“There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.“
—anonymous
India has become the second most data-consuming country, preceded by China and followed by America, which puts us on the way to becoming the Data-consuming capital of the world.
According to an article published by the Hindu, one of the trustworthy newspapers in India, the data consumed per indian on average augmented to 19.5 GB in 2022, which is the same as listening to 6,600 songs, making it an upward thrust from 9.5 GB in 2018.
Another article brought out by the Economic Times revealed that India has over 820 million active internet users, with half of them belonging to rural areas. That too increased by 8% in 2023. And now finally we have outgone the first quarter of 2024 and the crescendo of data consumption per user in India continues to increase. And the data I provided suffices to show it. Now this is not at all to say that we should totally abolish the blessings of this era of ever-evolving technology. But there is also the other aspect of the coin that we forget to pay attention to.
Since internet access doesn’t come with an instruction manual, people tend to use it in the ways they wish. Again there is no problem in it but the problem arises when the internet begins to use them. Therefore I intend this blog to serve as an instructions manual, with slight emphasis on the do’s and don’ts of the internet, for everyone— especially the youngsters.
An old article published by the Times of India indicated that by 2020 Indians used their smartphones for 4.5 hours and this duration was predicted to reach unculminatingly up to 4.9 hours by 2022. Can you guess what the current scenario is? Okay! Let it go. What is more crucial than this is to know the kinds of content we are spending our precious time on.
Always remember that,
“social media can be a never-ending cycle of struggles if you allow what others think and say about you to affect the way you feel about yourself.”
― Germany Kent
The companies are spending millions to make people addicted to social media. Want to know why? Because for them data is the new oil which is being used as a drug against us because they know that “consumerism is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives“. That is why simping culture, bandwagon effect, fomo, validation-seeking, insomnia, obesity and even depression are the demons of today. An article by NIH can be witnessed as vivifying the adverse effects of over-consumption of the internet.
So let’s peruse the do’s and don’ts of the internet (or else the humans will one day become data-sucking zombies).
Stop using your mind as a dustbin
“Social media is not just an activity; it is an investment of valuable time and resources. Surround yourself with people who not just support you and stay with you, but inform your thinking about ways to WOW your online presence.”
—Sean Gardner
I have seen people scrolling endlessly, avoiding contact with their friends and families and also indulging in procrastination. My observations allow me to find out that we never pay attention to the content we are consuming, to the fact that data is also used as a product and if “you are not paying for the product, you are the product”. Mindless internet surfing or scrolling, more often than not, allows the garbage cluttered on the internet to enter your mind, thus molding and manipulating or exploiting your attitude. And because attitude is everything, it could be destructive to your intellectual growth.
Realise the desensitization caused by social media
Desensitization refers to the process of getting less reactive or sensitive to something, usually with repeated exposure. You must not have yet experienced that when you got your phone for the first time, just an hour or two hours of data consumption was enough for you but gradually things changed. Today even after scrolling for long hours you don’t get the same feeling you used to get one or two years before. This is the same phenomenon as experienced by the drug addicts. Now I am not exaggerating it but if for you, too, an average dose of data consumption doesn’t feel to be sufficient then earnest and careful attention to your social media activities and habits is inviolable.
Choose your mentors wisely
The true selves of the people are always hidden behind their tongues. Just by conversing with someone you can know a lot about their attitudes, beliefs, prejudices and stereotypes held by them and how opinionated they are. The people, themselves, don’t know why they believe something, why they perceive something as right or wrong, why they have certain biases or partialities. However, they are innocently and doggedly devoted to their own ideas and pre-conceived notions which they never ever cared to consciously analyse with a disinterested mind. Do you know why this is so? Because they might be Whatsapp university graduates or are following some social media influencers blindly. Therefore I urge my readers to apply their brains to what someone on social media is saying before they believe it to be true. Mark my words,
“Social media is the place where the reality ceases to exist.”
So choose your mentors wisely.
Keep your mind open, not empty
“Data is like garbage. You’d better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.”
Most often we don’t take time to evaluate or assess what we are being catered in a particular video or reel. However, the politicians are using it in their favor to propagate their propaganda. The demagogues are oozing out poison among the masses, swaying people to their hate speeches and poisoning the ears of people against their own countrymen.
Now towards the climax of the blog, I would give some positive and productive usages of the internet to make this blog more comprehensive.
Social media platforms can also be used for healthy data consumption like watching educational content, online courses, e-entrepreneurship, finance management; resources aimed at self-care or mindfulness, self-help, telemedicine, physical and mental wellness; indulgences in creative means of self-expression like writing, music and art.
Don’t forget to drop your lovely comments below. Do tell us the topic of your interest on which you would like us to write a blog .
For now, bye! And I will see you in my upcoming “it’s-code-red-blog”.