what compels people to fill all their waking hours with music, surfing, watching TV? What about those moments when one would ‘only stand and stare’?

In one word - Stimulation. I constantly crave intellectual stimulation, until it tires me out. Even off-line moments, the kind where you stop and think, are moments of stimulation or reactions to stimulation. We are products of our experiences. At least among those who write blogs, many of which you consider rubbish, blogs are just spaces for putting out their thoughts in words.

Of course there are conversations, arguments and disagreements online, in the broader context of the world. As a blogger/forumer, you’re voicing your opinion, and exposing yourself to criticism from anyone/anywhere. If you’re looking for academic level validation of facts, online, then you’re mistaken. Half-baked though many opinions might be, illogical though their reasoning might be - it exists online and offline. In fact, how much of an opportunity do these people actually get to discuss a lot of issues offline? Instead of thinking for themselves, a lot of them passively consume the information they are fed - once put online, there can be debates and discussions. In fact, beyond a point, they themselves tend to start thinking more about what they’re posting about (I did!). I would say that forums with their trolls, and blogs with their commenters actually can improve reasoning. What I worry most about is herd mentality, and I think it exists in the Indian blogosphere.

If bimbos like Riya Sen and Celina Jetley can have fans, then why not Rakhi? A typical double standard mentality…I say. :)

Just a thought, sotto voce, on “Get so tired of being online sometimes that I just lie down, put on some old cricket/football match or any movie, and just watch it for the sake of watching”:

Call me old-fashioned but I fail to understand what compels people to fill all their waking hours with music, surfing, watching TV? What about those moments when one would ‘only stand and stare’?

If there are no off-line moments, how would one reflect on the random thoughts in one’s head? Make sense of odd observations and their possible causation? Listen to the sounds of silence (including in case of some people, inside their heads or well that is why they fill every moment??)? Actually have a real conversation? Think?

No wonder, most of the blogs and much other online content are plain rubbish to read.

The individual’s self-absorbed life means more and more self-referencing without any conversations to sharpen one’s point through disagreement or challenge, without framing them in a broader context of the world whose collective behaviour may be showing that the individual has got it all wrong, without verifying the validity of those views (I use the term in an academic sense not in the sense of filtering for some kind of moral or social acceptability), without worrying about consistency/ logical reasoning/ comparative framing…

Shefaly: I’m guess ’star struck’ isn’t the right word then. What then? A fan, I suppose. The nephew I referred to, incidentally, is Arjun. :)
Being self referential while blogging is fine. For an observer and a reader, it gives a personal insight, builds credibility and promotes discussion. I just think that by being self referential in analysing trends, I’m being myopic. It becomes limiting, then.

Rhymebawd: Not sure if it is ironic…happens to me sometimes too. Get so tired of being online sometimes that I just lie down, put on some old cricket/football match or any movie, and just watch it for the sake of watching.

So…I find user generated content more entertaining than most of what is on TV. At the same time, I don’t want to go through every UGC clip on YouTube before I find something that I like. I might go for the most popular, but it’s not necessary that I will like it. Frankly, beyond a point, I’ll get tired of having to make a choice. So, what’s the solution? Have a show with selections by editors, and spare me the bother. In fact, that’s a business model for you - if you can go through hundreds of clips and think you can make an editorial decision on content that people will like - start a blog.
umm…more on UGC here.

Happy new year and all :)

That said, if you see Amartya Sen, make sure William Dalrymple isn’t around. He is apparently so star-struck with Amartya Sen that he doesn’t let him speak, as I noticed at a talk couple years ago in London about his book ‘The Argumentative Indian’.

Maybe you still ain’t versed with her Stardom!! ;)