Being viral
There used to be a time, whenever I heard the term viral, would associate it with some infection. But nowadays the connotation has undergone a 3600 degree turn. People want to be viral and the more crowd you can attract, quicker are the bucks you get to earn. Latest to this list of viral “sense-less-ations” is one of the contestant from a tamil reality show. Recently his “army” created a tweet record, trending way above some of the critical events that were happening that day – like an actor’s audio launch and some less critical items like – global warming discussion.
Did they do anything wrong? Technically and for all practical reasons – No. Everyone has a right to celebrate their idols and express their opinion. Basically, this freedom of expression (FoE) has become more of a foe than friend for general public. Everyone wants to express their opinion – like how I’ve been cribbing here – to the extent that, each believe for sure that their opinion is the best and more accurate representation. TV anchors have donned the garb of judges and pass verdicts/judgements over everything under the sun, except their own fallacies or their channels abuses and violations. Every political party has a hall of shame which keeps increasing its floor space proportional to their period of stay in power and whenever any inconvenient question is thrown at them, at best they are deflected with prior such instance by another party. Makes one wonder, how come every mistake or power abuse by the ruling part always has a precedent in the previous regime. Either they follow same template or somehow we keep voting the same thugs and give them the same opportunity to screw us.
Governments, world over have tapped into this viral phenomenon, very smartly. When in case of any serious issue that begs immediate attention and may not work well in their favor, they just have to throw a bone in different direction, using these viral videos and everyone’s attention is diverted. I am yet to see one good thing arising out of this viral sensations and it has only increased the power of the mob. Narcissism is ruling the roost to say the least!!
Did they do anything wrong? Technically and for all practical reasons – No. Everyone has a right to celebrate their idols and express their opinion. Basically, this freedom of expression (FoE) has become more of a foe than friend for general public. Everyone wants to express their opinion – like how I’ve been cribbing here – to the extent that, each believe for sure that their opinion is the best and more accurate representation. TV anchors have donned the garb of judges and pass verdicts/judgements over everything under the sun, except their own fallacies or their channels abuses and violations. Every political party has a hall of shame which keeps increasing its floor space proportional to their period of stay in power and whenever any inconvenient question is thrown at them, at best they are deflected with prior such instance by another party. Makes one wonder, how come every mistake or power abuse by the ruling part always has a precedent in the previous regime. Either they follow same template or somehow we keep voting the same thugs and give them the same opportunity to screw us.
Governments, world over have tapped into this viral phenomenon, very smartly. When in case of any serious issue that begs immediate attention and may not work well in their favor, they just have to throw a bone in different direction, using these viral videos and everyone’s attention is diverted. I am yet to see one good thing arising out of this viral sensations and it has only increased the power of the mob. Narcissism is ruling the roost to say the least!!
Comments
Anything that goes viral is not necessarily (and mostly) worth paying attention to. And there are many gems in things that don't go viral. Like this blog for example :)
By the way, as a total aside, where does a 3600 turn take you ? Back where you were, after 10 circles. Shouldn't it be a 180 deg turn. Yes, mokkai I know, but couldn't resist !