Why are we so forgetful these days?

I was lying down in the bed last night, waiting to sleep, with a regret that i couldn’t complete my to-dos set for the day. Caught between heavy eyes and a guilt to get some more out of the remaining day, i decided to make a plan for today and after going thoroughly through my pending items, i managed to put together a well thought to-do list.

I slept peacefully.

I woke up today at 8 am, went through the to-dos inside my head. Then somewhere between this and finally leaving the bed, i had opened facebook on my phone and instigated rabbit chase for hollow satisfaction (read dopamine). after miles of scrolling up, The chase ended when i finally realised i was reading old statuses again.

It was 10 am.

I was taking a shower. Inside my head, i was again reciting my to dos for today. I sincerely realised that these to-dos of mine have not been completed since about a week.

I felt disgusted with myself.

I was having my breakfast, my phone gave me a notification on In-shorts news. It sounded informative and kept me swiping up to other news repeatedly till i was reading yesterday’s news.

It was 12 Noon.

I realised i should start completing my video lectures on Youtube as a part of my to do list. I opened up Youtube and started the lecture but then from the corner of my eye i saw another video showing evolution of Godzilla over the years. The rabbit chase started again and it ended with a fan theory on upcoming season of Game of thrones.

It was 3 pm.

I completed the first lecture that lasted only 40 minutes. It was an achievement somehow. To “relax” i opened up my browser and started entertaining myself with random funny clips- the rabbit started to run again, randomly dropped me to a hole where a news anchor was debating with a panel (yes, you read correctly) over a recent rape case that happened in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua region.

As per the news, a little girl, 8 year old, was brutally raped for 6 days and murdered, in a temple, aided by the priest. There were protests all over the nation over ensuring fast investigation and justice to the little girl and her family. I was enraged with what our society has become. Infuriated, and willing to seek open and varied views on this case i followed the rabbit deep into the hole where i stumbled upon another news that was about 5 years old.

I remembered the news- It was Nirbhaya. I remembered how a 23 year old was brutally raped and murdered in a running bus in the middle of delhi- the capital of india. I remembered the uproar it created all over the country and how there were demands of stricter laws. I remembered authorities making comments like “We will make sure no daughter of our country ever meets this fate”

I remembered how enraged everybody was, and how it was meant to be a milestone conviction. I remembered how everybody in the society and on the news was talking about winds of change that have started blowing with the uproar of such magnitude. Still somehow, we managed to let 106-rapes happen per day since.(source)

Let’s think about it. We have so less time to ourselves amid working jobs and paying our taxes. The world is going forward and we need time to keep up with that. We need time for ourselves and all this little time is taken up by overload of information by various entities. Worse, more than half of this information is not even strictly relevant to us (Cats and dogs and slime, really?). Much more worse, we have no clue if the remaining is true or fake.

When we were kids, it was television. Now it is our phone.

we always have someone to blame.

For Nirbhaya, it was Delhi. For kathua, there were hindus.

We always have someone to blame.

My question is why not blame ourselves? What if i tell you that you can do whatever evil you wish, people will forget soon since they have so much to deal with. The course of justice takes more time than our attention an bear. We will stop caring the moment another Breaking News starts taking rounds the internet or TV.

That victim of oppression, or a scam, or dirty politics, who is believing on the unity of nation won’t even realise that we have failed him. we have forgotten. Come on, we have already started scrolling through crappy videos — Epic fails and dogs licking cats or whatever “trending” suggestion is coming up from your TV or App. We are ready to let history repeat itself because we don’t even remember how it happened before.

Yes, It is true, most of the internet entities have a business models centered at how long they can track our behaviour and engage us. It is like TRP for television. Though it is for their revenue, but we have to realise the value of our attention and how we are being used. We have to make sure we aren’t just a revenue source. We have to leave the rabbit alone and use our curiosity for our betterment- Learning something new, finding a hobby, solving that equation of composing that tune. doing good for the people or simply, calling our parents. Whatever it is, it has to be something relevant- something that is worthy of our attention.

Note that we need to be aware of state of affairs around, but not at the cost of information overload that makes us forget everything at the end.

It is us who have to remember- WE MUST REMEMBER

Oh! It is 7 PM, I remember i have to complete my to do list.