Internet storms its way into India
Information travels in fast and mysterious ways when there are more than 1.6 billion connected devices on the internet. As a consequence, online word of mouth has been regarded as the most influential news distribution tool and even powerful enough to forge revolutions in a matter of weeks. We all know what happened after a young man set himself on fire in Tunisia, don’t we? Well if you don’t, it kick-started the Arab spring.
Long gone are the days when people dreamt of owning a personal computer. Companies like Xiaomi and Oppo have figured out ways -like social media strategies, flash sales, lowering manufacturing costs- to manufacture low-cost smartphones with high-end specifications. So obviously, we are leaping directly to smartphones with the same computing power that of a PC just like China did. And, it gives us a chance to earn and utilize the data which is touted as the next game-changing currency of the world.
Be it shopping, choosing the right political candidate, cooking methods, making travel plans or picking the best smartphone. Access to data is crucial. Earlier friends and family used to be the go-to people for credible information before making any decision. It’s trustable but the information is very limited and not available all the time. China understood this and directly made the jump to the mobile internet. Take Red book, for example, the one stop solution for Chinese women’s luxury shopping needs. It is currently valued at $3 billion and no wonder it racked up so much confidence in its valuation. All because of a single core user experience that the site provides which is, a thriving community capable of producing trustable reviews for consumers and helping the key opinion leaders (KOL’s) get more deals for their effort in understanding and posting content about products.
Before the internet, powerful people who had money were able to manipulate people using mainstream media on what to think, what to feel and what to do. Now any unconventional idea or meme has an outlet to bring different perspectives to the people and make a living out of it at the same time. Recent crowdfunding round by YouTubers called Parithabangal, in an attempt to produce a movie by themselves is an example of a paradigm shift in the way how things were once done and they managed to raise a whooping -remember this is first of its kind- 6 crores till now just shy of their 8 crore target. On the other side of the social spectrum, Jallikattu usually regarded by Westerners as a taming sport was lovingly called ஏறு தழுவுதல் by our ancients literally meaning “bull embracing”. When its ban issue came to limelight, news got quickly diffused across Tamil Nadu and it became a deeply emotional affair though many did not understand the nuances of the issue.
Now to give you a perspective, your smartphone is million times powerful than the computing power of NASA in 1969 when they sent humans from Earth to Moon which is 356,000 km away from Earth which means an iPhone memory can be used to guide 120,000,000 Apollo spacecraft. It’s a pity that we use such powerful tools to argue mindlessly on social media. Rather we all can strive to advance the frontiers of human thought.
All you need is an internet connection to join the creative economy.
