Am no tech expert, but I have been using softwares since 1989. With the explosion of the internet, finding information online became the norm and content just became king. Just as there are no roses without thorns on the stem, the internet made social media possible. Social media made bad habits even worse :(.
Earlier if you had to watch X-rated stuff, you had to go to a sleazy theatre with some way to keep your identity hidden. Then the CDs and DVDs made it possible to view such stuff at home. Now it’s freely available …actually the scenes in many of the movies/web series made today are sleazier than the erstwhile X-rated stuff. Yes, I am making an effort not to use the P-word.
In the past few years with AI and deep fake content, clicking on any link is fraught with danger. It might empty out your bank or it may lead you to information that you don’t want to see/hear. My mother listens to spiritual discourses and songs on YouTube. She is thrilled that she is able to see them 24/7. But every now and then, there are fake videos !! Some India-Sri Lanka match is won or lost even before its played. Neeraj Chopra had won the Gold even before he picked up the Javelin at the recently concluded Paris Olympics :).
While these kind of videos are not very harmful, but news about some celebrity passing away is not nice. Or videos that show real accidents, real violence and real people dying are very distressing. It normalises painful events.
Clickbait – Web Series on Netflix
When this web series came up on Netflix, we were interested in watching it because we thought we will learn something about the darker side of the internet. And boy, did we learn !!
Nick Brewer is almost the perfect man – great husband, wonderful father and just a nice guy. He goes missing and a video surfaces where he is holding a placard that says he abuses women and killed one. Nick’s sister Pia, his wife Sophie initially refuse to believe the video… they are desperate to find him before the video reaches 5 million views as Nick says he will be killed right after that.
Unfortunately, Nick is killed and the video reaches far more than 5 million views. From the second episode onwards the plot unravels and we realise that Nick was not perfect after all. He had a whole another life in the shadow … he appears on dating apps with different names, other women claim to be his soulmate and how he promised them marriage. Nick’s elder son Ethan, is anonymously chatting with another anonymous handle. We see every little information about the investigation being shared by Ethan with this person.
Slowly other things come to light. Sophie’s affair with a co-worker and a video of Nick confronting that person puts the spotlight on that co-worker. Eventually the police realise he had nothing to do with Nick’s disappearance or his murder. Then the brother of the lady who Nick claimed to have killed comes into the picture … he is the one who kidnapped Nick and made him hold those placards. Eventually he is not the one who murdered Nick because Nick tells him about how his father committed suicide and why he would never say something to someone who talks of harming themselves.
The twists and turns in the plot are well managed. Finally when we realise the person who is actually responsible for Nick’s murder, it turns out to be just a game for that person :(. I don’t want to give away much of the plot because this is a web series worth watching. It makes you realise how personal data about you could be and many times is misused.
Learnings from Clickbait
- Get a shredder – shred every bit of paper that has your address/phone number etc and definitely shred your credit cards that have expired. Read – Disposing Your Credit Card.
- If you live in an independent home and not part of a gated community, please monitor your online presence and remove phone numbers, photos of your house etc from all social media.
- Never give out passwords to any account of yours, however innocuous to anyone…
- Watch your children’s internet activities with a separate ID so they don’t feel like you are stalking them, but it’s truly a bad world out there. Especially till your children grow older. I still remember that our guide in Johannesburg told us that pics of small children or babies were not used in advertising in South Africa because of the problem of pedophiles. I still shudder thinking of that :(.
- Please read this book titled “The Art of Invisibility” by Kevin Mitnick. He is a former hacker who has spoken extensively on how to safeguard yourself in the online world. A summary is available on Medium – The Art of Invisibility.
- Never believe everything posted on social media – deep fake is a reality. Relationships are at stake and many times, a country’s safety is at stake. There are agencies whose sole purpose is to create trouble and make money out of that. I am pointing directly at George Soros – the most evil man perhaps of this century :(. As you drill down on any “troubled” spot in the world, you will find George Soros as the root cause.
Stay safe and “use” the internet, social media and every advancement in technology to make your life better, but don’t fall prey to the dark side.
Suggested reading – The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnick;
Earlier blogpost of mine that talks about Deep Fake – The Impact of Deep Fake Videos on Indian Politics and Society.