Internet Crazes- Sarahah, Dhinchak Pooja and Celebritydom

The latest craze that the internet is sailing with is Sarahah. It is an application that lets anyone send anyone anonymous messages, something that was started to share and spread constructive feedback. Like every new trend, there are few supporting it and few calling it “non-sense.” I stood by watching post after post, contact after contact sharing them on FB and asked myself, “Which side am I on?”

In search of an answer, I had to travel back to 10^th standard economics. Yes, you read that right, economics. If you did not doze off after the lunch hour during economics class, you’d instantly relate something with the words, “Maslow’s theory of hierarchical needs.” I’ll throw in a picture just in case you don’t really remember it.

The self explanatory figure above is how Maslow had classified human needs. Reading from the bottom, if the first need is unsatisfied, the presence of the need above it will not even come to picture. Assuming that most of us have got our basic needs and a bit of psychological needs sorted out, we are entering into the band that calls for prestige and fame.

Most people out there posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are those looking to transcend from the yellow to the blue band. What exactly hooks us on to social media? For starters, it keeps us engaged with news, humour, current affairs and whereabouts of our friends. But that’s not enough to keep us hooked to it. What does, is the false pretence of celebrity-dom that it gives to each person.

Social media makes you feel like a celebrity. It gives you the notion that people have time for you, they are concerned about you and more importantly, pay attention to you. These hit the right note, like a drug hitting the reward system of the human brain.

When a bunch of people react “Heart” and “Wow”, comment and share your posts on Facebook, it gives you a taste of what fame is. And that, high up on the ladder according to Maslow is what we are all striving to achieve. Another popular cultural reference can be the booming industry- I’d dare use that word “Industry”, of meme creation. What do they get out of it? Fame! What do we get? Entertainment. What does the social media platform get? Revenue. Talk about a win-win situation, this one’s a win-win-win situation!

I’ve often seen friends go mad over freak-celebrities. I did not know what to call these people so I coined this word myself- just in case you are leafing through the dictionary. People like Dhinchak Pooja and PSY (from the Gangnam Style fame) are those who shot up to fame for no apparent reason. It impossible to fathom why they became what they have. And well, the answer to it is, us!

What makes controversial people so popular (or unpopular; though there is nothing called negative publicity) is that they somehow appeal strongly to our emotions. The ones who appeal to positive emotions are the usual celebrities that we love and follow and a certain other sect who appeal to the negative emotions of disbelief, hate and anger. Our minds work in a weird way- anything appealing to our emotions is strongly remembered. That’s primarily the reason why we are mad after listening to “Selfie Maine leli aaj” and keep telling people that we are, creating a domino effect, spreading the message and to translate it to web terms, increasing the clicks and views thereby popularising the person- be it in the negative or positive aspect.

It is captivating to follow the strange ways our minds work. And to relate it to our behaviour on social media is always fascinating as well as eye-opening. I guess I heard a beep from my phone; looks like I got my first Sarahah message! Got to go...