Surprised why some decently smart youngsters join an entirely misinformed campaign on social media?

Read on..

And do share your thoughts too!

[Thread]

1/ Abundance of well-packaged inspirational (and, occasionally, dramatic) stories of those who’ve made it big - stories splashed all over social media - threaten to inflict upon youngsters a glaring sense of inadequacy, almost on a daily basis.

2/ Internet has made equally available to everyone not only the ability to share an opinion or the resources to understand a topic (great things), but also the right to feel equally entitled without a corresponding introspection on whether it’s equally deserved (unfortunate)

3/ The sense of identity of a vast majority is now inextricably tied to having a “purpose”. When your identity feels lost because you make yourself believe you don’t have that burning purpose, it induces anxiety and, if left uncontrolled, panic.

4/ Having a purpose is, in my view, largely good. It is an overall net positive driving force in one’s life (although do read @manujosephsan’s compelling contrarian view on this https://twitter.com/manujosephsan/status/1345975731336015872)

5/ The problem is that youngsters want instant gratification - an immediate dopamine hit - for the purpose(s) they choose. Instant connectivity (WhatsApp), instant content (Netflix etc) and instant feedback loop (FB/IG likes, Twitter RTs) has enslaved our minds.

6/ What is a purpose which is most convenient to latch on to? A trending ’cause’. Try to post/tweet a novel and very compelling idea you had at 4 AM and compare its retweets/likes to your posts on BLM or, recently, farmer protests.

7/ That dopamine hit you get from the RTs/shares after you tweeted on the trending ‘cause’ caters to the reward section of your brain. That chemical reaction makes you truly believe you’ve found a purpose based on the instant recognition it’s giving you.

8/ This is what the originators of these trends understand very well. Indeed, not all ‘causes’ have a sinister design to them, but some causes do. That makes many who mindlessly join the latter the ‘Useful Wokes’ as I call them.

9/ The sinister game behind ostensibly innocent hashtags isn’t in making Useful Wokes feel good about having a purpose. The game is in making them think that they’re thinking for themselves.

10/ Smarter among the Useful Wokes realize that game at some point. By then, however, they’re far too invested in feeding the reward section of the brain. Withdrawing from it leads to serious withdrawal symptoms.

[Social-Media Addicts Anonymous could become mainstream sooner.]

11/ My specific concern is with India’s youth. We are the youngest country with immense intelligence, exposure to all modern tools of education and strong cultural roots. I truly hope they're made aware of the pitfalls of Wokeism in general & Social Media Wokeism in particular.

Point, but I feel it's more a symptom. We can binge watch TV shows all day with full focus.

I think what frequent dopamine hits have done is to find anything that doesn't have instant gratification utterly boring & demotivating. Hence, the lack of focus. https://twitter.com/jyotsnadedha/status/1357772991665328128?s=19