Sometime a while ago, I realized that I had some power. I am not a powerful person but I realized how I wielded power...and this is true for every one of us.
Whatever you say, is being heard. So, you better be careful what you talk. Don't spread wrong information, to start with. Don't spread negative, ugly talks and gossip. Don't share disrespectful posts. Don't share posts which fuel disharmony of any kind within a particular society or culture.
I realized this when I had a certain incident. My father had told me that Harris Jeyaraj, a famous Tamil music composer, copied his tunes from chinese music. I never gave that piece of info any weightage but since I heard it, it got stored in my memory somewhere.
So, one fine day, when I listen to a tamil song - kaathirundhai anbe, I think it's very chinese sounding and probably as dad said, it's a rip off of some chinese music by Harris. Later when I verified, I realized that he was not the composer. But, look at how my brain worked. I made an assumption based on certain false information.
Similarly, someone commented that Preity does tons of plastic surgery. So whenever I see her coming out of an airport, hiding her face, I invariably think that she's undergone yet another surgery.
Is this right?
From that point, I decided to be very careful with my words, atleast on Facebook. My posts are seen and liked by a handful of people. My words shape their prejudices and opinions. A part of me is transferred to another person, so I better be careful about what I say.
On similar lines, I am disgusted with the celebrity culture but I also occasionally check pics and movie reviews, etc. I felt that it was like being dishonest and I have it in my yearly to-do to get away from celebrity news.
What I did not realize is that all these things that I thought through are serious stuff. It's not just me, it's what everyone should be thinking and doing.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/09/01/sally-kohn-clickbait-ted/
To rephrase Sally Kohn, "Most intelligent, motivated people believe that we shape the world with our choices. And yet even the best-intentioned people often get caught in believing this on an abstract level, while making passive, semi-automatic choices in our daily lives that float us further from rather than closer to the world we say we desire."
Our mindless media gluttony is shaping the very culture we so readily sneer at.
If what gets the most clicks wins, then we have to start shaping the world we want with our clicks, because clicking is a public act. So click responsibly.
Whatever you say, is being heard. So, you better be careful what you talk. Don't spread wrong information, to start with. Don't spread negative, ugly talks and gossip. Don't share disrespectful posts. Don't share posts which fuel disharmony of any kind within a particular society or culture.
I realized this when I had a certain incident. My father had told me that Harris Jeyaraj, a famous Tamil music composer, copied his tunes from chinese music. I never gave that piece of info any weightage but since I heard it, it got stored in my memory somewhere.
So, one fine day, when I listen to a tamil song - kaathirundhai anbe, I think it's very chinese sounding and probably as dad said, it's a rip off of some chinese music by Harris. Later when I verified, I realized that he was not the composer. But, look at how my brain worked. I made an assumption based on certain false information.
Similarly, someone commented that Preity does tons of plastic surgery. So whenever I see her coming out of an airport, hiding her face, I invariably think that she's undergone yet another surgery.
Is this right?
From that point, I decided to be very careful with my words, atleast on Facebook. My posts are seen and liked by a handful of people. My words shape their prejudices and opinions. A part of me is transferred to another person, so I better be careful about what I say.
On similar lines, I am disgusted with the celebrity culture but I also occasionally check pics and movie reviews, etc. I felt that it was like being dishonest and I have it in my yearly to-do to get away from celebrity news.
What I did not realize is that all these things that I thought through are serious stuff. It's not just me, it's what everyone should be thinking and doing.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/09/01/sally-kohn-clickbait-ted/
To rephrase Sally Kohn, "Most intelligent, motivated people believe that we shape the world with our choices. And yet even the best-intentioned people often get caught in believing this on an abstract level, while making passive, semi-automatic choices in our daily lives that float us further from rather than closer to the world we say we desire."
Our mindless media gluttony is shaping the very culture we so readily sneer at.
If what gets the most clicks wins, then we have to start shaping the world we want with our clicks, because clicking is a public act. So click responsibly.
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