There are an estimated 50 million Indians on Facebook. A few million also use Twitter. Disclaimer: I have active accounts on both.
I imagine you do too. So, let’s not waste time on the numberfor YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Suffice to say, the sheer number of thoseof us who’ve gone “social” is so large and the group-think so loud that it isinsane, if not outright suicide, to question our beatific self-image of thesocial change we are bringing in.
But question we must. Let me get this off my chest. Does my‘like’ on FB, part affirmation, part PR, change anything at all? I said it! Isaid it! Does my ‘like’ change anything at all? Does my RT lead to an iota ofjustice for my driver or the man knocking on my car’s window?
This isn’t a case for handwritten letters over snail mail.The intent is introspection over difference made (or not made) on the ground.So, here’s my tuppence. Social media is mere time pass. Let’s not make it anybigger. The pies (and darts) you and I throw are aimed at one of two walls. Theambitions vary.
If we’re a celebrity, say with a lakh or more followers onTwitter, our motive is to keep the brand alive, without the real effort neededto make a film, not to mention educate a child, or write a seminal piece ofliterature – post-facto apologies here to @SrBachchan, @SherlynChopra and@ShashiTharoor, respectively! What folkslike them do on the social media is basically post bits and pieces of clientservicing. A cruder description would be indulging us, the aam janta, and usingus: rehash one more line from Harivansh Rai Bachchan, paste yet anotherprofundity about Hugh Heffner’s illusionary libido, RT another self-servinginanity on the wonders of god’s own country.
Others, @sardesairajdeep and @bdutt notably, use follows toproliferate links to their news shows. Say something obsequious and the divaswill reward you with an RT. Deed done! Question the recurrence of Suhel Seth,with locus emanating from his social do’s, you risk even be blocked. If@suhelseth is the conscience of our country’s social reality, you and I, mydear reader, are Mahatma Gandhi. Yet,the man is omnipresent, explained to his 1,15,000 follows!
“Social” isn’t just about the celebrity. Remember, for eachfollow that Sherlyn, Suhel or @PoonamPandey have, it’s because there is thesocial media wannabe hanging out with a #JLT or #WTF as his middle name. Withhonourable exceptions, the search for instant fame remains our primal motivation.Almost nothing hangs on impact we are having in real life. Like little boys inthe school john, our focus, lies in enhancing (and comparing!) ourfollows/fans/friends. It isn’t my case that sophistication and humour areextinct. They exist, even rewarded. But anger works better.
From available evidence, destructivesomething-is-wrong-with-everything is driving our conversations. We remain inready coalition with a million angry young men and women, unhappy with ourmiddle-class lives, our parents and teachers, our failed ambitions, our spousesand children. So, we shoot for socio-political nirvana the entire day.Desperately!
Result? A molehill won’t do. So, politic we must to create amountain of ‘shares’, ‘likes’ and ‘RT’. Follow up, the essence of worthwhileaction, remains a yawn. Before we blink, the next hash tag catches our eye.Forget our last RT, even @swamy39 (Subramanium Swamy), the Prophet of PoliticalMorality on this side of the Suez, doesn’t cry over what was a matter of lifeand death for the nation just two days back. Seen through the prism of actionover terra firma, angularity and exaggeration, stoked with narcissism and adeep lack of worth, just don’t add up. Good men are assassinated in 140characters, without a care for detail. Legal follow through is rare.
Yet, we, Pankaj Pachauri inclusive, remain “social”. Notmerely because we’re miserable junkies or in Pachauri’s case we want to impressthe boss. We judge and are judged by way of our social scores on Klout, theaggregate of twitter RTs and follows, FB comments, and Google+ which I stillhaven’t figured. Mine is 63. And yours?!
Rohit Bansal is CEO of India Strategy Group,Hammurabi & Solomon Consulting, an HBS alum, and a student of Indiangovernance
