Slaves To Numbers
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A few days back I shared an article on LinkedIn about ‘Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. I received a message from LinkedIn telling me — Your post has (-a changing number-) views so far. Try mentioning someone in a comment to get the conversation going.
Now this was not a post of an article in an academic journal about some obscure concept from a philosopher nobody had heard of, that would interest only the faculty lounge. Nor does it lack contemporary relevance. The idea can be easily related to general life and the world.
We are talking about one of the most well-known Western philosophers of the ancient times, and a rich yet simple brilliant metaphor to illustrate a human condition, which potentially all of us would be interested in, not just philosophers and academia. Presented with its connection to our popular storytelling medium of film.
“Try mentioning someone in a comment to get the conversation going.” I’m told.
Plato is not enough these days I guess.
A few days after that I had posted a painting by Johannes Vermeer, for general enjoyment, and more specifically as a demonstration of how we — the photographers and visual artists — can learn lighting from the works of some painters.
Again, we are talking about one of the most renowned painters in history, one of the masters of the Dutch Golden Age (though not well recognised during his lifetime and for quite a while afterwards till his rediscovery in the 19th century). And not some abstract painting of interest only to art connoisseurs or art historians, but a striking, widely comprehensible, representational image with human figures that could be of interest to anyone.
I got the same message.
‘Your post has (-a changing number-) views so far. Try mentioning someone in a comment to …’
Looks like Johannes Vermeer is not good enough to “get the conversation going” either.
So what I am being told is that it’s not the content that matters but the manner in which it is shared or posted. The technique of it. And what matters are the numbers.
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Have we dumbed down so much?
This is not about elitism. I have lived through a time when such topics were of general interest, accessible to all regardless of class or social status, common to come across in the media and general public discourse. Most important there was an appetite and healthy curiosity for ideas and thoughts. The general cultural environment buzzed with fascinating ideas and stories. This world was not just for an intellectual or social elite class.
That seems to have changed from what I can perceive and observe.
We’ve become slaves to numbers.
We admire large numbers.
The number of dollars in a billionaires worth. The clicks on a social media influencer’s post. The number of accounts with a marketing agency. The global market share of a corporation. And so on.
The higher those numbers, the greater is our awe and adulation.
When we see something which has many ‘Likes’, we too like it. When something displays very few reactions, we ignore it and scroll on. Only the most fiercely independent-minded will discern something based on its own strength, or lack thereof.
(“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.” wrote the brilliantly insightful Eric Hoffer.)
We judge the worth of humans and ideas based on the magnitude of the numbers they have or draw, instead of the other way around.
Numbers are driving our dreams, our behaviour, our attitude to life.
Empty, transient, ultimately meaningless numbers, not depth and quality of human ideas.
Our public discourse, whether in the media, on social media, or on professional platforms such as LinkedIn, is flooded with the superficial and the frivolous. It’s more vacuous than substantive in terms of ideas.
Some of us had hoped that the pandemic would mature us with a new profound realisation of life and society, which in turn would enhance our interest in grappling with ideas. This would reflect in our general media and social media discourse, which would become more thoughtful and capable of nuance, and introspection. (Personally I hoped that the advertising and marketing industry would step up in a real, meaningful, substantial way, to create content with greater thought, depth, and beauty.)
Doesn’t appear any of that’s happening. Maybe some semblance and pretense of it, but not in a real way. Much of talking the talk, little of walking the walk. The attitude is the same. Someone will bag a big client and crow about it, and everyone will mindlessly rush to applaud and congratulate. Someone without a massive “following” will share a thoughtful idea instead of a gimmick, and few will have any interest. Business as usual.
Could things still change?
Short term, unlikely given the evidence. (This post will not go viral I am certain.)
Long term, I stay the eternal optimist.
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