Don’t Copy if you can’t Paste it

Words. Words. Words. Trillions of them are flooding Internet pipelines, Mail boxes, TV channels, Magazines, Newspapers, Forums and so on. Are the neuron networks in our brain prepared to receive it all? All it may require is a virtual command called ‘open’ to let it in. We can accept that today any literate armed with a PC hooked to an internet connection can contribute to the content overspill with comments more than one could have imagined in the past, thanks to the immense freedom of social media.

It’s hard to miss the ‘content explosion’ on Facebook and youtube. I am sure you have noticed the heavy dose of philosophies, quotes, video grabs, and sound bytes presented by your ever-confused friend in a startling unique flavour. Media hungriness is urging many of us to copy-paste content with intent to grab eye-balls and earn our importance on ever-expanding people networks. The zeal to make ourselves sound intelligent and aware has found many expressions. It has never been so easy and it is catching on like a bush fire. We seem to have lot of words to say on a public forum, while it takes tremendous effort to break into a conversation with our neighbour. Verbal diarrhea is an unwelcome guest that we have to bear with if we choose to co-exist on a platform that we love to share with everyone.

It may sound disturbing, but media research says that people hardly read anymore but quickly scan their eyes over articles. Can we blame anyone at all? Our content weary eyes have forced us to be extremely choosy, picking a few key words or images from ‘here’ and ‘there’ that really matter to us. If we have managed to grab a few seconds of readership from an overloaded, tired, net crawling, target audience, we can call it a success. There was a brilliant observation recently made by a writer on social media. He said “Facts are sacred. Comments are free”.

We have all witnessed the power of social media to whip up the ‘soft power’ to drive social, environmental and political awareness. Thousands of vibrant communities co-exist and there are obvious gains of being connected, informed and inspired to take actions and not be a mute observer. A little observation will tell you that people are so different when you meet and talk to them. The same people can behave so brazenly when offered a space behind the curtain in a online discussion forum. The distinctive pattern however is that we can hear layers of masked voices and back up voices that support an idea or a comment, but muted expressions in reality.

Copy and Paste is probably the most common practice across the world. It won’t take you much effort to see content blatantly plagiarized and presented across the net as if it is an original idea and copyrights seem to apply to big business houses with muscle power and access to the best of corporate lawyers.

I remember posting a personal video on youtube. A few weeks later out of sheer curiosity, I googled the title of the video clip and was least surprised that the video appeared on 18 different websites without my permission. Was it time to celebrate, that my video has become a ‘viral’ on the net. How does it matter if it is replicated without my permission? Shouldn’t I accept that imitation is the best form of flattery?

TV channels have been churning hackneyed sitcoms and reality shows that seem so obnoxiously repetitive. It won’t be hard for one to realize that what happens in the west has high rate of imitation in the east. I recently heard a popular Indian film song and was a bit surprised to learn that it was copied from a Romanian church choir. One can admire how quickly our world has shrunk and we can claim that inspiration can come from anywhere. Inspiration may sound euphemistic to replace audacious plagiarism.

The global endemic of copy-paste has made its impact. There are far more followers than original and unique thinkers. One can risk being an outcast or a maverick if he is not follower of a style icon or fan of a celebrity. For teenagers it is supposed peer pressure to identify with a certain dress code, lifestyle, dialect, and broadcast their style as if the world was waiting to see their jeans worn below the waist. Now that everyone has known the fact that it was a jail bird’s mating call in a remote prison to drop their pants below their waist. Will the fashion houses hang their head in shame for misunderstanding a sexual suggestion and making it into an international code for dressing in jeans?

Most radio jockeys across the world have understood that they can get instant attention if they gossip about film celebrities with least regards for playing appreciable music or adding any worthwhile information about singers or song writers. It never ceases to amaze me that how a trashy song can become an instant rage worldwide and versions of the song in multiple languages emerge overnight.
We have all seen how mediocrity can get appreciated beyond reasoning and celebrities emerging out of thin air with instant followers across the world, most of them who have no clue why they like them at all.

It seems to have sunk in that most of us are inclined to become fans, followers, imitators and pretenders, while refusing to recognize the immense creative potential that is latent within us. We are a part of large machine whose wheels are spinning uncontrollably. The question lingers, do we resign ourselves to be a just another cog in the wheel and settle down to mediocrity or do we have the courage to step out of the ordinariness. Are we ready to awaken the potential within us to be original, unique and pursue creativity?

To sum it up, our life is made of choices. These choices could lead us to chances in life and work upon the changes that we are looking for. We can’t dispute that we all have more than an opinion about everything. We have been trying hard to make our opinions felt. To keep it ridiculously simple and rather pseudo, there is a popular option on Facebook called ‘Like’ and for those who want to reverse their decision instantly there is the ‘Unlike’. We all have found ways of expression and what we like or dislike. The extent of this is reinforced by Facebook report that it receives 3 billion ‘like’ clicks in a day.

Life is not as simple as it seems that we can change it with click of a button. We can awaken ourselves from the deep slumber of ordinariness and walk the path of excellence by being original, creative and carve a niche for ourselves. If words were good enough to inspire people into well being, peace, love and compassion, we would not have witnessed the extent of suffering we see across the globe. Changes come with action driven by our vision and goals and not by chasing other’s dreams. A moment in realization is more powerful than a lifetime of words. So there is more wisdom in knowing ourselves rather than imitating someone else blindly.