The Clout Era (the era of no accountability)
When was the last time you said, posted, or did something for some likes and attention? We’ve all done it, it’s the inevitable effect of having social media. The entire crux of it is to capture an audience's attention and grow your social outreach. In some cases, by any means necessary.
Take Donald Trump for example. No political background yet he finds himself in the highest office going. His entire campaign for Presidency leading up to 2016 was fuelled with bigotry and lies. So how did he do it? One answer is Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, but I believe the more deeper rooted problem and reason for that is, we no longer live in an era of credibility, qualifications, or talent. A new currency dictates success now and that currency is- clout. People like Donald Trump, Bhad Bhabie, Tekashi 6ix9ine, The Kardashians, etc. all reek of this. They all have an unrivalled ability to garner attention and whether good or bad, this is the only requirement needed to succeed nowadays. For all their flaws they’re only a product of the society that created them and made them famous.
The marketplace is dominated by shares, clicks and impression. We don’t always get the best person for the job, what we do get, is the one who hoards the most attention. I’ve grown up alongside a generation that now demands to be constantly be entertained 24/7, 365 days a year. I even take my phone to the toilet sometimes just so I’m entertained while emptying my bowels. All of us complain constantly about it but this is what we asked for. We want to be entertained, it distracts us from responsibility and the things that actually matter in our lives. Our families, our friends, our communities and most of all purpose. Our sense of morality has now become an egotistical ploy that people are employing on others and challenging on a daily basis. Let me tell you straight up, our morality is for us individually and us only. You decide what you deem fair, unfair, unjust and not morally right, it’s everyone’s own personal right and probably the only right that any of us truly have.
Moving to the present moment and this generation finds itself in the most worrying period since WW2. People are dying daily, the world has changed dramatically this year and this global pandemic has accelerated it into a direction that no-one seems to know for sure where it’s going. Our economies, health care systems, and most importantly our population have been single-handedly taken down. Families can’t be with their loved ones when they die, weddings cancelled, money/jobs lost, funerals with no attendees, empty streets, sport on hold.
We’ve all been told to adapt to a new way of living to ensure this disease doesn’t spread like wildfire anymore. Stay at home, social distancing blah blah you’ve heard it all a million times. Yet some people refuse to accept this and would rather endanger others in their selfish acts by hosting street parties and traveling to visit friends and family. The British Prime Minister’s Chief Aide broke that during the height of the pandemic in March and again in April too, one set of rules for some but not the rest it seems. The control is tightening on us. I feel we’re sleepwalking into George Orwell’s 1984 (if you haven’t read that, please do it’s a classic). The clout is now firmly with Boris Johnson and his Chief Aide.
I didn’t want to make this article political, because I have no idea what to do about the coronavirus or the plummeting economy or the crime in your area or who to vote for but what I do know is first you’ve got to put aside your ego and realise something is terribly wrong with the way the world is right now and then, you’ve got to get — you know what, I’ll let Peter Finch take it from here with one of the best film monologues of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4QGIfbgvW8
This article was very disjointed but so is life right now, it started off about social media but it ended up going political (as most things do these days).
Stay safe out there my peoples.
Peace and love to all.
