Digging for Meaning

To like a post is to like the person. Or to signal your affection. Or to signal you care. But should it? Should you like something because it matters to the other? One perspective is,  obviously you should. That is what a kind person would do. A low cost act that brings happiness to someone - why not? Another perspective is, obviously you should not - you are validating the other person's addiction to 'likes'. We are all addicted to likes. And we all need intervention. Maybe the kind thing would be to not 'like' the post. The third perspective is, damn - if I like the 10th photo of a baby/ wedding/ travel pics, facebook algorithm will feed me more of it until all that remains of the feed is these pictures of important milestones/ happy moments of others but which are also wholly inconsequential to me. And as my addiction grows, i will be submerged in trivialities and inconsequential projections of others. So choices are - 1. Contribute (or not) to the mo...

Digital connections = Speed. Instantaneous reactions, Instantaneous gratification, Instantaneous outrage and so on. Everything is instantaneous. Or not? Recently, while  my own phone was getting recharged and I had no option but to look around, I saw a person sitting there, with phone in hand. Waiting with anticipation for a like, a comment or some such. The digital slot machine was not throwing up interesting enough things for him. I went away and came back a while later. The man was still there. exactly there. with exactly the same blank face and wide eyed anticipation. And apparently the same screen.  Nothing had changed. He was still. and he didn't know it. We are all still. and we don't know it. In reality, everything is not instantaneous. Our expectations though, are. In search of dopamine hit, we keep refreshing, checking, rechecking... but real world refuses to move with the speed we want it to move. We prod at it with refreshes. We pull at it b...

:) :-| Binary living of the good professionals Advertisements, movies, friends, strangers - all want you to be happy. you show a sign of emotion that is not happiness or nonchalance, and people wonder what is wrong with you. Its a weird binary world we live in these days. For the most part, it is now normal not to 'feel' anything at all - people walk around with straight faces betraying little of their inner turmoil, wonder, confusion, rage... You spend all your time in office. and in that time, you hardly see people betraying any emotion to any meaningful depth. Everything is so light, so latte! this state of being perpetually emotionless is called being professional. Does it any good for the profession? I doubt. But should the 'good for the profession' come in the way of your humanity? The only other emotion allowed is the beatific 'happiness'. Well, life has never been this easy for humans and its good to enjoy it's riches while it lasts. That expl...

askme's commercials here. There are 3 of those. Firstly, its an ad for an app that has a celebrity endorsement. Secondly, its also an ad for an app that apparently does many things. Thirdly, its a headon competitor to leading single purpose apps. But the real question that one is left asking askme is 'WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY DO?' Error 1: Lack of proposition in a fucking launch commercial. :O which makes me wonder why askme is burning cash with these ads. Why would someone posture, instead of actually communicating? Perhaps its a desperate dash to get the name out before the owners go out to woo investors. But which investors would put their money on such shallow proposition?  Error 2: wrong insight. The apparent insight around which this campaign is strung together seems to be - "people are fed up with having to manage so many apps on the phone". What utter bullshit. who in India is 'worried' about having to manage their cell phones. We,...

Exhibit A Have you seen posts like these on FB lately? What are they about? A person witnesses some 'wrong' act. He/ She promptly takes a picture of the wrong act. He/she hurries to upload it to social media in an effort to shame the person in question. Earlier, a photograph of a car's number plate did the rounds online. apparently, the guy driving the car had spit on the road. and so on... all misdemeanors that should ideally be sorted in 'real world' of flesh and bones through polite conversations. Exhibit A- Here, a grey haired gentleman opened a door to a cafe for two other gentlemen. The other two gentlemen supposedly did not say 'thank you'. Were they too busy? Were they in a serious discussion, the sort where you forget the world altogether? Do we know anything about them at all? No. We don't. All we have is this one photo that the indignant-FB-guy (IFG) took without asking the two people in question. and look at the reaction - It...

Someone just 'liked' an old photo of mine on Facebook. And I was wondering why/how would anyone do that? I mean what makes them either seek out someone else's profiles or more probably go scroll down tens of times, down the rabbit hole of their facebook timeline. Don't get me wrong, I do not dislike it. As a matter of fact, I can't help keeping an eager lookout on the notification from Facebook like those rats in the lab who are made to learn to respond to electric pleasure signals. And I understand that the act of 'liking' is a delicate matter. A like is a badge that one carefully chooses. Every like contributes to one's own sense of self, a carefully constructed persona. 'Am I close enough to the person to react to his/her updates?' 'Hope I do not come across as someone naive/ over eager/ un cool' 'Will it send wrong signal if I like this?' My limited curiosity came up with only these questions/thoughts that possibly ...