After long, my fingers are tapping away on the keyboard to type-out a blog. Generally they tap away health research reports, emails for work communication, expenses in excel workbooks and to-do lists. My fingers are trying their best to keep up with the racing thoughts in my mind and ensuring that the multitude of thoughts in my disarrayed brain don’t slip through the crevices between them.
The past decade has seen an unprecedented rise in our connection to the digital world. My mother, an ardent fan of cooking has switched to YouTube for trying out new recipes; back in the non-digital era, she had a file with a bunch of magazine recipes torn out from the weekly and monthly magazines we subscribed to. I have a hard drive of memories from college apart from the ‘album-in-print’ (accounting to less than 5% of the total digital photographs I possess). Our age-old tape recorder and cassettes have been replaced by online-streaming apps and paperback dictionaries have been replaced by Google dictionary. News, entertainment, food, finances, banking, shopping… You name it, the digital world has it. In fact, the digital world wraps all your needs and necessities in colorful digital wrapping paper and sells you things that you more often than not, do not ‘need’.
Yeah, I get it. You already know all of this and more. But as a writer, I’d love it if my writing reminds you of things you already know, but have stashed away, as insignificant, in some remote corner of your brain. Well, now coming to ‘opinion’ sharing on the digital world. Opinions are shared in different forms. You are aware of the most famous form, the ‘review’. The most sought after opinion in today’s day and age. Whether you want to buy a fridge, eat out at a restaurant, consult a doctor, stay at a hotel, choose a travel operator or watch a movie; you first look at their ‘review’. A review, after all is an opinion, of a person, unknown to you, based on some non-verifiable facts. But you value it, more than you think we do. Despite the fact that the review is by someone who may be very different from you! The review is now such a powerful promotional tool for any service. I’m sure you’ve heard at least one person tell you: “Please give us a good review!”.
Another form of digital opinion is the “Whats App forward”; a favorite among our parents’ generation. I sometimes view these forwards as potentially dangerous tools that can sometimes spread some ridiculously obscene, socially damaging and infuriatingly misogynistic content. (Well, that’s my digital opinion expressed through this digital medium of a blog). We once received a long forward that recounted the story of a woman with a successful career who repented that she did not spend time with her family and concluded saying that women are better suited for household roles. How ridiculous a claim! This claim seems nonsensical in the 21st century, which has witnessed a substantial change in roles of women. I have seen live examples of successful women who are great at balancing work and family, especially if the woman’s family help her in the process. Many such ‘forwards’, ‘jokes’, ‘memes’ and videos shared on different digital platforms are targeted at women and groups of people who do not fit into the imaginary ‘ideals’ of an imaginary society. Sometimes these opinions present information that is potentially harmful, like incorrect health/ medical advice etc. There was a video being circulated about how having an oxygen cylinder at home and inhaling pure oxygen from it can cure cancer! A wide variety of fraudulent information are presented and absorbed on a daily basis. All of us have witnessed how such information triggers ‘heated’ debates on our many digital groups.
The recent goings-on in our country and the opinions flying about have forced me to read and think about what’s happening in the world around us. But the more I read, the more I am confused. I see anger, hatred and extreme opinions being planted in hundreds of minds, like seeds in fertile wet soil. They say you got to have an opinion. They say you got to take a side. They call you an oppressor if you are ‘digitally silent’. They say only cowards, or those who benefit from status quo are neutral. Well, what can I say, only, that I am devoid of a digital opinion!