Wednesday, April 14, 2010

With a frenzy.

If you, dear reader, are the sort of person who objects wholly to any form of personal rants or discourses, I implore you to please stop reading. However, if you are the kind who enjoys revelling in the misery of another, this is the place to be!
The concern that has me up in arms imploring people and ranting is just that. You got that right. I am distraught because I feel this blog has turned into a journal of sorts. Not a diary perhaps (small mercies), but a personal, intimate journal nevertheless.
"Why is this such a bad thing?", you may feel the need to ask when the Internet has close to 80 million blogs which deal with the personal, with the private. That, dear reader, is precisely the point.
In saying that I have sincerely tried to not make this blog sound too blog-gy, I am not wrong. But perhaps it is time to admit that my plans didn't go exactly as they were planned.
A narcississtic journey to the past always gives you the big picture. So that is exactly what I sought refuge in. After reading through a couple of my archive posts, I was stunned, to say the least. Hence, I was spamming the blog world with copyrighted pictures for the past week.
It is not that I have aspersions about my talent or utter lack thereof, it is just that this was one thing I had to avoid. To me, blogging was an extension of myself, but not of me. With that in mind, I proceded to write, but not to record. I procede to opine, but not to judge. Or so I thought.
Even I am getting tired of my obsessive drawl.

What really should be the focus of this entire crusade is how much we have changed as a society. In my last lengthy post, I talked about voyeurism pervading into each section of the society. But voyeurism is not a one-way process. If people get pleasure from being Peepers into others' personal lives, the "others" too want to give a peep into their life. This process basically stems from an inherent need to gain acceptance, to expand yourself and your horizon, and finally, to brag about how much smarter/prettier/taller you are than the average Joe.
The kind of society I live in has influenced me so much that even in my directed and concentrated efforts to not divulge any of those intimate details, I have fallen prey to the same. My only defence remains the unconscious. Sure, blaming the unconscious was a solution, but only for about a nanosecond. After all, the unconscious too is influenced by subversive details.
When McLuhan talked about medium being the message, I feel safe to assume he didn't see blogs as a tangible platform. But he did see what was to be the outcome of this technological revolution. People are no longer private. People are selling themselves, marketing themselves to an anonymous, judgemental world out there. Obviously, given that context, it seems fair to post pictures of yourself in beautiful clothes, to talk about your take on existential reality (please forgive me, I am obsessed) and to post a discourse on structuralist influences in contemporary society. It all seems perfect.
In my entire discussion, I seem to target the very crux of Internet usage and its purposes. Of course, we are marketing ourselves, let us.
It is startling how an entire society, a collective so huge, keeps falling prey to the new. To the experimental. And to the personal. I am one to talk though.
Perhaps that really is the message. Medium has to be the message, and thereby, it is.

10 comments:

Sunakshi said...

Haha! You know..I shall admit here that I cannot take criticism in a very good way ever! You did and you wrote about it! I love you all the more..Teach me the same ab..And Mc Luhan is one fascinating man who got me hooked to his books just because of a quote! :D

Stuti said...

Sunakshi! No, no, I love criticism. It helps me discuss, expand my school of thought and my horizon. The best thing is that good criticism makes me see beyond what I was able to see.
And, you know, this post wasn't really a reaction to that comment of yours. Of course, I thought about it a lot, but that was because I myself knew that somewhere in the back of my head. :)

Once again, I love criticism. Criticise me! :D

Ankita said...

You seem to have mustered some nerve there, criticizing thyself.
"I proceed to write, but not to record. I procede to opine, but not to judge."
Dichotomy, and yet it just made all the sense in the world.

Stuti said...

@Ankita: I think we need to be criticise and evaluate our works from time to time. Not for improvement (hah! as if I will change my writing style) but for the heck of learning. To be in the know about what you have written or made. :)

That said, I do not expect this post to change things. But atleast I acknowledged it. And well, there is immense solace in the fact that there are lakhs of such blogs out there. :)

And here, I shall say I am jealous of you both. :)

Surabhi said...

I love whatever you post Stuti, just dont stop :)

Stuti said...

Surabhi, you are so kind! :)
And I cannot stop, pathological affliction I have. :)

Harsh said...

Hey Stuti! I really love reading your posts. Don't stop ever! But want to ask you one simple question. Marketing oneself!! what do you actually mean by it here.

Stuti said...

Harsh, of course I won't stop!

And I meant that in this post-modern, contemporary world we live in, everybody wants to be part of one big unit. One big unit of cohesion, one big specialised unit.
Since everyone has easy access to technology, to being shown off.
Obviously, since people want others to see the best in them, they need to *sell* themselves by highlighting on the aspects they please.

Harsh said...

I agree to you fully..101% and thats true, If you don't do so, you will be left far behind. Same as something like you URL. Isn't it?

Stuti said...

Harsh, not one bit. My URL is a direct throwback to (and hint at) existentialism.