Trends

The world has shifted from too much vibration to no vibration at all. Things have certainly changed in the course of the past few months. Most probably the biggest pandemic of our lifetime has bounded us both physically and socially. Scientific breakthroughs that are somewhat hard to believe are happening. A universe where time goes backwards, oh just bite me already. How is that even possible? Such crazy things are happening around us that I have started questioning my existence. Stephen Hawking’s last theory before his demise was, “The universe in itself is a hologram.” What is that even supposed to mean? So everything, all of us and everything around us is a mere illusion. If that is so, then what is exactly real? Is anything actually true? It is just these questions you know, and the science behind it, that makes us question ourselves and others. Sometimes I think that our brain is not exactly a boon but the foulest of curses. Curiosity leads to questions, questions leads to theories and hypotheses which ends up creating more questions. And finally someone finds an answer, which is questioned by others and proved completely wrong. All the hard work people go through to develop such curiosities, to arise such questions, to draft those theories all goes to dirt. Pretty sad, isn’t it? But do you know what is more painful than all that sorrow? There are people who actually don’t have a clue, and people who do know about all this but don’t actually care.

Humans are so predictable, because either they do something different or they follow others. This has been going on for centuries but in today’s world, it looks different. In the Stone Age, humans came to know of fire which may have been an accident or an achievement. But it spread everywhere. Some came up with new ways of lighting a fire, others copied them. But it did wonders to the world we live in. Then came farming and other skills which were improvised by many or the knowledge was passed down to many. And finally we come to our world today, where trends rule the world. Maybe we are approaching the point of singularity, not that of physics, but “singularity” in a sense, to refer to the technological singularity, the hypothetical, near-future point at which machine intelligence will presumably supersede human intelligence. Don’t you think we are getting dumber and dumber with days passing by? I remember knowing the multiplication table up to 18 when I was 12 or 13 years old, but today I have a knack to press my calculator, or the calculator on my phone to do simple mathematics. I know it is easier and much more efficient to do it in my calculator, but can’t I just let my brain do the maths for once? It is not just that you know, we have an urge to follow others more than ever before in the known human history. Let me clarify my statement, and I bet all of you will find this relevant. Toddlers watch rhymes on YouTube, kids speak in English with their parents, teenagers are going crazy on PubG and TikTok, all youths are on social media (and for all those who think twitter is any different than Facebook and Instagram, it is actually the same crap posted everywhere), and adults on their messenger groups with half of their faces disappearing beneath the camera while on a video call with their friends or relatives. The only people who are affected less are the people over 75-80, who just don’t want to waste their time on trends.

Let me really come to my point. As I mentioned earlier, humans are inventors or followers. When the world was bigger there were more inventors than followers. But today the world is literally inches away from me, we have come to a point where there are just too many of these followers. What would it take to be a trend setter in today’s world, if we actually do need something ground breaking? I can do it in 15 seconds, but I don’t want to. All I need to do is put some lame ass video on YouTube or the much more trending Tiktok, and thousands will watch my nuisance. Maybe if I do that right, some of those YouTube reporters will turn their attention towards me. But I am sorry to say, I don’t want anybody’s attention. I have been following too many trends of my times already. The trend of countless hours of scrolling in Facebook for no specific reason, the trend of lying down for no reason, the trend of not showing any interest in politics and the list goes on. I may be following a trend here talking about trends itself. It is a vicious pothole that cannot be missed even if you do want to jump past it.

So my question is, is it actually necessary in the context of our society right now? I get frustrated seeing Tiktok videos on stories of people, and it seriously pisses me off when people express their frustration towards things that are going on social media and don’t actually give a damn in real life because they are so damn occupied within themselves. Take the border dispute for example, I seriously think it is our government’s wrong doing. Make me famous for this statement people. They really did sell the land to India. Otherwise, why wasn’t it on my school book? Even if it does lie in Nepal, why do we have to share hateful words towards Indians? If you really do care, file a case, not a story in your wall. If you are angry post hateful words on the wall of peoples who are actually responsible, not on your Facebook wall. Don’t curse people who are just expressing their feelings (for example, Barsha Raut) for no actual reason. Is this justice being served, you trending humans? If you do want to question someone’s words and protest, it should be our honorable fascist of a Prime minister. And when I say protest, please don’t protest on your Facebook page because he doesn’t actually scroll through your timeline. Come on people isn’t it time to step out and actually bring this system to the ground and start one of our own from scratch? I feel really lonely when I share these thoughts of mine. Am I the only one who is actually concerned, or am I actually concerned at all? Does it really matter? Because I don’t think my concern would solve any of the existing problems that is going on. Are we now succumbing under the singularity created by the internet and the technologies around us? Is this all I can do, write a dumb post on my wall to show my love towards my nation, or shall I just move my hip like a lunatic in a song and upload it on Tiktok. I don’t see the difference in the two. Both are nothing but trends, trends eating away our imagination and curiosity.

By Nikhil Subedi

From: Nepal

Instagram: subedi.nikhil

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/nikhil.subedi.16