These are the hard times. The Times of social media network. You could be shot from any phone camera at any place. Besides, there are CCTV cameras everywhere. People are surprised when their colleagues, friends, or relatives send them reels in which inadvertently they are the main actors, the main protagonist without even knowing it. Once you are at a public place you cannot prevent anyone from not filming the place.
Before a few decades ago, there were just journalists who sought opinions from people. Now, every other person is either a journalist, a YouTuber, or an Instagrammer. Tough times, indeed. The moment you start leaving your home you begin to worry for yourself, God knows in what viral reel or YouTube one might end up in! People are willingly prepared to let people on in their private lives – the first crawl by an infant, the first time an infant cries out father’s or mother’s man is all on Instagram.
There are definitely private people around but they are the kind we can charitably call, “endangered species”. There are very few people who want peaceful private lives. Everyone’s complete career profile is on LinkedIn, your thoughts and worldview is in Facebook, your attire and choices of food are on Instagram, your travel history is on YouTube and whatever remains of our lives is on Twitter. The world has changed so much and the assault on an individual’s freedom and privacy is carried out unstoppably.
Those who are kind of private and do not relish the prospect of getting into this social media network with equal zeal are considered obsolete and passe. Strange times, indeed. There were those good old days when the elder in the family would protect his family’s privacy. In today’s South Asia, you see mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are in competition over more likes and subscribers on Instagram and YouTube then it is a given who cares for the privacy of the family.
There was a time when we said that if you do not apply for a loan ever in your life you will die a rich man irrespective of how much money you have. Now the same can be said of a man who manages to guard his privacy in this digital age.
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