By Samhita K
If you're always busy and have woven yourself into the web of ‘doing' rather than just ‘being,' if you're up and about, dynamic, and engaged in various tasks and activities, it's considered socially desirable. Ultimately, you're restless!
Australian singer Lenka starts off her song “Everything At Once” with these lyrics:
“As sly as a fox, as strong as an ox
As fast as a hare, as brave as a bear
As free as a bird, as neat as a word
As quiet as a mouse, as big as a house
All I wanna be, all I wanna be, oh
All I wanna be is everything.”
In a hugely technology-driven era, the average person is constantly on the move (more so online rather than on one's feet). Driven by the urge to know everything posted on the Internet, people have become Surfers of the Net rather than Surfers on a Surfboard, which would be physically more beneficial. Information overflow, in turn, causes an ebb and flow in the mind, a sort of turbine that needs to keep running, receiving gazillion bits and pieces of information 24/7.
In this dopamine-driven culture, doing more makes one feel good, albeit ephemerally. Not running after information and updates makes you uneasy and jittery because you want to be in the know. Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is what Behavioral Scientists call it. In recent years, the other end of the spectrum is slowly rising and making its rounds around the globe. Joy Of Missing Out (JOMO) is an antidote to this feeling of anxiety, thus enabling better mental health and well-being. Embracing a slower pace of life, setting out on spiritual pilgrimages, engaging in technology detox, and basking in the beneficial effects of mindful living and mindfulness, JOMO is here to stay!
Oh well! Several things are happening all around the globe every moment. Let's be realistic! One can only learn a small percentage of it all.
If you're offline or not in vogue with the hottest trends, there's another type of “itch” about the outside world. There is a craving, a certain amount of insecurity, envy, a sense of incompleteness, and even a tinge of depression when you see people posting updates of new cool places, events, hangouts, new (fake) people they've met, the glorious branded stuff they've bought, etc. You immediately feel that you ought to do and/or have these material possessions and lifestyles to accept yourself as worthy. What the heck is going on? How the fuck can the virtual and external world affect you so jarringly every so often? It deprives you of peace of mind and makes you neurotic.
Slow Blast from the Past
Several years ago, I remember reading a study that found another element to social media's growing list of consequential effects. In a nutshell, here is what the study reported. A “spiral” of envy develops when people scroll through the posts of their Facebook friends excelling or enjoying life in ways they aren't. The good news is you're not alone in your bitterness. The bad news is that the solution (aside from shutting down your account) isn't entirely straightforward. Years ago, when Facebook was more popular than other social media, people reported feeling Facebook-inspired pangs of jealousy when they flipped through the pictures of friends lounging on the beach when they had just trudged through the snow to their office. How uninspiring! These feelings of jealousy or envy revolve around the unhealthy and unrealistic comparisons implicitly made between us and our virtual friends or, in many cases, distant online acquaintances.
Dr. Hanna Krasnova, who led the study at the Humboldt-Universität, points out how different social interactions in social media vs. real life can be. “By and large, online social networks allow users unprecedented access to information on relevant others — insights that would be much more difficult to obtain offline.
“From a provider's perspective,” the authors conclude, “our findings signal that users increasingly perceive Facebook as a stressful environment, which may endanger platform sustainability.”
Back to the Present!
Well, Facebook is now Meta. Moreover, things have changed quite a bit in the technological culturescape. As I write these words, there's probably a phenomenal number of Artificial Intelligentsia writing epic crap! Winky emoticons are not needed! Period.
I am intrigued to learn what would come after Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Metaverse peter out into the past. My associative memory automatically reminded me of the word ‘verse' as I wrote Metaverse. Poem being synonymous with verse, my mind transports me to a poem we had to study in undergrad. It is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker titled “Question I.” The poem speaks volumes on the monumental role of the Media and the Other in everyday life.
I have the biggest remote control of all. I can channel-hop and skip and jump across the world, turning your voices on and off, start and rewind, play and stop, fast forward squeak and double-speak, murmur mutter mute stammer stutter gabble rattle rap rasp shout croak shriek whisper scream chant sing. Nothing.
Static.Snow.White Noise.
You're off the air.
Am I there when I can't hear your voice?
I wonder what would happen if there was a global communication lapse for a considerably long period. Perhaps we would all develop telepathy. Or, maybe, would we finally be able to take our minds off things, unwind, and take rest?
About the Author
Samhita K is a doctoral researcher in Psychology at the School of Sciences, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University). Her thesis broadly focuses on Mind Wandering and Mindfulness Interventions. Her research interests include Cognition, Transpersonal Psychology, Consciousness Studies, Philosophy, Quantum Reality, Pedagogy and Cognitive Neuroscience. She is a psychologist, researcher, published poet, writer, French teacher and more recently, an education entrepreneur. She is the sole proprietor of Transpersonal Frontiers. With a mission to take Transpersonal Psychology and spirituality to far-reaching corners. Samhita runs a podcast, a Substack newsletter and a WhatsApp channel. She is the author of the non-fiction book entitled “The Faces of the Self: Introspective Insights” (available on the Conscious Life News website). Aside from this, she has authored the short story tilted “The Russian Manuscript” and the memoir “The Return of the Russian Manuscript,” both of which are available for purchase on Amazon. In the year 2021, Samhita was selected as a Leader of Tomorrow for the 50th St. Gallen Symposium (Switzerland) as her essay made it to the Top 100 Essays across the globe. Some of her newest poetry can be found on All Poetry – the web's largest poetry community, and on Elephant Journal.
