The irresistible lure of the unknown
My day begins with rushing to the station, stuffing myself into the ever crowded train and fighting to breathe in peace. Amidst the chaos, I fortunately end up spotting moments of sheer surprise. Everyone has some fascination with what’s outside of their existence. In the train, struggling to inch in little by little, I take out my phone and before even unlocking it, my neighbour seems to grow impatient to know what I am upto. Aunty-ji is struggling her way through to peep into my phone and pass a judgement about my life coz why not? Privacy is not even a real thing!
Each of us seem to hold ourselves high up and then we decide to over hear people conversing about their ‘oh so happy’ life. We are constantly ridiculing ourselves by drawing the charts of comparison. It’s the never satiating urge to find something new about someone/something else that excites our soul. The anxiousness to know beyond the known is what people look forward to, all day, everyday. But will the anxiousness be satiated post exploring the entire world? Not really, there’s always a Mars waiting for us. The anxiety within each one of is like a forest fire, only getting fuelled by the blowing wind.
Now, Aunty-ji might just be doing some casual harmless stalking, but corporate giants have picked these behaviours up to legitimise the activity of being interested in someone else’s life. After all, we all need that timely comparative nudge.
I am sitting by the window on a Saturday afternoon, reminiscing those good old carefree teen-days. All we practically did was talk, play, eat and talk again. The state of anxiety existed subtly back then, thanks to actual physical human interaction. Now I see a bunch of kids, chilling at a cafe, not even looking at each other but gawking at the 5.5 inches screen. How exactly did that transition happen? Consumerism is indeed rising, from luxury to hygiene, mobile phones have climbed up the Maslow’s pyramid. Consumer psychology is such that we all consume exactly what we are fed with.
Mass culture is the set of ideas and values that develop from a common exposure to the same media, news sources, music, and art. Pop culture is recognised as a set of practices, beliefs, and objects that are dominant or ubiquitous in a society at a given point in time. Though they might sound pretty similar, mass culture is something that is produced and pop culture that is consumed. The infiltration of popular culture is only giving birth to more and more spoilt brats. While a McDonald burger is called a burger and not American vadapav, why exactly does sev become fried chickpea noodles? It has always been a one way road, they produce and we consume. Though Globalisation has lead to some astonishing progress, it has only restricted our process of conceptualisation and differentiation.
It’s a loop of madness that we thrive on and also keep craving for. We all know what’s ahead of us, courtesy: Black Mirror but that gets us to the same point. We consume exactly what we are fed with and that’s not going to stop anytime soon.
Hope you had a good read. Have a great day :)
