We live in a world surrounded by a new kind of wall. I am sure there have been many a kind of wall surrounding the earlier generations. For us, it is different, but there is a wall. Media, bombardment of information and the steady flow of thought from people whom marketers call "influencers". And that is what surrounds us every waking hour, among everyone that we know. I do not know where it begins I mean, is it the morning newspaper or is it the twitter updates that popped in the night before, or was it the feed on 'Mention' or innumerable local videos on 'Periscope', or the lure of photos, quotes and material objects on 'Pinterest's' divine-equaling lengths, or is it one of the million videos on 'YouTube' or 'Vimeo'. I can go on and on because even my own 'Pocket' has a list that seems to be never ending. Where did that conversation on the road with fellow travelers get lost? I am not being nostalgic as most of what I remember of the conversations with fellow travelers have been highly immobile and completely used as an excuse to move time on a journey that was taking too long. But I do remember that conversation with friends used to pique curiosity and that was one big reason to gather information. Of course, the other one being to showcase intellectual capabilities to members of the opposite sex who loved the attention harnessed as well as the information shared. I do not know what for people use the information that they find these days, but I know this much that there is so much information that they are continuously gathering that they do not have the time to share it with someone. There is a massive tilt towards envy and perception on other people's happiness, other people's knowledge betwixt all this without a clear idea about the depth of neither matter. These perceptions are being created from the bombardment of photographs and regular updates that swarm around us. All of them being an enactment of cheer or delight that burst out purely because the camera seems to be at hand for every little detail to be saved for one more hour of posterity.
Going back to the surrounding walls, it's a world filled with advertisements and enticements that excite, tingle and seems to get in touch with any of our sensory organs and thus create an aura about a brand which we consciously do not need to spend our money on and about a product that we never ever thought of before the onslaught of visual cues and jingles began to enter our deep senses. Most people I know of, on meeting over a mug of beer, do end up talking about a brand. If it is beer we are having then the conversation, obviously moves towards 'Hoegarden', 'Miller', 'Brahma' and others that they have found lingering in the vicissitudes of his or her mind and needed to throw at someone at the first sip of cold brew they could lay their hands on.
They build these walls around us and then they have all these screens that keep flickering for our attention and we are bound to watch it and we do; it flows into our daily conversations, if any, it clouds our insights, our acuity and when we see the product with the very similar shade or color our sub conscious tells us to satiate the desire and may be the cloud that hangs inside would float away. But nope, they know of our attention span and they manage to keep regularly attending to that. They also know the kind of people that are attracted to similar things, have similar tastes, eats and drinks akin, wears alike and so on and so forth so they create a loop in the virtual world. Haven't you been witness to the line ' Parag, Louis, Julie like Kentucky Brew - what about you'. If any of those mentioned friends or acquaintances are worth their while; Boom! you also 'Like'. That begins your journey with the flood of updates on anything the 'Jack Daniel' world wants you to witness. It is called an echo chamber, trapped within these walls you slowly become a pawn to the advertisers whim and fancy. As the constant assault of updates would create that little corner in your subliminal state purely for this brand. A seat of regale temptations that shall poke you as and when desire needs to step in for the green to be exchanged hands.
Marketing is interesting. It is psychology playing its brilliant games the best possible way. Digital marketing is much more interesting since it entered your pockets and your daily hour. Earlier, the barrage was on the billboards when you are travelling, reams of information when you open that magazine or newspaper at home and also when you are watching TV, but there were limitations to the reach, now it is different. The ability to enter every aspect of your waking hours excited the brilliant people who helm such marketing endeavors, they got excited and they molded their ways and technology was induced in such a manner that in every little turn you take, every little nook you pick, every little notification that you seek is filled with a product, service or brand that wants to tell you a story. It is inspiring the way they want us to be part of the journey. But at the end of the day it is all about getting you to reach your pockets and spend so that they can get that return of investment (ROI) going well so that the incentives can be explained and the money these multi-billion dollar enterprises or even the small players can partake is improved day in and day out.
From a cultural and sociological point of view, we have lost the way we feel. When I was in school things were a lot different. Television was attractive but it was not something for which I found me or my dad or for that matter anybody go back home to. I was not stuck inside a cocoon browsing the internet at web parlors or hangouts, I wasn't sending messages to people or listening to music on gadgets or applications or watching a trailer on the umpteenth gadget that I found interesting. I was not checking my watch for an update on how much I ran and how much more I need to do so to get to a target that would make my muscles bulge. I was free, I was boundless, We all talked, listened, thought about a lot of things that may have been trivial but it was sharing of the kind which was more real not a smile that was not there, not a quote from Emerson that defined how to live and not a visual carnage from another part of the world that makes sense there but not here where we are. There was no tirade of advertisements and content to seek and enlarge my scope of unnecessary knowledge. Now there is pressure, I could be shot at from anywhere because I do not have a place to run. I can switch off my gadgets, I can stop the TV, but I am so induced into this vacuum that I feel lost if I switch off. My need to be needed, my want to be patted on the back, my need to be acknowledged takes over and I am back again, reading, watching, listening, seeing, sharing things which do not have any deep sense of meaning to myself or others. I'm stuck within these checklists of things which I need to complete everyday. I'm stuck to a few electronic gadgets which make me think in a way that somebody else wants me to think. I'm bound by my 30 GB of music which I do not align in a manner I want to listen to, I keep it on shuffle and sometimes it grabs my attention and other times it is lost in the whirlwind of notifications. I'm aligned to the search strings of Google to read what others think of the world the way it is now and may be in the future.
I'm stuck in this rigmarole, a daily grind within four walls which seem to grow higher and higher and someday I feel I might not even look up at the sky I might just be wedged somewhere watching images flicker on some small goddamned screen and I would not even realize the essence of life which my youthful exuberance and the milieu imbibed in me.
Now, I am busy eating my Nestle Maggi noodles, with a hot and crispy Chicken from KFC, a wonderfully brewed coffee from Starbucks and watching my Samsung phone flicker with Android updates and notifications from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and a few messages on my WhatsApp groups. There is also the Ipad on the side which continuously demands my attention but my family is busy with it playing Angry Birds and Candy Crush, while an ad popped up about the new Temple Run which is a paid app but has some really difficult running scenarios. My TV shimmers with IPL reruns where the good old sixes in cricket is defined as 'Yes Bank Maximum' and the game is bought to you be 'Vivo'. My Panasonic refrigerator is in anticipation of TGIF for me to open the cans of Carlsberg beer and the lone bottle of Jack Daniel's is awaiting for the night cap to be poured. My partner says that Fab Furnish is a nice place to linger upon for furniture fantasies to be fulfilled. My Toyota care representative reminded me that I need an oil change soon and it could be Castrol or Mobil. The prestige pressure cooker has been dysfunctional so a change over to Hawkins could augur well and the air-conditioning from the Hitachi 5 star is not soothing enough and the new Whirlpool ad with 55 degree centigrade promise to keep it cool with a beautiful belle seems alluring. I looked at my Moto watch and found that my walking is not up to the mark and decided that it is the shoes and non-sweat absorbing T-shirt may be the hassle. Hence, Nike is out and in comes Skechers. and Jerzeys out and the new Nike absorbers get in.
While I ponder on such matters of extreme importance, why don't you move away from this Lenovo- HP-Apple-ASUS screen and move to a smaller screen of importance and take in the delights of the Mcdonald's burger or the Dunkin Donut that has been waiting for its salvation in your salivating oral cavity....
No comments:
Post a Comment