Toastmaster CC3 - Is my life cool enough?

A friend today felt forced to book a Hong Kong holiday as his family was eager for a foreign holiday after seeing holiday posts from their FB friends. Another friend last week decided to use Botox to ensure she gets the perfect #justwokeup pictures for her Instagram.

While first one came as a reaction to some actual trip posts, the second one seems to be a desired state of “far from reality” existence leading to frustration and mayhem in lives around. Hashtags like #IWokeUpLikeThis, #Effortless, #Amazing holiday, etcetera many a times send a story out where the receiver may not be sure if the selfies or travel photos are edited or not, taken a zillion times before posting one or not. As per a study done by Carnegie University, India has seen maximum selfie led accidental deaths till Sep 16 in the world; its 76 out of total 126.

Isn’t it the state of insta lies that makes many of us feel at loss of our peace of mind to start with? Do we need these tools of social media to tell us how cool our life really is? My dear Toastmasters, in my third CC, I would like to discuss how the cool quotient has increasingly become dependent on perceptions initiated from the social media.

In today’s time our “cool quotient” isn’t really about how “cool” one really is but rather how it is perceived on social media. It has rather become a parading ground for people boasting about their promotions at work, cute babies, new homes, marathon times, culinary miracles, engagements, weddings and idyllic holidays. People are determined to out-do their nearest and dearest, and brag on sites like Facebook, Instagram or status updates on Whats App under the guise of sharing their news.

Sometimes I feel that clearly there is a market for startups that Photoshop your image into pictures of groups of people doing cool things, and regularly uploads these to Facebook or Instagram, along with automatically-generated fake descriptions of these fake cool things you are allegedly doing.  Your friends will be impressed!

As for WhatsApp, the business of creating those “ready-to-be-forwarded” messages has grown well and with Reliance Jio, it’s sure to get double digit growth especially in India.

If we look at the size of how social networks have grown, it is huge. Too big to ignore today, Facebook has a membership of 1.94 billion active accounts. This would mean that 26% of global population actually is on Facebook, or to explain better, one in four humans on planet Earth is active on FB. Other sites like Whats App aren’t far behind really, having almost 18% of global population using it.

The impact overall is huge. Oxford Dictionary has added “Facebook”, “Instagram” and “insta lie” as verbs. And it is the positives that can be drawn from it all.

Imagine home bakers like Parvati who are not big enough to have her own bakery and paraphernalia. From her FB page, she caters to many like me supplying amazing cakes and bakery products. Consider those Whats App groups which allow us to share information easily, like the parents’ group at my kid’s school! My father has been quite happy lately as he not only has managed to connect with his school friends on FB but also is keen on connecting with old colleagues on a Whats App group. Social media effectively has allowed ease in exchange of information.

It’s of course, your own choice to accept things. So if you experience any pressure by looking at my FB posts, it’s practically your own creation - a case of a mouse falling in his own trap? It becomes easy to blame others for this so-called pressure. But then who are we fooling? Isn’t it a self-created self-craved interpretation we desire? We feel it is imminent that we are perceived in the social media as well-groomed, well-traveled, cultured, having a great family life and being loved at office. We don’t make time to call and meet people around; rather we like to post and receive likes for our exciting social life. Whose fault it then actually is?

After hearing my speech, the audience will be able to understand that social media should not actually be taken as a mirror of our society but rather a petri dish that we wish our respective microscopic evaluations of our respective lives. Clicking selfies, posting dinner pics on FB, etc is fine but then more important is to enjoy and experience the moment itself, and of course, yourself. It is better to live life than to look for it on the screens, my friends.

Thank you