Reels: Slow death of creativity, peace?

Prof Nabhit Kapur

Is winning a medal in the Olympics a proud moment? Or, serving in the army? Or, is it by showcasing your talent on domestic and international platforms? Well, none of these are worthwhile, you know what will make our whole nation proud and will prompt the Chief Minister himself to honour you is definitely ‘Bachpan Ka Pyaar’. Yeah, all you got to do is memorize some lame lyrics and recite them while making a video on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, and boom you will be the upcoming star, and all the media and citizens of the country will be behind you.

The journey of consuming trash content, yeah you heard it right, I said it, started with ‘selfie meine leli aaj’, then it tended to continue with ‘Rasode me kon tha’, ‘Pawry hori hai’, and the cycle is still moving cheerfully. From a three-year-old kid to a 90-year-old person, everyone is running behind the never-ending trail of bad content which is being served to us every day. The days are gone when people used to consume fine quality content and used to learn from them. At present, the moment you click on any social media application, you will get bombarded with reels and shorts, which could have been put to great use but rather are getting abused in my opinion.

One of the reasons is even the access to free internet, people are now going overboard and watching anything and everything. The pandemic worked as fuel in fire and made the situation even worse. Earlier there was a proportion of society which was indulged in such activities but now due to the lockdown everyone got inclined towards short-duration videos like Instagram reels and YouTube shorts and we fell into the trap. Our habit of watching such content made the creators create such videos as everyone is desperate to get popular and gain likes, views, followers, or subscribers. The more the followers, likes, and views the more the money will be in their pockets.

My concern doesn’t pause here, is it appropriate to involve children in such activities where they are not even aware of what they are doing. Isn’t this is their age to focus on studies because let’s be honest, no matter how great singer, dancer, or painter you are but there is basic education that every kid deserves to get access to. But we are snatching it away from them by showing that studies can wait but content creation on such platforms can’t. We are sowing the wrong variety of seeds in their minds, we are forgetting that sending them in this direction might give them popularity for a specific span of time but the failure will surely push them into the dark cave of anger, anxiety, depression, suicide, inferiority complex and what not.

This addiction to content will demolish the plan of ‘New India’, ‘Young India’ because in the upcoming years the majority of youngsters might be busy posting some bizarre content on social media platforms.

We need to understand that the hunger for getting famous and making more money in less time will lead us to nowhere and will take the creativity and skills of our nation to its deathbed. It’s high time we need to pull up our socks and show the upcoming and present generation that opting for singing, dancing, painting, etc. is worthwhile and hard but only if you are doing the real one, as lipsing on someone else’s songs and dialogues is not a talent. Parents need to stop filming their kids and uploading them on social media handles. I know that it is your choice but is it fine to ruin your kid’s childhood? The parents need to engrave into their heads that they themselves are throwing the children inside the deep well of depression as the day is not far when Corona will vanish away and normal lives will begin. That fine day, the statistics of views, likes, and followers will start falling down and so will be the kid.

At the age when parents should motivate their kids to get indulged into education and consume knowledge, at such times they themselves are serving pathetic and unnecessary content in front of them. The moment you allow them to access your phone, you, my friend are pushing your child into the deep ocean of darkness from where there is no chance of escape. Earlier, parents used to show their kids the right direction but nowadays they are making them the source of monetisation and are focusing on raising their graphs of popularity. Have the parents forgotten that no matter how much singing, dancing, or acting your child does, at the end of the day when they will grow and will be required to step out of your house, that fine day if they would not be aware of the basic facts everything will go into the dump?

So, are you ready to take that risk and intentionally throw your kid into the dark side of the internet, where you might get famous but that will be for a specific period of time? The charm will soon fade away, there will be a point when these likes, followers, shares, and comments won’t matter, education will be the only weapon which will help you to excel. Now, let’s take a pause here, let me tell you that I am not at all against singing, painting, rapping, dancing, etc. My concern is the mental health of the upcoming generation, we need to preserve it to develop, not on social media but in reality. Covid-19 has already made things worse and snatched away numerous opportunities from our youth and has made the kids suffer by taking online classes, as we know how much attention is put in such sessions.

I can’t blame the kids for getting involved on such platforms, all the responsibility needs to be taken by their parents, it’s high time that we start realising our negligence and improve by taking robust actions. As parents, it is our sole duty to understand that social media might seem glamorous and dazzling but it undoubtedly will take your kid towards the wrong path. make them read ‘Books’ not ‘Reels’, make them watch ‘Educational Videos’ not ‘YouTube’ and tell them the importance of ‘Knowledge’ not ‘Likes’.

Therefore, motivate them to study instead of giving cell phones in their hands, otherwise sooner or later we will regret our actions and it will be impossible for any of us to save them from being mentally unwell. Wake up before you witness the awful disastruction of your own child.