The Social Media Religion: Its Many Forms

Source: blog at techcrunch.com

If ‘Facebook’ were a religion, it would be the second largest religion in the world.

That’s what we got to know this week, when Facebook’s total worldwide users reached the astounding figure of 2 billion.

This global corporate giant in social media now accounts for over a quarter of the world's population!

If Christians are 2.3 billion on the planet, and if Muslims are 1.8 billion (as per the latest statistics on pewresearch.org), then the new number of Facebook members, now at 2 billion, shows us very clearly that we can almost call ‘Facebook’ the world’s second largest belief system.

But, come to think of it, has it not already become a religion?

The way we, around the world, are now almost worshipping it, around the clock. And the way we have now become ardent devotees of this phenomenal online social connectivity.

Is it not already making the real religious leaders shudder?

People wake up each morning not to offer a prayer first, but to check their Facebook app on their mobile phones. And people are going to bed each night, with the glare of the mobile phone screen on their faces in the dark; as they check - for the millionth time that day – if friends and family people have posted anything important. Anything that spurs a missionary zeal in them to like, share, and comment on posts.

The call of the red-notification on the Facebook app is now taking precedence over the call of prayer, from the nearby mosque.

But then, we know, there are also those who are complete unbelievers in the phenomenon called Facebook. Those who do not wish to convert to this faith. Even though many of their Facebook friends had been proselytising for long.

These unbelievers do not wish to leave their exclusive devotion to ‘WhatsApp’. And they lambast the believers of Facebook-ism on the amount of time the Facebookers are seemingly wasting on frivolity.

These ‘Exclusive Whatsappers’ somehow consider themselves baptised by fire to remain adherents to the doctrine of personal and private communication. On a higher spiritual plane. And they wield enormous power, administering WhatsApp groups with an orthodoxy that facebookers will never understand.

And then, there are also those of another religion called ‘Instagram’ism. These people believe in the enlightening tenet that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

And they patiently thumb through thousands of pictures, reading volumes overnight, understanding – probably- the underlying existential struggles within the pictures posted by friends.

Many of the faithful are, however, completely unaware that 'Facebook' with 2 billion users, 'WhatsApp’ and ‘Facebook Messenger’ with 1.2 billion users each, and even ‘Instagram’ with 700 million users, are all owned by one single company.

Now, there are also the YouTube faithful who believe more in watching, than in posting. More in listening, than in reading. They indirectly show their charitable side -- by contributing generously and immensely to the coffers of Internet Service Providers through data consumption.

Facebook’s 2 billion number stands high “above YouTube’s 1.5 billion, WeChat’s 889 million, Twitter’s 328 million and Snapchat’s estimated 255 million (extrapolated from its December 2015 ratio when it had 110 million daily and 170 million monthly users)”, according to techcrunch.com.

Which brings me to address the minor sect called ‘tweeters’ – within the social media religiosphere - with a major impact on world affairs. Several political world leaders, and social celebrities have embraced this faith. And are often persecuted for their thoughts. Because this sect has also created a new 21st century marvel, of stalking and pouncing (on fellow tweeters if you don't like them). And its called trolling.

With millennials in its fold, another new age cult called ‘Snapchat’ is ushering in followers who faithfully practice newest rites and rituals. Such as large floral decorations of hair, sporting of cats’ whiskers and wagging of dogs’ tongues, on their contorted selfies.

All said and done, it is for us, the faithful followers, to choose which belief to follow. One or more.
It is for us to decide if our social media religious passion is coming in the way of our real life passion, or aiding it.

.....
(Today's piece in my Friday Column)

British and the Monarchy

"Even if I was king, I would do my own shopping."

Prince Harry of United Kingdom said this in an exclusive interview to a leading news magazine (Newsweek, 21 June 2017).

"Is there any one of the Royal Family who wants to be king or queen? I don't think so," he said.

He shows us that royalty is not, really, something one eagerly looks forward to; and that no one is keen to take up the huge responsibilities these royal roles entail.  

It made me think of the words of his grandmother, the reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II. From the TV series I am watching on Netflix.

In “The Crown”, Season 1, Episode 3, the queen firmly tells her uncle that he had not apologized.

Her uncle, the former King Edward VIII, had abdicated the British throne in 1936, in order to marry the American socialite, twice-married, Wallis Simpson. 

And thereby he laid the onus of kingship on his younger brother who, despite his unwillingness, had to become King George VI. And the reluctant king had to lead Britain during the difficult and deadly Second World War.   

The former King Edward VIII replies to the new queen that he had apologized to his brother, and also to her mother. 

But, she resolutely says he has not, however, apologized to her!

She asks him if it had not occurred to him that she herself would have preferred to stay out of the spot light. She says she would have preferred to live the life of a normal woman and a normal wife. Not as a queen bearing the heavy responsibility of the crown. And he then says sorry.

The dialogues in this TV series may or may not be accurate. But we know that Queen Elizabeth II, now 91 years old, has been reigning responsibly for over 65 years, since 1952.

In fact, in 2015, she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, to become the longest-reigning British monarch in British history.

Prince Harry is currently fifth in line to the British throne after his father Prince Charles, his elder brother Prince William Duke of Cambridge, and William's little children, George and Charlotte.

And with Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Harry expresses, in this interview, that they would modernise the monarchy.

“The monarchy is a force for good,” he says. “And we want to carry on the positive atmosphere that the queen has achieved for over 60 years, but we won’t be trying to fill her boots.”

In an article titled “Why Monarchies Are Still Relevant and Useful in the 21st Century”, (The Diplomat, 24 June 2014), the author Akhilesh Pillalamarri argues that “most of the criticisms of monarchy are no longer valid today”.

He says “Monarchies can serve up a head of state in a more democratic and diverse way than actual democratic politics”.

Old fashioned monarchy is out. But, in today’s world, with the leadership and its citizens being well aware of their rights and responsibilities, the way the world could be governed by monarchies may be even better than democracies.

With well-designed constitutional structures and with equitable legal systems, today’s average citizen could get what he wants with greater ease.

It is also in the interest of monarchs to provide the best for their people. And, they do. 

Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Thailand, Bhutan, Belgium, Morocco, Thailand, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are but only a few of the countries modernising their monarchies.

But one thing is certain. The responsibility on the ruler is huge.

Perhaps, that is why in Shakespeare's “Henry IV”, a British king’s story, we hear the words:

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”.

***

A White House Wedding

On this day, 131 years ago, there was a marriage in the White House, the official residence of the US President.

About 40 people had gathered in the Blue Room where, in an intimate ceremony, they watched the wedding of the President himself.

On 2 June 1886, President Grover Cleveland became the first, and the only, US President to marry in the White House. He was a 49 year old bachelor then.

Courtesy: History.com

And now, here I am, wondering about this man.

Should I call him extremely clever, for successfully warding off all nuptial liaisons until that very late stage of his life? Or should I call him supremely patriotic, for devoting his life to serving the country with such single-mindedness, that he found no occasion to consider matrimony?

Whatever I call him now is immaterial and irrelevant. But, history shows that marriage did take a toll of him, for a brief period.

He lost his re-election to US Presidency in 1888. But he came back in the next elections, with renewed energy, and re-entered the White House in 1892.

As the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, Grover Cleveland is only US President to have gotten re-elected, after a full term out of office.

But readers might find the following piece even more interesting.

We know that it is somewhat normal to expect mothers to become highly excited to introduce their daughters to the most eligible bachelor from the White House. And we know it is somewhat normal for people to keep asking him when he was getting married.

But, apparently, the bachelor had a standard response: "I'm waiting for my wife to grow up!"

The people had not realized then that he was actually serious!

Frances Folsom, who become the youngest First Lady, was the daughter of his law partner and friend, Oscar Folsom.

When Oscar Folsom died, she was only 11 years old, and Grover Cleveland was, in effect, her legal guardian. In fact, it is said that, as he was Folsom family’s close friend, Cleveland had bought a baby carriage for Frances, when she was just a baby.

After he became the Governor of New York State, and even after becoming the President of United States, he pursued the relationship with great delicacy and secrecy.

This - in the current day and age - would be unthinkable. Newspapers, television news channels and social media would have come out with a myriad speculations, justifying themselves saying ‘there is no speculation without fire’!

On May 28 1886, Cleveland stunned America with his marriage announcement. And despite the age-difference of 27 years between them, they hit off very well. And with Frances’ good looks, and youthful energy, she became one of the most popular first ladies that White House has ever seen.

When she came back to White House, for her husband’s second term, she gave birth to her second daughter Esther. And Esther holds the record as the first baby born to a President in office, in the White House.

When I dug up the cyber space for more information, I found that two other US presidents also married while they were in office.

But both were remarriages, after their first wives passed away.  The widowed 10th President John Tyler (54 years) married Julia Gardiner (24 years) in New York, and the widowed  28th President Woodrow Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt.

One of the former first ladies, Nancy Reagan, had said, “It is true that when you are in the White House alone, it is a lonely place.  Big and Lonely”.

And that is why, perhaps, its residents seek company.