I have 2 main inter-connected ideas for this week
Attention is the name of the game
When it comes to handling attention, I’m no zen or expert. I find myself exploring and zooming in on any Instagram hot models who keep motivational captions utterly irrelevant to their motivation for posting, on the explore page half an hour later after I went to search some account which I would have forgotten by then. Damn it. Shame on you subash.
We spend our time in the units of attention
and receive numerous small doses of dopamine hit on these platforms. That makes you check Instagram then Facebook, Whatsapp and just snap 1/3rd of your face to preserve the very important ‘streaks’ you have with your Snapchat-said BFFs❤ with pretty filters then you again check your Instagram not remembering that you did it just a minute ago while being an utterly annoying existence to your mom who thinks your phone is the reason for all of the ‘problems’.
Ooof. I made you tired. Wait, there’s more.
You don’t pay for your social media usage. Do you?. Instagram, Facebook, or anything?. Now answer me. Who in this world lets you use something for free? Instagram is a multi-billion dollar business. And if you are not paying them for using their platform/service, how is it possible to be so? Now, open your eyes and let the below lines I’ve read somewhere go straight inside your brain
If you are using something for free, you are not the customer. You are the PRODUCT
So who are the customers then? - all those ‘sponsored’ people/pages whom you see once per 4 or 5 posts on your feed.
Hey, I know you just scratched your head confused. Lemme explain through my world-class designs. You’re welcome ^_^
Those ads/sponsored pages/people are essentially paying Instagram to compensate your usage in return for your attention over the stuff they show. Just like how TV shows work.
Types of sponsors change with your preferences and the business model may change with platforms.
Wait, lemme ruin our CWC, IPL too. Those channels intend to produce the coolest show possible to make you sit with your granny and watch them without missing every damn day. Now as they have built up a mass audience, they are sought out by several ads who sponsor the same show in exchange for their audience's attention.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just know this and act accordingly if you hadn’t already. Preserve your costly currency called attention whenever appropriate, wisely. If someone is not selling you anything directly(CWC, IPL, Instagram) then they are selling you(=attention) to someone else
The only power you have is how you control your attention in life, let alone on the internet. Now as you know this, lemme jump into fishy stuff
What you see is not how it’s made.
I know you love memes so much just like me. And pretty much all of the trust issues my mom has over me is actually because I smile sneakily looking at just memes not knowing she’s watching me.
I recently got shared a meme. I was stunned. I have never been genuinely upset just because of a damn meme. Lemme explain that. A boy, a girl. Both may be 8 years old. The little boy is leaning onto the girl in a very fishy manner and then both smiling innocently looking at the camera as if they are ‘caught' doing so by themselves. And the boy kid runs away from the camera with some obnoxious background music by hip-hop Adhi. The theme is about “look at this, even little kids are committed these days but not me who is a 90’s kid” kinda stuff which is super trendy these days.
It's not just about what you see on the phone but how it is made. Come on, you are not seeing the ‘funny’ people doing funny shits, straight from your plastic screen. You are just being shown what a man/woman shoots with a camera who is never in the video themselves and who rarely exploits the innocence
of ‘funny’ people.
To throw another kind of example, the content maker asks questions around people intentionally asking an old woman who says the government is selling body parts in the name of lockdown and corona. And. Don't forget that guy who said alcohol cures corona. Yeah, it's all funny. Is it the type of humor we wanna pay attention to? 40000+ likes but still the old woman stays stupid and uses cute words if anybody asks her to use a mask.
My point is, by paying attention to healer basker, you are simply increasing his reach, thereby people who conform to his ideas. All of the idiotic alive specimens survive because primarily they get too much attention be it in a good or bad way. By spending time and attention on making fun of them, they are indirectly being helped by us to reach more people (3rd law my darling). Your attention is the incentive for those exploiters. The more you see, the more it will be promoted by the algorithm and the more you help these assholes.
Lemme be clear. Memes move the market. The entire market. I'm not kidding. Memes are the best way to touch upon any serious and important issue casually, without any effort or serious consequences. They are so good. I always support any of my friends to start a meme page under their accountability. But the coin has another side too. It is often misused. So just remember the dark side of TikTok/reels next time you watch something
So kind reader, attention is the name of the game. Use it well and for good.
Moral - Well, I don't have a clear answer for you. My goal was just to give you a new lens to look through the things you have been seeing for a long time.
PS - I'm constantly trying to improve my writing. Because you have no idea how much respect I have towards those few people who genuinely like my work and appreciate it. I owe them good writing 🙏🏽
Stay wary,
Subash⚡