Hi, so... To begin with, I'm inspired to write after a year long break because of two things. First a friend just started doing a blog (Dr. Rajesh Khade. Seek him out on facebook... He has good stuff to talk about), reminding me I had started one centuries ago too which I had blissfully ignored. Second, I got thinking and making a YouTube video about what I was thinking would be tedious. So here's what I have been thinking about.
You have seen the matrix right? Sure you have. Remember all that stuff about simulated reality and those blue and red pills? Well I watched a YouTube video about that and got to thinking about our perception of reality and what not. You see the movie speaks of a simulated reality that people perceive as the real world and how they remain oblivious to the... Ahem.. Real reality. It seems fantastical at first, the entire premise. But as you go on watching, it kind of makes sense and starts feeling logical. I mean the day and age that we live in, technology could easily allow something of that sort to happen if we take cue from all those multi-player games and virtual reality doohikeys. But my concern is weather its already happening... Now now, don't think I'm paranoid or anything, I've got a good theory to explain it. You see, Facebook is the modern world matrix. And here's how I came to that conclusion. Some years ago, a bunch of us volunteered to participate in this 'virtual community' out of curiosity and outright necessity of socialization. It began innocent. Simple even. Make a profile, find your friends, make new friends and connect with all those people. Eventually we could share information in terms of literature, pictures and later on videos and audios all in the name of social interaction. We also felt heard owing to the likes and even shares that people made to our posts. Pretty soon communities and groups were formed and pages dedicated to ideals, idols and culture became abundant. They said it helped us reach like-minded people and increase our circle of 'friends'. And thus, the purpose of facebook was served.
Today, most of the world is on facebook. All kinds of people. With all kinds of hopes, dreams, philosophies and thoughts. Facebook is where people go to say things and to hear what others have to say. But here lies the problem...for some people, Facebook has become THE place to say things and hear what others have to say (me included). This has made likes and shares way more important than they have to be as important as real life reactions from real people. But is there a comparison? If I get many likes on a post of mine... Has everyone who has liked the post really liked the post? That's a philosophical question open to debate but I'd say no... I don't believe everyone tfuely liked that post. Some were just being polite I guess others might be following common courtesy. Now if I know this, why do I still yearn for likes? Why do you still yearn for likes? Because even if we agree we know the fact, we don't truly believe the fact! Maybe we like the fact that many people agree to our thought and the glory of it makes our judgement cloudy. In other words, we choose to be in an illusion of grandeur. Then there's the part about analyzing the state of the world through facebook. We as humans love to love and hate passionately. We realise that every post on facebook is biased owing to the fact that it is a statement made by a human and yet, we see it as the reality of the state of the world. Why do we do this? The same reason we watch a TV series. We love all the drama. This would all be OK if we could identify the line where facebook ends and real life begins... But unfortunately, the line has disappeared. For some the virtual, biased anarchist world of facebook is entangled with the mellower, more relaxed and orderly real world. For these people reality is something else. Now we can't escape this virtual world. We don't want to. Because the real world is mundane. But it is real. It is the truth. And so I have to ask...
Do you choose the red pill... Or do you choose the blue pill.
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