Our changing world

“Storytelling shapes our understanding of the world around us”

Growing up, I have always been a movie fanatic. As movies were the primary source of
storytelling for me. I remembered watching ‘The Dark Knight’ directed by Christopher Nolan as a
kid, it gave me this false misconception of the world, How there are only two types of people in
the world, people like the joker who was nothing more than a lunatic that terrorise the world for
the sake of his own amusement and was the embodiment of “pure evil” and there was Batman
who symbolises justice. A representation of the pinnacle of human performance and an ordinary
mortal who made himself a superhero through discipline, determination and the insatiable
hunger for justice. However as I climbed the steps of adulthood, I had quickly come to the
realization that the world is not that black and white. If anything, it's probably like fifty shades of
grey.

Do people behave better when being watched? That's one of the many questions I’d asked
myself as I watched Sci-Fi films like ‘The Circle’. A movie that doesn’t quite feel like a young
adult dystopian world but somewhat like a prequel to that dystopian world that we know. A
movie that tells the story of the sophistication of technology and how it is another step forward to
the evolution of mankind but instead it leads to absolute power for the person who invented this
type of technology.The idea of privacy is a criminal offense and that secrets are really lies as the
introduction of Soul search in the film really explores those ideas. The repulsions I felt towards
every action that Mae made, the idea of going completely transparent by attaching those tiny
cameras on her which live streams everything that she’s doing. It’s like they’re playing with
Truman show vibes with what they’re trying to do, but instead it really just feels like an extensive
youtube vlog, maybe with less editing than they already do. A lot of people think that the movie
is a reflection of the issues of America and its social media culture, while I agree to this to an
extent. I really think the movie goes beyond that because of characters like Mercer in the story
who were living an Amish lifestyle, yet they’re still affected by all this technology. I feel that when
you’re dealing with technology at that extreme level, it starts to interact with human rights. The
stories that they try to convey in the movie like the idea that knowledge is a basic human right
for everyone, the theme of “Knowing is good, but knowing everything is better”,
and the attempt in getting it out there with the sophistication of their technology, but the thing is
we do possess that type of technology that provides us with all the knowledge in the world. But
instead, we use it for our own entertainment purposes, which shows me what humankind truly
focuses on when they have these tools at their disposal.
As I transition from watching movies to listening to podcasts like the ‘Rabbit Hole’, I quickly
learnt the horror of terrorism and how terrorism has no affiliation with race and ethnicity.This is
because anyone can be considered to be a terrorist if they commit the severe crime of terrorism.
People often have these prejudices against muslims who believe in the islamic faith, the idea
that prejudices and misconceptions are often shaped and spread by mainstream media,
portraying muslims as nothing but terrorists and extremists. The chilling stories of how the
gunman that committed the mass shooting at Christchurch strapped a GoPro on himself,
angling it in a way just to make his gun look like a video game and live streaming the attack for
comical purposes. This disturbing incident often leaves me with many questions unanswered.
Like, “Why would anyone in the right mind do that?”, “What does he gain through the course of
his actions?” and “Would he be labelled as a terrorist despite the fact he is not of Middle-eastern
descent?”

Now that the recent conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians are being widely covered in
social media platforms, I’ll often see stories like Palestinians being evicted out of their properties
and the atrocities of the bombing in Gaza, it gives me this perception that Israel is not as friendly
as it seem and that darkness would always happen to be lurking somewhere in the distance no
matter how marvelous or beautiful it seems on the outside. Through listening to storytelling like
these on social media, I’ll feel as though I am them, experiencing the same type of trauma or
sadness that they were feeling. Whether it’s the grief of the loss of a loved one or the hatred
towards a person, storytelling and the role of social media would always somehow shape our
perception of this world around us.