Point Of View

This is a point of view. But, unfortunately, the compulsive use of POV on every video I scroll through today has got to me. Is your point of view so basic to fit within five words to seven seconds on a regular video clip with completely unrelated music? Where are your honest thoughts, the thoughts that make you, those that unrest you, and those that completely daze you? 

We are mired in the circle of social media validation, and only some of us have managed to set boundaries. You wake up, and instead of detangling some tresses or rubbing your face, you reach for the phone. You unlock it, squint your eyes to scroll all app notifications, and lock it back. What value this adds to your morning routine needs to be clarified. But it is the creeping fear of missing out. The internet further validated this feeling by abbreviating it to FOMO. And since then, there’s no looking back. 

You have your tea/coffee, and if the window shows an exceptionally bright day, you must capture it. Now, you place the cup at an angle that gets the sun’s rays and wait for the hot steam to arise to click the perfect ‘Tis a Good Morning’ photo. Before posting it online, do you contemplate whether you should use a filter on it or whether you should post it all? 

Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram, are common social media apps that are not addictive as platforms. But the validation we seek from posting everything on these mediums seeps in like a drug, affecting serotonin levels on a likes-to-comments basis. It has got us to share a considerable part of our daily lives online, only waiting for someone to look up to it, like it, comment on it positively, and essentially inflate our egos. 

Think about this… When you are on vacation, be it with family, friends, or solo, do you want to capture memories or make them? The unfiltered things we say in conversations, the exuberant laughter when surrounded by our close ones, and the inner jokes we share can’t come to the fore when you have a camera rolling, just waiting for this candidness to be captured. Won’t you agree that you need to put your phone in a pocket, rub your palms, and feel the warmth of a bonfire rather than take a slo-mo video of the flames? These most straightforward actions want us to keep our phones away and the cameras black-taped. No, you won’t miss out on the good times if you live in them. You’d only miss them if you are enjoying them in pretense to show them to other random strangers.

We need to stop mini-vlogging our lives for full validation. If you desire the expression, try talking about ‘how today made you feel?’ And no, it does not have to be happy all the time. Please give me a true Point of View of your learnings and help others through it because we all have days when we feel like packing our bags and leaving for a destination untold. 

I observe a lot of creators and their imitators online. While it is the sustenance of a creator to post what they do online, it is a sign of loneliness for the other lot. Is this generation relying on online friendships and their likes to define their own? I believe it is unconscious too. 

When Instagram removed the likes count last year, their chief Adam Mosseri said, “The idea is to try and depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, give people more space to focus on connecting with people they love, things that inspire them. But it’s focused on young people.” This move got polarizing reactions, but it also gave us insight. Yes, the young ones succumb to this fear of missing out, not being liked/commented on, not looking pretty enough, and eventually being insufficient. So now you can hide your likes and metrics. But can you hide the innate sense to be relevant for the ‘gram? 

It also creeps from the loneliness that technology leaves us. We are more connected to the outside world than the ones we live and mingle with. Of course, a rejection or a mean comment from a best friend will hurt! Here’s a random stranger showering hearts and making up for it. 

Thankfully, we have some who show the right side of creating content for Instagram. The ‘Instagram vs. Reality’ video trend is something that people enjoy as fun. But look beyond my viewers – Observe how everyone is faking a view and cooperating in queuing to avoid being seen in picturesque frames. Are you doing the same with your life? Are you too conforming to the fear of being unseen if you don’t show people what they like to double tap on? 

It is human to fear failure, abandonment, uncertainty, judgment, and death. But the fear of missing out is something that we need to get past. Don’t you realise how this fear makes us be a part of it, and we end up missing out on the true joys of living in the moment anyway? 

Go ahead, click pictures, capture videos, make edits, travel, sing, dance, and do what gives you joy. But do it for your validation. Create something that stays valid even after the internet goes off. 

On a call with my friend this week, she told me the family got a new car after I said, ‘Woah, woot woot! And Congratulations.’ She kept it a secret from everyone.
Why!!! To create a reel to reveal it. Ok then! So there’s another ‘POV: You got a new car’ reel coming on my feed in a few days. 

——