If 'debauchery' included Social Experiments it'd be in 2014

Yes, that's right. 2014 is the year of 'Social Experiments' as the so called Humanitarians of the new media age are calling it. 

First we had 'candid camera', then 'Reality Television.' and now we have something called as a Social Experiment. What does it attain? Well, nothing but a so called environment of fake awareness about social issues or behavior that even first year arts student majoring in Psychology could figure out based on reading half of their course material. 

If you'd want to do something and mooch website hits, video views, fine go ahead and do it. Don't do it under the pretext of something called as a 'Social Experiment' or something that we didn't already know. It's very easy to use Social Media and create a fake environment or an environment which devours the very existential behavior of the so called non-revolutionist average Joe walking around town minding his or her own business, especially in a country like India. And of course in much more developed countries you'd easily get arrested if you tried something like this, but that's another story. 

And then there are stories where the videos get doctored, and sometimes edited to ensure that they only include the cuts where their message was being conveyed or showcasing that how little people care about such experiments. I'm not saying that we need a society of zombies who don't do about anything. Well, truth be told, there needs to be a larger message as most of the audience who watch this, are armchair activists and probably get a kick out of sharing the post, video, blog and give their two cents, but when soup hits the fan, they'd probably be that 'average Joe' sitting back or comforting themselves or excusing themselves for the lack of inaction, cause those who care, don't need these videos to be awakened. Or sadly, the society has come down to such state of mortification that they actually do need these nudges from time to time. Whatever it is, it certainly is the year that it peaked in and I wonder what it holds for the morrow.  

The thing is, that it's easy to do something and then sit back and watch human behavior. I guess the better use to such 'Social Experiments' would be to call a spade a spade and try to fix the overarching problem and not instigate people via curiosity to gain some views and make money out of it. What do you think?

 

 Srinivas has been a communications professional for over 15 years. He has worked with and built India's largest digital agencies from the ground up and been part of their acquistion journey. Social Wavelegnth (now Mirum, part of the WPP group) and Kinnect, now part of the Interpublic Group (IPG). He's also been a public speaker, keynote speaker at various large panels/events of the likes of BBC Knowledge Summit, Blockchain Summit Bangalore. And has been a guest lecturer at IIM, Symbiosis, Indian Institute of Digital Education.

He has been blogging since 2005. And also been author at various publications, that include Startup India by ZDNet, Social Samosa, Lighthouse Insights.  His passion for Writing, Advertising, Creativity, Digital, Blockchain and Future Tech is what drives him each day.