Monday, June 15, 2020

Thoughts- Reaction & Reflections.

Flooded by the blaring messages on mental health and support, I am surprised how we are failing to be attentive to what we claim our 'values' are.

Am I in the echo chamber of my own social media hearing the trends?  Maybe, I am in it since social media gives us the fragmented reality of what's happening around us.

A month before, everyone was concerned about the pandemic situation and everyone was advising and spreading awareness messages on what should be done, what shouldn't be done. A week before, every one of us was concerned about world oppression over blacks. There's a lot of awareness messages on social media explaining the oppression and initiative to start the dialogues. 



A day before, every one of us is sharing the grief on social media and sharing the messages of how one should maintain good mental health and how one should be there for each other.

First of all, I am not against the intentions, by which our people are sharing the messages.

It's an uncertain time we are in and things are happening in an uncertain way and at uncertain speed.

The possibility of pandemic was discussed by a lot of scientists in the past. Hans Rosling spoke about it, Bill gates spoke about it. Many people spoke about it. We were ignorant and we are reacting in a futile way. The oppression was quite visible in all our lives. We never paid attention till a video surfaced in our social media systems that caused the ripple. Another celebrity killed himself, we are flooding with mental health messages now.

Are we becoming shallow by just reacting to what's happening in our social media systems?? Because, if we keep on reacting to what's been shown to us, we are no better than the news media channels that keep sharing the 'breaking news.'

As humans, we have evolved to connect to each other irrespective of the platforms. With the last mental health episode of advice, I am wondering, if we are reflecting enough to discuss what we really want to discuss.

People are discussing empathy, trust through posts. The posts are shared as if, we are aware of how to be empathetic and caring. I don't think so. Personally, I felt crippled to be caring, especially on social media. Social media and the medium interface seemed to be hampering myself to be less reflective and more reactive.

The medium we chose, the thoughts we share seemed to be lost in the speed of the concern we put in.

Conversations seemed to be one of the steps. Trigger a conversation online, have an offline conversation.

Do not go with the trend. If we are really concerned about issues, read more on it. Twitter threads, Facebook posts cannot make it up to  well researched literature and books.

Long story short. Start reflecting. Stop reacting.



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