From Guinness World Records (GWR) to viral contents, all is self promotion at its extreme. While GWR is an exercise with a target in mind, going viral does not depend on one's choice. It happens if the popularity far surpasses the original sharing of something among an intended small group. In the GWR, one knows the current achievement or performance and attempts to break that in order to set a new benchmark. In case of content creation, no such exercise is made to outperform a previous achievement. Of course, in both cases, it is an amazing performance that draws popular attention.
A GWR performance can go viral but there is little chance a piece of content will vie for GWR. If a Nature's creation such as a pepper can earn a world record for hotness, eating such a pepper in the shortest possible time can also be a GWR. For a video, image or story to go viral on the internet, it has to spread like a wildfire through social media and email. Platforms like TikTok YouTube Instagram act as the vehicle for explosion of popularity. Online promotion of this order is not guaranteed but it happens. It is not paid content like advertisement but its reach can be worldwide. Social sites are taking this kind of promotion to its extreme.
Well, self-aggrandisement is in human blood. But never before did this art find an explosion of this order as it has done now. If the feats achieved qualify for GWR, it is a testimony to human endurance, dare-devilry, skill, patience and resilience, but there are trivial and at times dangerous exercises that have little relevance to life. If viral contents evoke profound emotional responses like humour, shock, awe, wonder and relatability, few have lasting impression. They vanish as unexpectedly as they exploded suddenly on the internet.
True, the entertainment aspect of such videos, reels cannot be dismissed off-handed. But the users hardly know how much is too much. The general trend of instant entertainment is likely to pose a serious challenge to critical and analytical faculty, deep emotional engagement. To be engaged with the cheap online contents and fleeting moments of entertainment erode the capability for aesthetic appreciation. A kind of shallow lifestyle emerges while the serious subjects like philosophy of a broader intellectual perspective lose their relevance to life.
Undoubtedly, technology is advancing fast with the artificial intelligence (AI) taking over human labour. But what is the purpose of such technological innovation. Will they give people enough idle time to explore the meanings of human life? That is unlikely to happen because people will lose employment and will struggle for survival. If robots take over human tasks in factories and industries, the companies that develop those robots and the manufacturing units that employ such robots for production will benefit but the workers will go broke.
Even the consumerism that has been stoked to its extreme limit will fall flat because the distribution of wealth is likely to be more unequal than it is now. The 4th industrial revolution is the only one, unlike the previous three, that will not create jobs for the masses but for a few techno-savvy experts. It will not open opportunities but take away those, forcing more and more people to leave their jobs. The handy electronic gadgets have been produced to immerse people in a make-believe world for the time being.
The social sites have their merits no doubt, but it is more abused than made use of for exploring the purpose of leading life full of meaning and substance. The clash between old and traditional values and the enthusiasm of technophiles is already there and there is no chance for the former to have an upper hand over the latter. In fact, it is likely to be the other way round. Human civilisation finds itself at a crossroads and unless technology puts human being at the centre of all scientific and technological exercises, the world runs the risk of a social chaos and anarchy.
To understand this, a cursory analysis of Donal Trump's recent trade war and war on Iran can be a guide to world order that is confronting the human civilisation. It is not at all surprising that the genius of an ordinary Bangladeshi individual named an albino buffalo after the US president's name. Sure enough, there is a striking similarity between the animal's hair and that of Trump. It is symbolic in the sense that the headstrong president has led the world to unprecedented chaos and confusion. The 4th Industrial Revolution is likely to create more such Trumps to hasten the world's doom.
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