictures over and over again. And their lips evolving into a range of pouts just as they were nibbling on bits of French fries. And by the end of their meal, I could be quite certain that they would have had a complete album of Selfies uploaded and would have attracted thousands of likes! And other friends of theirs would follow their path and end up at the same restaurant another day doing the same thing. And the irony of all of these acts is that a lot of people don’t even know what they are doing. They are following the paths laid out by social media leaders…
And we might use a range of emoticons but when it comes to expressions, we fail. We don’t know how to smile or express ourselves. People in today’s generation would rather put smiling emoticons rather than smile in front of the person.
And yet we believe we are living in a silent, peaceful world where the ‘tick-tocks’ of an analogue clock disturb us but the repetitive ‘clicks’ of a selfie camera or the ‘WhatsApp Notification’ beeps don’t. When we people speak out, others silence us as we seem to be disturbing their atmosphere. And if we go against someone of high reputation, we are silently killed or murdered or kidnapped. I have been successful in fixing my analogue clock but the question remains how do WE, as a society, fix society?
This is the paradox of today’s generation. No wonder clocks are going extinct, just as humanity is.
