Thursday, September 4, 2014

'This Blog Post will Change Your Life'

“25 photographs that will put your picture taking skills to shame”

“This girl went to the ice-cream wallah. What happened next will change the way how you look at ice-cream.”

“This video will make you kill yourself.”

These are a few examples of what we've been seeing on the web these days. We are living in an age of superlatives. The good old good, pretty and well-written are replaced by jaw-dropping, drop-dead-gorgeous and the best-piece-I’ve-ever-read, respectively. I mean, if I write that I liked your article, I’m made to believe that I don’t really like it enough, or probably don’t like it at all.

Since when did everyone, EVERYONE in this world become like an 18-year-old teenager who needs to be reassured a million times? I think it all started with commenting on pictures. Our social needs require us to not only like a picture but write a comment on it as well. Actually it depends on our relationship with the person. It goes like this - acquaintance = like; friend = you look nice; sister, brother/Best friend = like + you look awesome.

But what do you do when someone above you has already written nice/awesome. You are as good as your thesaurus and so you dig new words. So yes, that probably started the epidemic of superlatives. It also brought along a string of new words – cuteness, superlike, bootylicious…

Since the Internet was replete with videos and pictures, someone out there decided to create attention-seeking headlines because ‘Breaking news’ was not good enough. I think they took lead from India TV and that other channel with Sansani, the one of ‘Aage ki khabar aapko Chauka degi. Baba bana Gunda’ fame.

These titles are actually effective. When I see a girl falling from a roller-coaster, I don’t click on it. But when I see “Accidiant terrifiant blah blah” written on it, I open it even though it forces me to like the video and display my curiosity and velaness to all my 400 friends.

The funniest thing happened with an aunt on Facebook. There was an iffy looking picture in circulation - a man and a woman were getting cosy in it. The caption was – comment mein 8 likhiye aur chamatkaar dekhiye. Now poor aunt, she typed 8. The picture was publicly shared and so the whole world got to know that she was interested in it! Although my day was made, she buried her head in shame for the whole week!

If the word ‘chamatkaar’ wasn’t on the picture, she wouldn’t have written anything.  Hence proved - superlatives lure us; normal is certainly not good enough.  Just like 90% gets us nowhere in boards, 95 and above is what we need to do well.

Even the vacation we go to has to be ‘the best vacation ever’. Even though I know you had written that the last time. I kind of understood the normalcy behind superlatives when I was at a party. A couple who was there with us at the boring bash went home and put a picture of it on Facebook. The tag-line read – the best days of our lives. Now I am all for positivity; but I’m not in favour of white lies!

In all this there is just one solace – that I have friends who would write ‘whistle-whistle’ and ‘you look divine’. Otherwise even a 100 likes and a few nice/good comments would have made me feel like a mere plain Jane.

That would have certainly made a stupefying dent in my super-awesome, fantabulous, stellar life.

P.S.  Surprisingly, a simple comment like ‘I love your blog’ still makes my day :)

21 comments:

  1. Anonymous9/04/2014

    This comment won't do anything extraordinary for you ;). Anyhow hi after a long gap, was busy creating a little something ;). But I have even reading you all this white and suddenly this post has made me super jealous ....TBH is an awesome awesome husband but I know he won't go for hour long walks with me :(. That is making me sad n jealous at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey N! I have been posting comments on your blog but they never appear. Please check your spam folder. If you ever come back to read this reply - Congrats on the little bunny :*. I've been reading you.

      As for the husbands - they are both unique and amazing in their own ways. Also, there should always be a scope for improvement, no? Don't be sad or jealous!

      P.S. This comment was suppose to be for the last post. But since you are handling an infant, I can understand :)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9/05/2014

      Absolutely.....I understood it as soon as I posted. This is so me :(, I totally mixed your last two posts. Anyway, about the comments, I dint get a single one, let me go back and check right away.

      Delete
    3. Were you able to find my comments? I don't know where they disappear.

      Delete
  2. Peer pressure to write the perfect comment! Sometimes I end up just going for a simple like as my genuine nice/good would b lost in the sea of honey coated comments which are sometimes not even written with genuine feelings!
    By the way...I really love reading your blog...:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. I so hate those fake comments and feel as if I don't appreciate things enough!

      Thankyou for reading, Shaivi. I think we both write simple and personal blog posts - the love is mutual :)

      Delete
  3. One of the reasons I have stopped liking/commenting of the social media. Eventhough I have an account of FB I don't actively participate. If I want to communicate with any one I just send them a message on FB. Its simply a one to one conversation and there is no need for others to know what I said. I understand many are doing it this way and very soon it will FB's loss as their business is going to go down.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. FB is like that thing that you want but not really need. I don't think it will go anywhere. If the likes of Chanel and Louis Vuitton can survive, FB is comparatively cheaper!

      Delete
  4. Honest post, I realize I have fallen into the superltive habit a couple times now and then but I try to correct it.

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    1. I do superlatives with some of my own - because I love them even if they are soaked in mud! But I see people who I've just met a couple of times going overboard with their affection. That, to me, is hard to digest.

      Delete
  5. i love your blog and I love you more! :)

    I can whistle all day looking at you ;)

    Love!

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    Replies
    1. Hahaha!!! Now I'm not that awesome, or maybe I don't know my worth yet ;)

      Delete
  6. Thank you for this post ! And I really wish everybody reads it ! Everybody is adamant about picking up the most catchy title that no one pays attention to details. These people are no less than spammers :/

    I am seriouusly bored of these now

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, everyone is. But we don't change, do we? I am sure both of us are guilty of indulging in superlatives. Maybe not as much as others, but we do write 'unique' comments. Simplicity is no longer a virtue!

      Delete
  7. This was fun reading ... Facebook and social media have really made us craving for attention. I loved how you put your points forward in a light manner :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thankyou, Amrit. Social media has brought forward our vulnerability. We knew it existed in each one of us, but through these attention seeking activities, we make them very obvious to others. This requires deep psychological study now!!

      Delete
  8. The same goes for bloggers...!!! I know of this blogger who, if he doesn't get a whole paragraph as a comment thinks that the person didn't read his post properly! A simple phrase 'it was good' for him means that the person just wrote it for the sake of passing a comment and just skimmed through his post!!! Although the person would have spent the time reading the whole post and made a genuine comment!

    Simple appreciation has become an understatement for us and an equivalent to a lie... We want that even appreciation comes to us in a beautified package, even if we don't deserve it!!! -_-

    And for me a simple comment like 'You are funny' keeps me smiling whole day long!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bloggers need a whole new study. Sometimes I find this whole thing so vain. There are days when I feel that we are the most attention seeking people. But then I pacify myself by thinking that I don't indulge in popularizing my blog by meaningless commenting. Simple comments make my day as well. Because I know that the reader knows I may or may not go to his blog to return the favour yet he writes that!

      Frankly, we all know in our hearts where we stand. Be it a picture on FB or a comment on a blog. This constant need for approval is quite ridiculous but then it's human nature!

      Such weirdos we all are!!!

      Delete
  9. haha

    Share this with 20 friends or you shall suffer

    God has seen you suffering and he wants to take away your pain. For more details click here


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol; that too!! My belief in God goes down when I see people bribing Him like that.

      Delete
  10. :) I guess my life will change now for sure .. I read your post and am commenting now tooo .. he he he he and I must say I loved what you wrote :)
    hope that made your day now ... he he he

    I do agree with you but I also think there are a lot of people who just want you to come ot there blog hence they write , I like the article, Nice one .. etc etc
    so it is a catch 22 situation .. I guess over time One starts to know the readers and those who do read what one writes and just write a one word comment "NICE" .. do make me smile

    funny world we live in i tell you .. people say something - think something - and DO entirely different ..

    Bikram's

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Your sweetness makes my day. Gentle criticism will be taken in the right spirit too :)