The Consumer Dilemma

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Amidst the pandemic my favorite hobbies include reading and writing apart from sleeping. Of course, sleeping aces the list of  things I do during my free time but reading and writing definitely come a close second. When I am bored I read and when I am super bored I write. Of course you would have by now understood that I am super bored and this not due to the lack of anything to read but the plethora of options available to read that my mind after a point of gives up about what exactly one should choose. 

The lockdown has definitely taken most of us to a walk down the memory lane, the closest to time travel which I guess would have been possible without the invention of the time machine. From virtually having little or no concept of weekends to going out or eating out, the lockdown brought us face to face to our childhood sans the peace and prosperity we had while being cooped up in our houses. However, one major difference between then and now, a difference which I guess has helped many of us survive the lockdown so far without going bananas is the presence of the internet which was abysmally low during the late 90's and early 00's. Internet penetration in India has been possible in the last couple of years thanks to some tremendous disruption which I would not digress towards today. Maybe a topic to pen down on another super boring Sunday. 

However, this is an era of content. Netflix, amazon,YouTube, Kindle, Washington Post, Twitter, Facebook everyone is selling audio or visual content. The content in today's times reminds me of the saree shopping days for Mom. There used to be some days when there were so many good sarees available that my Mom used to get confused regarding which one to buy. Times have changed but the dilemma hasn't. Sarees have been replaced by content and that too mostly free with annual subscriptions. Many people I know have canceled their cable connections due to the available web content and I don't blame them.

As a kid, I remember my daily ritual of reading Times of India from the first page to the last one. Yes, it might surprise you but back then I even followed Sports. Or now when I reflect upon, I didn't have too many options so used to devour anything that was readily available. In due time, subscribed to Economic Times as well to understand the business scenarios in India and globally considering my interest in business management. However, the star of the paper used to be the Patna Timez which had a mixture of gossip, puzzles and crosswords for fun. Those were the days when I knew the name of famous columnists and the Editorial page of any newspaper was looked upon by me. 

I wonder how gradually times changed that I didn't even realize how the daily dose of newspaper was substituted by various Apps on my smartphone. As the mode changed, so did the way content was digested by me. Rather than buying a single magazine such as Outlook, India Today or Business Today, I started shifting towards online content on their websites and slowly expanded my horizons towards Washington Post, New York Times etc. Content is not anymore limited to these magazines or their websites but social media has a plethora of meaningful and cringe worthy stuff which can take away one's innumerable hours without realizing the same. 

In the end, the way I digested content changed dramatically over the years without me paying much attention to the same. And maybe this is how evolution happens when 30-40 years later I would be telling my grandkids the quintessential statement - "In our days……."!!!