HYDERABAD : As the lockdown continues and people invent new methods and pursuits to keep themselves busy, a social media experiment titled ‘a meeting between the breadfruit’ is doing the rounds on different online platforms. The participants are either loving it or hating it given the nature of the experiment. The nature of the experience defined on Google goes as: “The idea is to see who reads a post without a photo. We are so immersed in technology that we have forgotten the most important thing: good friendship. If no one reads this message, it will be a short social experiment.”
Ask the youngsters in the city and pat comes the reply from many that during the quarantine period the same can be a good tool for introspection. Says Faiz Jung, 22, student and poet, “I have been participating. People expect responses from others. But without image people just forward sans taking a look deeply. We got forwards from different people.” He adds, “You have to mention a word or a moment which you can remember or associate any memory with.”
That’s how many people are sharing posts like: “I remember when you were born” or “I remember when you first made that mushroom pasta or boiled eggs.”People believe that such exchanges, which are without any mindless forwards, strengthen bonds between friends, siblings and even those friends that show only in your list when you log in to your Instagram or Facebook page. To this adds Rehana, a student of psychology at the University of Hyderabad, “Such social media experiments are good, but unfortunately they are short-lived given other experiments start doing the rounds and the participants totally forget about it. The best way to sustain any idea of deep bondage is to spend more time with one another and do things together whether it’s for volunteering, assisting others in some common projects.”
She adds that if the seeds are sown in the mind they need to be nurtured on different other platforms, too.
But for Ridhi, 27, a pharmacist it’s a waste of time. She says, “Such experiments confuse you. Why do you have to go on social media and indulge into something as mindless as a forward to strengthen the bond? Someone forwarded me, I lost interest as the same became a rhetoric for me and others.”
saima@newindianexpress .com @Sfreen