Watchman Uncle, Social media and my love

I went to the ATM counter today. The security guard uncle waited near my scooter until I came back after my transaction. I had left my bag on the scooter seat, so I smiled at him like I do to everyone. He smiled back too. My scooter took a few more minutes to start, and suddenly that uncle started talking to me. He said that in the morning, people had crowded in front of the counter because someone had put too much money into the deposit machine, and it had gotten stuck. The bank had been closed for the past two days, so the people were angry when they couldn\’t withdraw their money.

I thought, \”Yes, that\’s bad. That crowd must be disappointed.\” But on my way back, I was wondering why he had poured out all of his observations to me even though I hadn\’t asked him anything. I came up with an answer that was related to media.

Everyone needs a comfortable platform to share their feelings. Here, I, a calm person, served as a platform for this security guard uncle. He wanted to tell all of his stories, but there was no one and nothing available to him there. His job is to safeguard the ATM counter and watch the public. There was no one to talk to, no official space to talk during work, even though talking or sharing feelings is a fundamental human need.

I am taking the idea of social media here. This platform or medium is doing exactly what I did for the guard uncle. I smiled at him, waited to listen, and listened with a very curious face. I didn\’t offend him, I didn\’t give him any negative response, and I didn\’t distract him. This is what a medium can do.

So, by satisfying humans with their fundamental needs, social media is providing a great relief to human beings. Obviously, they are taking something from us in return for providing this service. This is, after all, a business model that they have developed by understanding the fundamental needs of human beings.

However, this overly comfortable space is becoming a vulnerability for human beings. Humans have begun to use social media platforms, and this has changed the way of life for individuals as well as society as a whole. This is what a new medium does; its impact is ecological. It is not adding something to the existing life, but it is like dropping ink into water. People are now comfortable with texting, which is the medium of their expression. People are molding themselves by regularly choosing an expression tool; that is texting now.

Some people are changing their way of expressing themselves from text to showing something that already exists on social media (reels, videos, memes, TikTok, etc.). In one way, this is useful for people to be expressive.

However, the problem is that this virtual communication is not original. The medium was created with the intention of connecting people who are far apart. However, people have become accustomed to talking or communicating with others through this medium even if they are in the same room. Digital devices and social media are becoming a part of human body now for expressing themselves.

On the one hand, it opens people up to creating something with enough resources. On the other hand, this medium is replacing human intelligence and creativity with artificial intelligence.

Another danger is that if social media owners take advantage of the vulnerability of human beings, they could control these people, mold people(it\’s Users\’) beliefs for their business interests. This is already happening through the use of more ads in front of us and the sale of our personal data for political purposes.

But at the end of the day, we all need to express our feelings to someone; like what that watchman uncle did to me, and what I am doing through this write-up on the internet.

We all need to love someone, and we all want someone to love us genuinely, too!

I don\’t want social media to intervene in my romance. The virtual reality is ruining the originality between two people.

If I talk to my lover in person, I can see her, hear her, and feel her with her little gestures. However, this virtual reality forces me to compromise with her profile picture and text. This is not natural. We all need to consciously create our own platforms to convey or express our feelings and understanding the feelings of others. Expression is also a fundamental human need, just like food.