I can't stop scrolling

Everyday I find myself spending "just a little more" time on Instagram. How that "little more" eats up a major lot of my day, is a mystery. This is true for many users across the globe. We are seduced by images one after another. Our mind is engulfed into Meme culture, Celebrity gossip, Tik-Tok videos, Instagram reels and new trends of the social media universe. We can not stop scrolling. There is always time for just one-more-post, or is there?

How many things can you remember at one glance? As I come across more interesting people/pages on Instagram to follow, these days, I find it is hard to catch up with every event. By the time I have finished watching 30 Instagram stories, I can hardly remember whose story I saw first and for the matter, what was the content of it? How am I suppose to remember the content of 300 people that I follow? I am fortunate to have lived in the pre-mobile era because it provides me a strong base for an argument, a comparison between the two different times I have lived and am living in. Would I have remembered the faces of all freedom fighters if it weren't for a small B/W history textbook and not a thousand internet based images? What is this attraction towards a small screen and scrolling images? What am I suppose to appreciate and what to throw away?

We are sinking into the pool of social media that consumes not only our time but also space in our minds. What is this interest that we have in celebrity life? Social media is a showcase of the glamorous life lead by celebrities and "influencers" or people with the 'blue tick'. We do not know about the hundred pictures taken for 'the one' sexy photo, we do not know the hard-work put behind the perfect body, we do not know the hours spent applying make-up to take one good selfie, we do not know the skillset of the artist whose work we see on our small device, all we see is the final product. Even with videos it is hard to understand the behind-the-scenes picture without any self effort. The end result is gloomy. People start associating themselves to these "images". It gives rise to body-image issues, challenges in social status, hate comments, emotional abuse, spreading false information, anxiety, depression, FOMO(Fear of Missing Out) and various other things. It is as if we are pulled towards all our insecurities, while continuously self validating our actions. It is also worth noticing how scrolling images affects our attention span. At times I find myself lost during conversations, lectures or reading a book. Often our portrayal on these social media platforms is not the reflection of our true self. On many occasions we feel the need to preserve the sanctity of our social media profile by controlling it either aesthetically or the frequency with which we post or disallowing certain comments and tags or creating a public v/s private profile. Every human brain has a unique algorithm and yet I am surprised by the similarity with which social media affects us all.

How do we exercise control? On a positive note, many people(bloggers, artists) have made a career out of the power of social media. It is worth identifying these talents and supporting their content in an effort to use social media productively. I do not know the future of social media. Will Instagram be a "thing" 10 years down the line? We have no solid answer. Meanwhile, lets reap the benefits of it while we can.