The Social Media Conundrum in Consumerism Matrix

Let me introduce you, one of the easiest way to destroy your life.

Start the day by using WhatsApp, then get sucked into a vortex of endlessly checking Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Threads, Reddit, Video-Games, Reels, blah..blah.

Keep repeating those addictive likes, shares and comments bait and at the end of the day, you'll be burned out, an empty shell.

But did all your time really go waste? No.

Your time was chopped, fragmented and cleverly sold to advertisers of social media giants. Some entrepreneur to raise billions of dollar, will suck up your precious time and call it as metric - "user engagement"😀 Question yourself, why most rich businesses are ready to purchase your attention in exchange of little money...say 1000 views in 40 rupee. Will you sell your jewellery of gold in mere 40 Rs per kilo? So don't undervalue your attention by giving it for mere watching ads, or stuff, which don't improve your personality by any means.

Now let's talk about some facts. According to famous survey of July 2023 by Search Logistics, Out of 4.48 billion users (56.8% of the world’s total population), it is estimated that more than half of the children aged 11 and 12 have personal social media profiles even though most social media platforms have a minimum age requirement of 13+ years old. Gen Z and Millennials are the biggest social media users of all age groups. 84% people of age group between 18-29 are using social networking, where as with the age group between 30-49, total 81% of them are active users.

Today the average time spent on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes i.e. 144 minutes for people aged between 16 to 64. The current global life expectancy is about 73 years. If someone signs up for a social media account when they are 16 and lives until they are 73, they will spend a total of 2,995,920 minutes on social media. That equates to be 5.7 years of your life dedicated to social media!

Worldwide over 210 million people admitted, they suffer from social media addiction i.e. 4.69% of total users. 15% of people aged 23-38 admit that they are addicted to social media. These are the ones that are willing to admit it. But I personally feel, most of them don't even know that we're addicted until we monitor it with time chart. 40.6% of young people complain that their sleep has been significantly affected by social media alone. The biggest reason was that 34% of young adults said that not being on social media caused them to feel like they were missing out on something (aka FOMO). Social media causes depression due to increase in anxiety and low self-esteem. 43% of young people feel very bad if no one likes their social media posts.

You've no idea, the thing you've purchased today via e-commerce was your necessity or you are being manipulated to think like that via ads with brand ambassadors, who themselves never used those products at first hand. For example, I remember the double speak anecdote of Alia Bhatt who use to endorse sugar loaded drinks, chocolates, cookies, etc. was baffled in Kapil Sharma show when sugar was served to her along with tea. She immediately refused saying, sugar is bad for health.😁 Do you think Devagans & Shahrukhs will eat pan masala? Then why public purchase? FOMO (Fear of missing out) is their business model.

Here's how it goes: We are told our entire lives that we need to buy things to be happy. Things like cars and houses and smartphones and the likes. In order to buy things, we have to have a job - which we have generally accepted that we will hate 🤣 and in lieu we get credit, which will allow us to buy more things than we can afford. So, because of this illusion, we spend our days doing work we don’t necessarily care about, in order to earn money to pay for things that we don’t need, simply because the consumerism Matrix that we live in tells us to. In our fantasy illusive world, you want to become Shahrukh & Alia, because they are your hero. Your hero sells you pan paraag, alcohol & slow poisons, but as they say 'love makes us blind'.😂 Another example - you think, you purchased 'Audi car' and you'll use it. No, in fact Audi car is using you. How? Now to fill EMIs, maintenance charges, fuel prices, road tax, etc. you've to toil yourself. You presumed Audi car will make you happy, but it made you slave of it.

Ever heard a term "Commodity Fetishisms" - a Marxist theory, introduced by Karl Marx in his book ‘Das Kapital’. The term describes how the social relationships of production and exchange among people take the form of relationships between things (money and commodities) under capitalism. In modern society, this is further accentuated by the use of brand names over quality or use-value of the product. It is achieved by Branding, PR team, FOMO, etc. In modern society, consumption has become a status symbol. Commodities are associated with Godly figures or celebrities, removing any trace of social relations of labour attached to them, making them desirable as an object of envy among consumers.

Anyway, this money & data captured by firms will be used against you further, to psychologically drew your more attention towards its another new features, to make it slippery slope.

You know, Fools often associate likes & comments with social acceptance and psychological superiority and they manifest the saying, "Desire make slaves out of kings, and Discipline makes kings out of slaves." Your dead corpses of destroyed day is proportion to their net worth. What used to be leaked MMS 10 years back, now they are called as 'social media influencers'.😄 I'm not saying all eggs are rotten, but most influencers are shallow & often lack 360 degree perspective. And sometimes they do it deliberately as catchy controversial thumbnails draws more clicks; responsibility & ethics goes for toss. For example, recently Kim Kardashian slammed over MRI Machine Promotion saga. With such advances in social sphere, parenting becomes more challenging & important. This digital divisiveness of how to use social media tool, can make or break entire ecosystem of society.

Not saying you shouldn't cross check your dear ones, OR entertain yourself via apps but set your time limits, may be 15-30 minutes per day. Of course, I do not subscribe "One size fits all" policy, and it can vary upon mood & uses, as we aren't robots. Also, there are certain benefits of using good pages in social media too. But one can argue, moderate alcohol consumption may provide some health benefits, such as - Reducing your risk of developing and dying of heart disease, possibly reducing your risk of ischemic stroke; nevertheless, its same slippery slope, tough to break addiction loop.

However, I recommend one should follow ONLY those in social media, who are your role-models, OR whom you truly admire. You'll say, it's obvious everybody does that, why one unnecessary put garbage in their head? But people do, due to FOMO. I'd observed during last football world cup, people who don't know even name of 2 players of Argentina apart from Messi... people who even don't know rules of engagement in football, were claiming biggest football fan in social media.😁Do not forget, your IQ and EQ is the average of people with whom you spend your time; unconsciously, those reel makers of Meta, and toxic ideology promoter of X(Twitter), often sits inside your cortex. One can tell people's personality easily, by mere examine their social media following list. When you constantly listen one side of story, no matter how rationale & scientific you certify yourself, you tend to compromise on 'Principal of Natural Justice' and suck sugar syrup of biasness. You should consciously use social media, instead of it using you abruptly, as its a double edge sword. 

Right now, I'm really scared of an euphoric dopamine...upcoming battle b/w psychologically designed addictive Metaverse vs Youths across globe. Those children who spend less time in outside team sports & more in video games and reels, they often lack the skill of human interaction psychology, and becomes mentally weak & victim of unhealthy body. Metaverse without user regulation will make thing worse. In China, kids are limited to playing video games for only 3 hours per week. In an effort to curb video game addiction among children, Chinese authorities are tightening the reins on just how much that online gaming companies are allowed to offer young users. The situation is grim, you've two choices - become someone's 'user engagement metric', OR try to rule your own destiny. Choices are yours!! 

I'm saying it with my own erstwhile experiences, there was a time during my teen age & 20's when I use to waste my major chunk of time in Orkut & Facebook. Trust me, the modern devil is, cheap dopamine. The day I came to know these firms hires top psychologist for functional design, I smiled like an idiot and gave up on logging into social media frequently. Remember in the end, you can get break up with your friends/bf/gf OR divorced OR at worse even abandoned by your colleagues/relatives/parents.. but only thing that will support you throughout your life when nobody else will, is your SKILLS. Build them via good-appropriate habits, and your habits will take care of your dreams!!

And yes, until you make it in practice, no matter whom you read to reform your habits... James Clear, Simon Sinek or Naval Ravikant, all waste of time. And in case you choose not to read, which most people unfortunately do, you've no advantage over any illiterate person. Making a slave clerk out of the education, that's what British Politician 'Thomas Babington Macaulay' wanted for Indians; we shouldn't consider it as an end goal. You can always exchange your social media time with digital libraries, in order to diversify your skill boundaries. Let us all Learn, Unlearn, Relearn, & Grow...and make the world a better place.                                                                    Author – Aaditya B Chatterjee.