We all like to villainize social media, yet we can’t get off the hook—or even get off it for a month. Every day we see hundreds of reels or TikTok videos. We don’t even remember them after a week: some about life advice, money, relationships, philosophy, political opinions, travel, friendships, comedy sketches, someone flexing their life story, someone documenting their struggle. Some very sad reels that make you remember someone again. And the worst ones are the ones that make you realize how much time you’ve wasted watching these short videos, and that tell you to get off your phone.
Yet the next day, we’re on it again—with a kindling urge to make content too. With a feeling: I have a story to tell. I too have opinions—some right (and some left). I too have something I would like the world to approve of. Some of us have even started making them too. Not the best out there, but hoping that maybe I will find my crowd. Maybe I will find people who resonate with my ideas and will follow me. And here comes the big one—maybe this is my chance to break the generational curse. Oof, the burden of breaking it: getting rich and giving our loved ones all they need.
This is the story of everyone I see around me. Everyone wants everything. It feels like every human on this planet now desires the same things that social media has sold them—slowly, without you even noticing. These ideas and desires were planted in your subconscious.
You don’t relate? Then tell me: don’t you want to travel the world? Don’t you want to buy a luxury car, a beautiful big house? Don’t you want to spend time with a perfect person who loves you unconditionally and is flawless in all regards? Why is the collective consciousness of all humanity converging on these same things?
And the answer is very obvious and simple; most of you already know it. It’s internet culture.
It’s the era of the internet; it has blurred all boundaries of these naive meaning of culture. On the internet, we are all just people of the internet. A boy in a village in India can relate to the story of a Scandinavian person. People all over the world are realizing that we are a lot more alike than we thought. You can see the life of anyone you want on the internet.
Most of us now advertise our lives. It started as a platform to express yourself, and now it’s a platform to impress everyone—subconsciously seeking validation from people who follow you. Earlier it was just a rat race; now it’s a rat race and a show-off of how awesome your race looks. How well your outfit is. You can’t look sweaty or like you’re struggling to keep up with the race. I will come back to this rat race once more, but for now, bear with me while I explain this.
Imagine you are in traffic going home after a productive day at work. You are happy with the work you did today. You plan on watching your favorite show while eating your favorite food at home.
Now you are at a signal. How many times have you looked around and imagined the journey of everyone around you? Do you care where they are coming from or where they will go next from this stop? What they will do when they reach home? Someone will be partying with friends. Someone will be smoking a joint they just scored. Someone might be coming back after breaking up with their love of four years.
Heck, you don’t even care. All you care about is your destination and your drive there. Sure, you notice a bike you desire, or a beautiful woman with someone you don’t approve of. But that’s it. After the light turns green, you forget about it. I think you know where I’m going with this.
Now imagine the entire world is at that signal, and you are seeing where they come from, who they are, and where they are going—there is no way to shut it off. How will you feel? You are constantly fed the lives of people you will never even interact with in your life. People whose journeys have been so different from yours that you can’t even comprehend their lives. People born into generational wealth acting as if they’re struggling to get views. People acting intellectual after telling ChatGPT to write their scripts. And your brain eats all of it. Daily. Slowly. Making you numb. Shutting off your reality. Telling you that your road—your drive—isn’t fun enough.
And now you can’t focus on your road, can you? Heck, you even forget where “you” wanted to go. Now you want to go to all those places that can possibly give you the fun that these people are having. How can you possibly be happy without the success that you just saw on social media?
So the rat now races: the entire world confused about where the finish line is. And thus the rat race ends and gives rise to a sheep race. Self-actualization dies.
When the self-actualization of individuals dies, it gives birth to a collective consciousness that is easy to manipulate. And here the devil shows its colors and sells you what they want: a lifestyle, a sense of style, a lingo, a personality, an object, an experience—and the desire to show off all of it.
No wonder the rarest travel destinations are packed with people. People who will be irritating for the entire journey are traveling to places just to post that one picture on social media. I see more cameras at concerts than people appreciating the music and the experience of listening to it live.
So far, so sad—but the worst part is that most people don’t even go on their journey to self-actualize and find who they are and want to be. These are the most vulnerable. They will chew up whatever is thrown at them to stay relevant and fit in with internet culture. And such a population is rising aggressively because now those who would have at least tried to go on the journey sit idle, watching reels and absorbing right and wrong without testing it against themselves—judging everyone to find the value of their lives.
The solution: there has always been one. Before social media, the internet, even electricity—go on your journey. Stop asking others which path you should take. Start moving towards what you feel like. Because in the end, even if after all this you end up in the same place—my friend, Earth is round for a reason. But you would have seen the world with your own eyes, not just on your phone.