Why do writers write? Something to keep in mind while reading stuff online

Suddenly, writing and publishing have become so easy. Writing something and getting it published was so difficult a few decades ago; and look around now – there are writers, bloggers scattered all around us, all striving for getting eyeballs and attention.

As I observe, if you use any social network, you are bound to stumble upon the writings and posts by many of your friends who regularly write something or the other. Most of the times, these people take up some issue and start writing about it. While everyone has freedom to write and express, whatever we read affects is significantly and hence, while reading on social media and web, one has to keep certain things in mind; just to avoid getting carried away with content which might be highly biased and without any basis.

I have created three broad categories of writers on the web and I am sure, next time you stumble upon any of them, you will be able to gauge the hidden agenda and simply walk away.

Writing to exploit the fear of the reader 

It is highly important to understand why the so-called writer has written a particular post. As I see it, most of the times, people write something to exploit the fear of the readers and they use that fear to make them violent. Look at the posts around – the religion based, caste based fights, arguments based on political agendas- they all try to exploit the fear of the readers and make them act as desired in the vulnerable moments. I can see many of my friends madly arguing about happenings about which they know nothing. Such pieces of writing have a single purpose- make people afraid so that they lose their common sense, become violent and propagate the trash further. Try not to be one of them.

The conditional flattery 

The second type of writing that I see commonly on social media stands very close to organized crime – I call it conditional flattery. In this type of content, one person writes a post to praise someone else who in return writes something to return favor. Authors, political figures, artists, spiritual figures and even brands are doing this so commonly. Do not blindly trust a person praising the other person; you do not know the under currents. Do your own scrutiny and then trust.

Writing out of emptiness and frustration

The third type of content comes out of frustration and emptiness. Many of us see our friends writing on some random topics and getting comments and likes. As a result, we also get tempted to write something, even if we do not have anything to share. In some situations, the inner emptiness, the inner urge to be something forces the writer to write, even if he or she has nothing to write. In this case, writers mostly write false and hypocritical  content- they write about a cause they do not believe in, they post some advise which they have never lived or tested. If you believe in such content and act, it is like one blind following the other. Folks also post content which glorifies themselves and their lives and if you have a comparing mind, you are bound to get depressed soon by reading such content.

I personally avoid random reading on any social networks and web. I know what are the causes and issues I truly care about and if I want to keep myself updated, I take out certain amount of time every week or day to update myself. Random reading on web, that too without understanding the hidden agendas of the writers can prove to be disastrous.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply