I want that

The intro

You wake up in the morning, drink a cup of water, wash your face, brush your teeth, do your pee pee poo poo and sit down to read a book while sipping some green tea. Wait, something doesn't sound right. Alright, let's do it one more time. You wake up and, without moving around much, you grab your phone and open Instagram. Yeaahhhh!!!! Bring it on. Now that sounds more like it. It's okay, most of us do it.

Okay, now that we have our Instagram open, let's see what's on it. After scrolling through some memes and advertisements, you see that your friend has posted a pic from his recent trip to only-looks-better-with-filters-and-trending-songs land. Sporadic thoughts pop up in your mind. "What am I doing with my life? I must be traveling too. I must buy a travel-worthy car/bike. I want to do this too." All of a sudden, you get consumed by wanderlust and you want to pack your things, step out and feel the wind on your face.

Maybe it's not someone's trip. Maybe it's someone's fitness journey, someone's trading results, or even someone's pics with their partner. Social media has messed up with our brains real bad. Don't trust me? Here is an activity for you: have a look at your Amazon (or Flipkart or Myntra) wish list. Or simply think of something that you are planning to do, buy or pursue. Now ask yourself these two questions: "Where did I get the idea to do/buy/pursue it? Do I really need it?" If you could genuinely answer these two questions for all those things that you are planning to do, you will have a clearer picture of what social media has done to all of us.

The social media trouble

Let's accept the fact that we all seek validation (or appreciation, if validation sounds offensive), and there is no better place to put things out for validation than social media. So far, everything looks fine. But here is where the trouble begins. Not all things are equally appreciated or celebrated on social media. If you are into fitness content and have a good physique, you are sure to get a lot of likes and comments for your posts. If you are into creating entertainment content, you will still enjoy a lot of the limelight.

But if you are a person like me who writes blogs and posts them, then be ready to face the absolute silence of a graveyard in your DMs. This, at times, has got me thinking, "I should stop doing this. People don't really like it. Let me do something else. How about I buy a bike, strap a GoPro to my helmet, and go to Ladakh?" This happens with other things too. "I should start posting pictures with people so that others don't find out that I have the social skills of a garden snail." "I should post pictures with my bad-tempered dog to look like a widely accepted dog-person." These are just a few examples.

People buy and do stuff that they really don't need. If that's not enough, they even let this stuff affect their dreams, career plans, and even themselves. I was once tempted to go abroad and study. Not for the educational exposure or the girls (despite being a damn good reason). Rather, it was because some of my friends were posting pictures of their wildly international dishwashing routines, exotic drink parties, chicks, snowfalls, and scenery. Maybe you have your own set of such temptations and regrets (hopefully, none).

The conclusion

Social media is an amazing thing. Seeing people buy stuff, accomplish things, go places, and celebrate relationships is all beautiful. Enjoy scrolling through it, appreciate people and here and there, it's even okay to slightly (a teeny-tiny bit) envy people as well. What we all must be really careful about is the influence seeping into our interests and perspective of what we love to do with our lives. We shouldn't be letting the highlights and posts influence who we are, what we wish and stand for. We are all humans and our brains have evolved over thousands of years to stick to the community. That is why it is really hard to stand out, go against the grain, or give zero fucks about validation. All this influence happens subconsciously, and hence it is very hard to sense. We must all be clear about what we want out of our lives. Every time something comes up in our minds, let's ask these questions:

1. Where did I get the idea of doing/buying/pursuing it? Is it something that I genuinely need?

2. Am I going to do something that's against what I stand for?

3. Do I really need it or am I doing it just for the sake of validation?

And let's hope, we get these questions answered honestly.

Note to all readers:

Please bear in mind that I am not against the things you put on your social media accounts. I neither have the intention nor the right to say anything about that. I only hope that you don't get influenced by the stuff out there and end up doing stuff that you don't genuinely want to do. Let's not destroy who we are, what we love doing, and what we stand for just for the sake of getting likes, shares, and comments. Pass the message (and the blog, lol).

If any part of this blog offends you, I am sorry.