Author: Vidhya
Certainly 2020 is not our year. The world has been in lockdown for more than 4 months now. A lot of negativity, hatred is spread all over the internet. There is certainly no sign of when all of this is going to end. Since the lockdown started, I am glued to my mobile screen, traveling from Netflix to YouTube. In a desperate need to bring my sleep cycle back to normal, I decided to reduce the time I spend with my 720p screen. I tried it for a day and I realized I overthink a lot, and I get multiple thoughts simultaneously. It was tough for me to handle, and I decided to pen them down. There were a couple of things that I wrote and most of them were extremely silly. But one of them was a little thought-provoking.
It was a video from Tried and Refused Production on a movie named Bhavesh Joshi Superhero. Among the very few who watched the movie, most of them saw it as an outrage of young men on corruption in India. But I noticed the way they used social media as their weapon to bring about a change, as every citizen intends to. However he ends up failing miserably and gets one of the protagonists killed. This struck a question in my mind- What would be considered a superpower in India? Is it money, fame, power among people, or political power. I felt that the answer was social media. It is the ultimate superpower in the world, which can make or break a person in no time. And the ultimate superhero is the person who knows how to use this tool and understands the algorithms behind its functioning.
We humans are spiritual beings and believe in a lot of things that have no signs of existence. Our lives revolve around our belief system, which is formed by the people we surround ourselves with. What, then, is the best place to remain anonymous other than on social media platforms? We blindly believe everything that we see here without checking the facts. This psychology is used by many, big-shots and commoners alike, who want the world to listen to them. The best example is ‘THE ANONYMOUS’. Do you think that the impact created by this page would remain the same if they had an identity of their own?
People like The Anonymous are superheroes and social media is their weapon, and their superpower is playing with the minds of the public. However, we must remember that it is us who give them these superpowers and it is us who can take them away. We choose what to believe and what not. We choose what stays and what not. We, as an audience, are the real heroes.
