The Troll Culture

22nd July 2022

I joined Social Media in the year 2012, had just completed my engineering, and with an intent to stay connected with friends joined Facebook first. It did fulfill my purpose as well as helped me make new friends. I was a little late to join Instagram and LinkedIn, I still find LinkedIn a little boring however I am very active on Instagram. There are so many posts and stories that I post on Instagram but purposefully avoid on Facebook, obviously my personal choice.

The reason behind mentioning it in detail is to set the plot for the further part of the blog.

So after using Social Media for almost a decade, there are a few things I have learned.
1) Not everything you see on social media is real. Many of them are doing it to gain fame, many to chase numbers, and the rest to jump on the trend wagon!

2)Numbers do not matter. Whether it is the number of friends, followers, likes, or the number of plays on your reels. Even though the basic intent of Social Media was to network, it has been now extended to exhibit your talent and skills. When you post it out there, you do not intend to please people, you intend to show your talent and skills; That is fulfilled even if one person watches it or one thousand watch it! In my case, I keep on posting singing reel videos on Instagram. Few of them get good responses, while the rest of them do not, but I am equally proud of both of them. I do share the one with the good response after they reach a certain milestone, but that nowhere means that the one with less number of plays brings shame!

3)You can choose your responses as not everything that is out there will convince you equally.

4)There is something called Social Media etiquette that some people need to learn. Now talking about the highlight of the topic: Trolling! So trolling is the act of saying/posting/writing something negative in the context of the main topic of discussion! You never know what can offend others, it can be the smallest thing or it can be something bizarre! There are some very popular profiles/accounts/platforms that are only running because trolling exists. Talking about trolling, would like to share some recent examples!

The way Love Storiyaan (Kesariya song from Bramhastra) got trolled, probably worked in the favor of makers; Because many, including me, heard that song to find out if that term was as cringe as badly it was being trolled!

The next one is news about Sushmita Sen and Lalit Modi! First of all, they did not seek anyone's permission or approval. It was a mutually decided confession that both of them made to keep their fans updated about know-hows in their lives! We as Indians need to step out of the judgemental mentality and match-making mindsets. Not everything that does not fit into the match-making norms is wrong. Be it celebrities or normal people, we have got our own lives, our phases which we would not like to be exposed to and discussed publicly.
Imagine if you or your close one were found in this kind of situation, would you be okay with being called Gold Digger?

The third one is about a soon-to-be mom - Alia Bhat!
I have so much to say about this topic, but first things first: I was in splits after reading all the speculations around it! So the timeline of life no longer revolves around your set norms. Girls are now educated enough to decide for themselves and choose what suits them the best. Early marriage, late marriage, or no marriage - there is a problem! Early motherhood, late motherhood, no motherhood - still problem! Not even talking about IVF, surrogacy, and adoption; Because that will take me off track! And then in the end it's all about - Unko koi farq nahi padta! That is because they do what they want, they know not everybody is going to accept it and does it even matter? If what they do makes sense to them, they do not care if it makes sense to others. Because if they keep waiting for everyone to be convinced with what they want to do, this life will be gone! Social Media is a powerful tool, there is a much more constructive and powerful way to use it. Share good memories, motivating quotes and thoughts, and some REAL life humor!

Having an opinion is not a bad thing, but not using it in right place is! Bramhastra is going to release anyways, because of trolls and criticism Sushmita Sen won't change her decision, and neither Alia will. It will only bring 2 minutes of fame and all the not so needed negativity. So if you have any opinion, keep it to yourself, and share it with your confidants. You don't need to gang up on social media and then set a trend of trolling to gain fame!

Relationships, marriage, motherhood, even social media and many such things are only a chapter in the book of life, not whole of it. So act wisely, choose smartly and live fully!