How February 4 changed the way we live

New Delhi: On this very day, in 2004, Facebook was born under the able parentage of Mark Zuckerberg and significant sundries. Over almost twenty years, it has surpassed Holly and every other Wood in sheer drama, just that the actors are you and me.

You can liken it to the adda zones of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, immersive spaces with room for every mind, even if mindless. It can be the most potent public prosecutor, with an arsenal of arguments that seem endless. On a good day, it is a valuable helpline, with the acumen to mobilise offline incursions and not just screen suggestions.

As people spread wider, it makes the world go smaller, as families and friends never seem too far away. Even school buddies who you avoided fiendishly during regimented tenure, pop up like farm-fresh corn, seemingly reformed and eerily rejuvenated. Well-manicured intellectuals confess that a good day’s reading can easily be derived from a blessed network of sharing, and that may not be a lie.

Those enthused by voyeurism find this to be a 24/7 news channel with a nonstop avalanche of views, where beauty can hobnob bravely with brains. Groups can be forged with KGB assassin accuracy - whether followers of early Birkins or the culinary career of Ho Chi Minh or even the misadventures of Nirav Modi. 

Of course, it is now a fully sharpened advertising medium, with bewildered clients and opportunistic agencies seeking easy equilibrium.

But the greatest value of Facebook truly lies elsewhere and I am certain that many readers would be beneficiaries. Over the ages, the Approval Ceiling would surpass every peer including Glass, and I mean this in a rather wider way. Whether singer, writer, opinionator, artist, speaker or any kind of doer - we have been conditioned to believe that those who have made it belong to a farther planet. Thus, the elite zone they occupy is not meant for us, as the route is more turbulent than the Bay of Biscay and the empanelled monsters are demonic by routine.

Facebook, and a couple of pals, managed to break this devilish barrier and acts as full-time Viagra for self-confidence. Those with a sniff of skill and desire now have a platform, springboard, to vent their wares and there are no professional judges with giant scorecards. Of course, there is a flourishing jury who can be loving and scathing but tenants of an integrated universe, where the imposed divider between performance and endorsement has been demolished. This self-confidence continuum is galloping at Shinkansen pace and shows no signs of relaxation.

In so many ways, this is more bullish than bearish, especially in the post-pandemic world disorder, where our personal identities are superseding institutional affiliations, whether corporate or professional. The ever-flowing Gig Economy is fine evidence as are the high churn rates in modern employment, our mental piece surely gets reinforced by individual ‘ Soft Power’. It increases our self-worth, partially negates occupational uncertainties and makes us feel happier about ourselves, more boon than doom.

The other side may insist that the troubles caused by Facebook overwhelm the joys and the evidence will be permissible by most courts. For some, it is a diabolical compensation for real meeting time and for certain others, flaunting lifestyles can depress everybody, not excluding the privileged. Print-and-Paper purists bemoan the easy access to low-brow timepass, impeding cognitive sanity while youngsters are anyway departing Facebook as their parents are in the same virtual apartment. But the cleaner pastures they are migrating to are actually spiritual successors of the original, attractive due to sharper ethno-demographic attendees.

But nobody can deny that in so many convincing ways, Facebook is the flagbearer of scalable democracy, an able disciple of the breaking of the Berlin Wall in historical epicness. 

A hypothesis that is best verified by the Chinese ban, a state constructed around a wall of fear mortified by a great agent of expression. Aided by just basic literacy and a simple device, anybody can aspire for Andy Warhol’s moments of fame, albeit way more than fifteen seconds. In that sense, it is no less serious than motor transport, the aviation age and mobile smartphones as an abettor of civilization, with the kindest terms and conditions.

As the metaverse looms large, the future looks pleasingly uncertain once again. On the 4th of February, though, we may just doff a toast to an idea whose time came, stayed and grew. Not just by connecting but helping us become happier human beings, talents out of the closet.