Video Information: 14.03.23, DU (Online), Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why social media influencers are so rich?
~ How to not be affected by social media?
~ Why do social media influencers affect us?
~ How useful is our education?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #socialinfluencer #socialmedia
Context:
~ Why social media influencers are so rich?
~ How to not be affected by social media?
~ Why do social media influencers affect us?
~ How useful is our education?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #socialinfluencer #socialmedia
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00 Does the person you are with encourage you to read?
00:05 You have to ask, what does he bring for me?
00:09 Roses or books?
00:10 If someone has a stake in making you better,
00:14 that person will push you towards books.
00:16 Books are what we all need.
00:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:24 So good afternoon, sir.
00:36 My question is, nowadays we use YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels,
00:41 and other such short video platforms,
00:44 and they are really shortening our attention span.
00:47 So my question is, how can we use technology and media in such a way
00:51 that it does not affect our attention span,
00:54 and what are some ways to maximize it?
00:56 Thank you, sir.
00:58 You see, it is primarily not about the span of attention.
01:15 The important thing is not really for how long
01:21 you can hold your attention on an object.
01:25 The important thing is, what is the quality of the object
01:33 you are attending to?
01:34 And the nature of human consciousness
01:42 is such that only very specific type of objects
01:52 can really hold your attention for long.
01:55 Let me go a little deeper into it.
02:00 You see, our mind, our consciousness,
02:04 is constantly searching for something.
02:12 Man is the name of a lifelong craving.
02:17 We are continuously a longing.
02:22 And the world is full of infinite objects,
02:30 and we do not know those objects.
02:33 Therefore, we keep approaching those objects one
02:38 after the other, incessantly, all our life, in the hope
02:44 that our internal longing will come to rest
02:51 through one of those objects.
02:52 That's why we are constantly restless.
02:57 That's why we are constantly trying, experimenting,
03:03 knocking at one door after the other.
03:05 Getting it?
03:10 Now, that is the reason why the short format, the short video
03:15 format, in social media has been inevitable.
03:25 And since it has arrived over the last few years,
03:28 it has been more successful than the longer formats.
03:34 Because the audience, without even knowing it
03:38 in an unconscious way, is looking
03:40 for something extraordinary.
03:45 Now, if you give them a 30-minute piece to watch,
03:51 by the second or third minute, it
03:52 is anyway clear that the thing that you are looking for
03:57 is not going to be found in that long video.
04:02 So after the third minute, the audience will drop out.
04:05 After the third minute, the audience will anyway drop out.
04:11 Because it has become clear that the video is not
04:15 what your deepest self wanted.
04:17 So how do the video makers, how do the so-called content
04:26 creators cope with this?
04:30 They said, we know that we cannot hold the audience anyway
04:34 for more than three minutes.
04:39 So we will give them just one minute of content.
04:41 And then the danger of the audience running away reduces.
04:49 And then the proportion of the video that has been watched
04:54 improves.
04:55 Because if you see, on an average,
04:56 if people are watching three minutes out of 30-minute
04:59 content, that is just 10%.
05:01 The algorithm will record that the average duration viewed
05:11 is just 10% of the video length.
05:15 Whereas if you serve them just a 50-second thing,
05:19 the audience will watch it for 30, 40 seconds
05:23 before they can make up their mind to drop out.
05:27 Even if you discover that the video is trash,
05:31 still you would have spent a few seconds on the video--
05:34 10, 20, 30 seconds, something.
05:37 So even if you spend 15 seconds on a 45-second shot or reel
05:44 or something, you have still watched
05:48 33% of the video length.
05:51 Now this 33% is far better than the 10%
05:54 that you watch on the long video.
05:56 So this little thing gets more favorably
06:00 ranked on the YouTube or Instagram algorithm.
06:06 Do you see the fundamental reason?
06:07 The fundamental reason is everybody,
06:10 be it the long video creator, the short video creator,
06:12 the movie maker, the Netflix maker--
06:16 does not matter who he is--
06:18 everybody knows that the content that you are serving
06:21 does not have that touch of eternity in it.
06:28 It does not have that all-essential quality in it
06:34 that can simply bind the viewer to the screen.
06:42 So people are trying all kinds of tricks.
06:46 They have to try these tricks because they are finding
06:50 themselves unable to address the central problem.
06:54 And the central problem, as I mentioned right
06:57 in the first sentence today, is not the length
07:02 of the attention span.
07:04 The central problem is the quality of the object
07:08 you are serving to your audience.
07:12 Is the content worth it?
07:15 If the content is worth it, then people
07:17 can watch even for one hour, two hours.
07:20 And any length does not matter.
07:25 The epics have been so long-lasting.
07:28 And do you know the number of verses they contain?
07:32 The number of verses run into scores of thousands--
07:37 10,000 verses, 20,000 verses, 40,000 verses,
07:40 more than a lakh verses.
07:45 And yet they have been eternal and immortal.
07:47 If you talk of the Vedas, the Rig Veda itself
07:54 has 10,000 verses.
07:58 Or if you go to Homer and talk of Iliad and Odyssey,
08:01 again there the length of the work is so daunting.
08:08 But still, it has been with the people
08:11 and they have just loved it.
08:15 So it's not that people are afraid of length, really.
08:20 People are just fed up of trash.
08:21 Trash.
08:26 And trash does not necessarily refer to production values.
08:31 It does not really refer to how attractively, how lucratively
08:39 you have packaged the whole thing.
08:43 It refers to what is inside the package.
08:47 It is the stuff that is inside the package that's
08:51 what I'm referring to as trash.
08:54 What is the message you are delivering?
08:56 What is the insight you are providing through your video?
09:00 Is there something in the video that
09:04 will give some relief to my otherwise tormented life?
09:10 Be it a youngster, a man, a woman, a professional,
09:14 a student, an old man, a Hindu, a Muslim, a rich man,
09:22 somebody looking for a job.
09:23 It does not matter.
09:29 We all are missing something very essential in our life.
09:32 Now is your video or your story or whatever
09:35 you have as an artist, is that able to provide me
09:42 something that will fill up the hollow here in my chest?
09:47 At the center of my existence is a big void.
09:51 And it pains.
09:53 It pains incessantly.
09:57 If you are a video creator, you are an artist.
10:00 If you're a painter or a storyteller, you're an artist.
10:04 Do you have it in you?
10:06 Does your art contain that beauty, that truth,
10:13 that will bring some succor to my charred life,
10:22 a few drops of relief to my parched existence?
10:26 So that's the problem.
10:33 And if you don't solve that problem,
10:36 you'll find even one minute is too much.
10:40 People will run away from you in five seconds
10:44 because what you are bringing to them
10:46 is just so repetitive and old and dull and boring.
10:54 Within five seconds, people have begun
10:56 to discover that the stuff being served
10:59 is just a rehash of something old.
11:03 Now the old thing itself wasn't able to provide any relief.
11:08 What will this thing in the new package do?
11:12 No hope.
11:13 So one just scrawls away.
11:16 And you hold your mobile phone like this,
11:17 and with one thumb or one finger,
11:19 you are just scrawling away.
11:22 Even five seconds is too much now.
11:26 So that's the thing.
11:28 Ours is an age of a very special kind of crisis, you see.
11:32 There is a complete proliferation
11:38 of all kinds of colorful objects all around.
11:42 You want to buy a car, you will be flooded with choices.
11:49 You specify a budget, and 15, 25 kinds of models are available.
11:54 You want to buy a shirt, n numbers of brands.
11:59 You want to visit a place, so many options and so many
12:01 to travel operators.
12:04 You want to eat, just look at the ever lengthening menu.
12:08 The entire culinary expanse of the world
12:14 is available on your table.
12:17 So choices, choices everywhere.
12:20 That's what the industrial age has done, right?
12:23 Go to Amazon.
12:24 Does not matter what you want, it
12:28 will be delivered at your doorsteps.
12:31 People are truly empowered.
12:34 So objects all around, and yet nothing that can satisfy you.
12:39 I'm reminded of that beautiful poem, "Water, water,
12:43 everywhere, but not a drop to drink."
12:47 A lost ship in the middle of a vast ocean.
13:00 Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
13:06 That's our state.
13:09 In the language of social media, you could say,
13:11 content, content everywhere, but not one video of relief.
13:21 So instead of taking the issue head on,
13:30 instead of discovering the root cause, as usual,
13:38 we have relied more on trickery and cunningness and shortcuts.
13:47 So we have said, OK, we will keep
13:48 reducing the length of the video.
13:50 We'll keep loading it with special effects.
13:53 Look at the VFX content in movies these days.
13:57 Why do you need that so much?
14:01 Why?
14:02 There is a reason.
14:03 And unless you understand that reason,
14:05 you will not understand the age you are living in.
14:08 You'll not understand the world.
14:09 You'll not understand your own life.
14:11 Why so many filters are needed?
14:17 There is a reason.
14:18 And the reason is very important to know.
14:21 You cannot have a video where you're just
14:26 saying something important in a simple way.
14:34 Because nothing important is being said at all.
14:37 Trash is being served in innumerable avatars.
14:45 And therefore, you require all kinds
14:48 of embellishments and filters and decorations,
14:53 editing and effects and all the jazz.
15:01 [VIDEO PLAYBACK]
15:06 - Getting it?
15:08 - Yes.
15:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:12 [BIRDS CHIRPING]
15:15 [HORN PLAYING]
15:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]