They say its a small world. I always felt it's a really large world.
Often times when I am chatting with someone from the same background, age, growing up city as me, and i happen to mention some pop culture refrence or event of that time, and when they says, "What was that?", it stumps me. "Did we live in the same world?", I wonder. It took me time to figure that there are multiple worlds really.
Being in a non-makeup world, someone would not know what concealer is? Or get excited about the beauty of a half-moon handbag.
Cricket is supposed a binder for Indians. But now, it is IPL vs other T20 vs One day vs Test matches vs Local league matches. There are just way too many to keep track of. Then there is Cricket vs Football. Football with its innumerable Clubs, international and local.
That dreamy world of being a Fan of a movie star. Oh its an endless rabbit-hole. Something that has been united into Fan Clubs, even before the online world made its presence. Its self-absorbing world and can get combative when faced with imagined rivals. Now the fan clubs have diversified, to catchup with the diverse set of celebrities. Just their social media shows the mind-boggling number of followers (mix of fake and real).
TV show world as well. There are a 1000s shows to choose from, in different languages and genres. We can totally drown in a TV show, know everything about the story line, sub-story, cast, background info. Even fan fiction. Cross-overs. Heartache when the favorite character dies or actor changes or anything bad happens. But the person next door in our real life, maybe living in a different TV show world.
So many of the 90s and before shows were epic and have a thread of nostalgia for that generation. That's because those were the only show every watched and hence more common things to discuss. Even with Cable arrival for nearly a decade, there were every few top ones and they were watched by all. Its only 00s or later, that the audience split, so even each in a family have their own choices. And with Netflix and other streaming ones and different unwinding times, the islandification will be complete.
Books have long been that individual pods we can escape into. The cozy private world, inhabited by whatever the books has painted. It can be argued that these books, shows and movies and fan following is all imaginary world. Its in the mind. Real life is with family and friends. But here too exist those division building their own exclusive words.
In real life,
the student worlds of tween, teen and collegiate
vs single new adult world
vs couple world
vs parents of single child
vs parents of multiple children
vs parents of small kids
vs parents of grownup kids
vs single working parents vs both working parents
vs empty nesters
vs retirees.
Perspectives are so different for each of these age groups. Every time I read a blog or article or even book, I wish, they would print the age of the writer at the time of writing. Even though the work will gain its own life in future, its worth knowing what kind of eyes wrote it ?
World of actual people cliques and social media cliques behave so differently.
No wonder data is the God today. Marketers would like to aim right at their targets and get better success rate at lesser costs.
After obsessing over a book, its characters or a movie and knowing everything about it. After residing its world, no matter how far removed it might be in time or space, there comes a time of realization that that world is imaginary. Its not real and can never be reached ever. The world we left behind. Of our 20s, our teenage, our childhood. It can't be revisited on this plane. This realization is when the obsession ends.
So there ! There is hardly any overlap in world. Every time we step from one world into another, whether physical world or online, among people of different worlds. Instead of feeling inadequate or self-doubt, remember that its impossible to master all worlds. There has to be a pause for learning, for fitting in.
No one can change other people. They are what they are in that situation. Trick is to avoid that situation. Avoid landing in that world. There are multiple worlds co-existing. Just reside in the one which works for you.
Its such a large world and there are so many multiple worlds, we often don't meet those we intersected before. Sometimes this is a great argument for "What will they think ?" kind of thinking.
Often times when I am chatting with someone from the same background, age, growing up city as me, and i happen to mention some pop culture refrence or event of that time, and when they says, "What was that?", it stumps me. "Did we live in the same world?", I wonder. It took me time to figure that there are multiple worlds really.
Being in a non-makeup world, someone would not know what concealer is? Or get excited about the beauty of a half-moon handbag.
Cricket is supposed a binder for Indians. But now, it is IPL vs other T20 vs One day vs Test matches vs Local league matches. There are just way too many to keep track of. Then there is Cricket vs Football. Football with its innumerable Clubs, international and local.
That dreamy world of being a Fan of a movie star. Oh its an endless rabbit-hole. Something that has been united into Fan Clubs, even before the online world made its presence. Its self-absorbing world and can get combative when faced with imagined rivals. Now the fan clubs have diversified, to catchup with the diverse set of celebrities. Just their social media shows the mind-boggling number of followers (mix of fake and real).
TV show world as well. There are a 1000s shows to choose from, in different languages and genres. We can totally drown in a TV show, know everything about the story line, sub-story, cast, background info. Even fan fiction. Cross-overs. Heartache when the favorite character dies or actor changes or anything bad happens. But the person next door in our real life, maybe living in a different TV show world.
So many of the 90s and before shows were epic and have a thread of nostalgia for that generation. That's because those were the only show every watched and hence more common things to discuss. Even with Cable arrival for nearly a decade, there were every few top ones and they were watched by all. Its only 00s or later, that the audience split, so even each in a family have their own choices. And with Netflix and other streaming ones and different unwinding times, the islandification will be complete.
Books have long been that individual pods we can escape into. The cozy private world, inhabited by whatever the books has painted. It can be argued that these books, shows and movies and fan following is all imaginary world. Its in the mind. Real life is with family and friends. But here too exist those division building their own exclusive words.
In real life,
the student worlds of tween, teen and collegiate
vs single new adult world
vs couple world
vs parents of single child
vs parents of multiple children
vs parents of small kids
vs parents of grownup kids
vs single working parents vs both working parents
vs empty nesters
vs retirees.
Perspectives are so different for each of these age groups. Every time I read a blog or article or even book, I wish, they would print the age of the writer at the time of writing. Even though the work will gain its own life in future, its worth knowing what kind of eyes wrote it ?
World of actual people cliques and social media cliques behave so differently.
No wonder data is the God today. Marketers would like to aim right at their targets and get better success rate at lesser costs.
After obsessing over a book, its characters or a movie and knowing everything about it. After residing its world, no matter how far removed it might be in time or space, there comes a time of realization that that world is imaginary. Its not real and can never be reached ever. The world we left behind. Of our 20s, our teenage, our childhood. It can't be revisited on this plane. This realization is when the obsession ends.
So there ! There is hardly any overlap in world. Every time we step from one world into another, whether physical world or online, among people of different worlds. Instead of feeling inadequate or self-doubt, remember that its impossible to master all worlds. There has to be a pause for learning, for fitting in.
No one can change other people. They are what they are in that situation. Trick is to avoid that situation. Avoid landing in that world. There are multiple worlds co-existing. Just reside in the one which works for you.
Its such a large world and there are so many multiple worlds, we often don't meet those we intersected before. Sometimes this is a great argument for "What will they think ?" kind of thinking.
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