Our generation is vicarious, if nothing else. To those of us lucky enough to own a smartphone and have internet access, vapid escapism is more than just a hobby.
Several parts of North India are currently on high alert following a forecast for massive thunderstorms and dust storms that has spawned dire advisories. Instead, most social media feeds this week are full of photographs from Sonam Kapoor’s wedding and the Met Gala, the fashion world’s equivalent of the Oscars.
The pictures were unavoidable. Nearly every major celebrity was present at the Met Gala. New celebrity couples announced themselves, one even proposed, and others made controversial statements through their clothes.
Similarly, photographs from Sonam Kappor and Anand Ahuja’s wedding seem to have all of India enraptured. It’s not just the bride’s beautiful lehenga and jewellery that’s capturing attention; people also want to know who the guests are, what they’re wearing, and what they’re thinking of.
Why do we care so much? The short answer is: Because it’s fun.
It’s a welcome distraction. While trawling through social media posts, you don’t have to think about your chores or all the work you have to get done — instead, you can spend an hour or two looking at smiling celebrities wearing pretty clothes.
Our generation is vicarious, if nothing else. To those of us lucky enough to own a smartphone and have internet access, vapid escapism is more than just a hobby.
You don’t have to think of anything while you scroll endlessly through Instagram, least of all about a dust storm that may or may not be ravaging your city and ruining the lives of those not as privileged as you.
Instead of focusing on potentially life-threatening situations like the storm, or on the upcoming Karnataka elections, I chose to stare at celebrities and speculate about their lives. A quick Google search was enough to put any fears about the storm to rest: I’d taken my clothes off the clothesline, charged my phone and locked myself in. Now I was truly ready for some uninterrupted scrolling. (At what point did this cultural apathy sink into our lives?)
After all, if you don’t care about what social media cares about, what exactly do you care about? Obviously nothing that matters.
Social media has a habit of tricking you into an inane thought spiral that keeps you firmly within a shallow echo chamber. The conversations focused around #SonamKiShaadi — which has been trending nationwide — are actually incredibly intrusive. Was it insensitive of Sonam Kapoor to have her wedding just two months after her aunt, Sridevi, passed away? How long should the mourning period be? Did Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor look suitably demure at their cousin sister’s wedding? Is her wedding just a promotional stunt for her upcoming film?
This mind-numbing pursuit doesn’t always detract from all the other work we do. But instead of feigning detachment and passing heavy judgement, perhaps we can begin to overcome this fixation by first acknowledging the fact that the “nosy Indian aunty” stereotype is true for all of us.
Maybe, once we recognise our inner Mr Hyde, we won’t let it consume us.