SAP (Social Activist Pakistan 🇵🇰)

Doosra Mugga… In the series of independence….. “Reels - Content and Our Identity” I have recently realised that we have become a nation so hooked on Reels, TikTok and “content” that it has reached a seriously alarming stage. I believe …. “a society that only consumes content eventually becomes a society that someone else is thinking for..” Let me explain … Today, a young woman biker in Pindi fell into the Sawan River and died. …Yes, she was creating content for a reel, trying to attract more views. A life lost in the pursuit of content. And sadly, this is not just one incident. We see people taking greater risks, crossing boundaries and compromising dignity, every day … simply because viral content has become a currency !! Unfortunately.. it doesn’t stop there. We see women increasingly objectified for views. We see innocent children, children too young to understand what it means to have a digital footprint, being turned into content: cute, naughty, funny, mischievous ….I mean little children turned into content without any meaningful choice or consent ! And then …there is the other, perhaps more dangerous aspect: misinformation wrapped in colourful, entertaining and highly shareable content. “The audience ? We , Us, You !” Our hunger for reels, views and entertainment plus the monetisation attached to them….creates the demand. The creator simply supplies i More we watch, like and share, the more extreme, sensational or ridiculous the next piece of content has to become. Truth, decency, boundaries, even personal safety …can become secondary to the want of going viral. So yes, in a sense, we are part of the ecosystem that creates these tragedies and helps spread’s disinformation. If we keep rewarding dangerous or exploitative content with attention, someone will keep producing it. Second: our intellectual appetite. I have always believed that every age has its own Aristotle and Plato Yes, they were great philosophers. But much of what they wrote belonged to the questions and realities of their own time !! Every generation needs thinkers who challenge the assumptions of their age and time. So when an educated segment of the society becomes equally fascinated by “Whose descendant was Abdullah Shah Ghazi ?” and by watching some random “Women Walk” reel created by a Gujarati boy, I have to ask: “Who is thinking about the real questions of our own time ??” Who is challenging our assumptions ? Who is creating new thought rather than recycling old narratives ? Who is asking where technology, algorithms…. are taking our identity, ideology and society ? And then comes the part that worries me most. There are people who have understood that these platforms are not merely entertainment platforms. Attention can be weaponised. Subtle ideological messages can be embedded into entertainment. Repeated narratives slowly influence perceptions of history, identity, religion, nationalism, gender and even what we consider normal. You don’t necessarily have to convince people through a speech. Sometimes you only have to entertain them, again and again….with the same underlying message. That is how perceptions change. That is how identities are gradually reshaped. So, please share. But before you do, pause for a second and ask yourself: Is this really worth spreading ? Because every like, every share and every view is a vote for the kind of content we want more of. And perhaps instead of endlessly consuming content, we should start creating something else: Fresh thought. Thought that questions the status quo. Thought that makes us uncomfortable. Thought that makes us think !! Think about it 🇵🇰🫡