NEXT EPISODE IN 3,2,1

Seeing the road is next to impossible from last 200 days. Till now I have see the road only twice in which one include visiting doctor other was for laptop. Only thing happening in the lockdown is the increasing screen time to now 12 hours the sleeping schedule has totally turned upside down. Starting days of lockdown ended with FaceTiming family and friends. But as the days passed, the daily FaceTime reduced to once in month. News became boring to me as the only thing running always is either extending lockdown or some stupid topic. Days went on and the conversation at home also went down, everyone in the house in busy with their own work, as its a nuclear family I have to find my way to entertain myself. Only thing helping me to survive this lockdown is …NEXT EPISODE IN 3, 2, 1. Watching Netflix almost half of the day because it doesn’t contains ads and feels relaxing to watch. Listening to songs and vibing with oneself.. Being more active on social media during starting days but as the days passed social media also started feeling boring. The fear of corona also went down at home. The things from outside used to stay aside for 48 hour but now hardly for 48 minutes. Hot water which we were supposed to drink daily, went to once in week. Sleeping time was already messed up but now waking time also got messed up. Dad used to go down like once in week but now they just go down daily in the society for walks now. Things are pretty changing from the day lockdown started and how its going now. The people around me started to be more reckless as days pass. Used to take 2-3 days to complete one series now it just takes a day. Recently the game called AMONG US came, I want to play it but am still trying to get time out from the series and learn it.

BINGE WATCHING AS A WAY OF LIVING

Binge watching a Gen-Z term that has recently become a part of everyday. It existed as a practise since a few years but it’s reach was limited due to the availability of the internet and the capacity and cost of devices available to transfer large amounts of data (here I mean several GBSs) like pendrive and hard-drives (feels so small now). With the facility of Streaming Media, in platforms beyond TV, wrapped under the power asserting statements like “at your demand”, “you choose what you watch”, “No-ads to distract you” Netflix had made its niche with the only accelerant left was unlimited Data (for whom though). With the introduction of Jio, Netflix just got it’s dream fulfilled. The series of lockdowns that were triggered by the virus forced people indoors with nothing much to do. Gradually people did shift to art, a few took up old interests and many PAID online streaming services. By 2020 there are several platforms, each fighting to get more viewer and establishing them as a bigger player by creating more exclusive content for ‘users’.(cont)

CREW MATE

This is the new favourite tagline after “Netflix and Chill”. This particular game has taken every other group of friends by storm, everyone is absolutely hooked. Like every other virtual game this has become a trend but I found this one especially interesting because of the kinds of relationships it forms. Every player plays individually in this game, there are a series of tasks that each player needs to complete and finally the main motive is to find who the imposter or the mafia on the basis of his killing spree. What then happens is if you continuously play this game with similar sets of people every player develops his/hers own set of characteristics and then that player builds varied relationships with the other players on the basis of their moves in the game. Also this game has a feature to play with the public and nobody discloses their identity. Again this gives rise to multiple new relationships. For an instance I came across this extremely funny video on Instagram, where there was this player who started liking another player on the basis of the other players name and moves and at the end when they finally met up on video call, it was a shocker. Also the fact that you know someone as an imposter “virtually” is so ironic. But that has brought this extremely insecure feeling in me because I always think that there is an Imposter Among Us.

DISTRACTIONS

The virus, at the beginning bought a sudden abundance of free time. And while it was initially treated by some as a time to follow the hundreds of hobbies you could not before, and to complete the multiple half done projects; this zest for life was eventually lost to the looming feeling of being cooped up and feeling hopeless. And herein emerged the constant need for distraction not just from the intense work but also from the loneliness, constant bombardment of bad news in the media and the stress of managing the home for some members of the family. This distraction came in the form of endless consumption of mind numbing media, the instagram and facebook scrolling going on for hours, often mindlessly. These distractions are neither bringing new knowledge nor any debate. They’ve become mechanical almost.

COVID E-TAILING

As the lockdown continues, we are able to notice second-order effects leading to important shifts in the buying behavior of the consumer. Consumer spending is shifting to essentials, health, and hygiene products. Planned purchases are being put on a hold for the time being, and saving cash as much as possible is being prioritized. As consumers are asked to stay indoors, most of the shopping is carried out online. Medicine and grocery shopping are seeing a huge increase in sales, and hence e-tailers are seeing enormous growth. Since consumers stay indoors, the medium of advertisement was shifted as there was no point in advertising where consumers were absent. Cinemas, magazines, newspapers, radio, and even printed advertisements were dropped instantly. Digital consumption enables advertisers to prioritize digital advertising. Immediately all brands were set out to create attractive propositions for their products to up their sales graph. Audiences and brands are adjusting to a new normal which is also reflected in their corona awareness advertisements. During the early stages of the pandemic, brands selling health, hygiene, personal care, and grocery items were seen creating awareness about COVID-19; in the latter stages, multinational conglomerates engaged in energy, chemicals, textiles, and telecommunications were seen advertising with messages that were focussed on corona awareness. These advertisements account for over 50,000 minutes of screen-time on television. McDonald’s created with an ad campaign called #touchthis where it captures moments of reluctance where people refused to come in contact with other people or objects. Parachute advertised and started an ad campaign with the hashtag #thankyounurses which showed corona survivors thanking nurses on the occasion of Onam. Nike created an ad campaign titled You can’t stop us, featuring all sports events that happened across the world, in a double frame showing all kinds of similarities between the two happening moments .

DUCT-TAPED, GLUED, STITCHED

Ma'am/Sir, I am writing to you today to explain the bad experience I had with Regenersis India Private Limited (A CTDI company) for a month now. I own a ROG GL504GM (Scar II) and it's a gaming notebook from Asus. RMA No. is INULL70320 (wrote it from my memory) for your reference. It is appalling to witness such a respected and renowned company behave in such a manner. The laptop was received by them on the 29th of July. I saw a spark under the keyboard with pop-like-noise while it was on charge. I talked to a guy through the customer service number and under his guidance and suggestion, I tried to boot up the laptop again. The only issues were that it wasn't charging and some keyboard keys were not receiving any inputs. Ten days post the received date they informed me that they finally performed the diagnosis and found the motherboard burnt. And from that date till today they come up with the same excuse that they have ordered the part but somehow it has arrived defected. Its the second time that it is happening and now I don't trust the new motherboard to be any durable. I believe that the parts are new and not from a scrapyard. The machine is used for CAD drafting and not for playing videogames. I am a student and my studies have suffered and will suffer until I don't get it back repaired. Using COVID as an excuse for the delay in repair is neither justified nor appreciated as the world HAS NOT stopped and now leans on the means of digital to continue working. I am both shocked and disappointed to have been treated this way and believe you should be made aware of such scenarios as you even record our voice calls for training purposes. :) I trust that this is not the way Asus does business and that you will mention my concern about the incident and notify my delivery date. I am open to discussing the matter further and should hope that you will respond with a solution (machine repaired, of course). Looking forward. Sincerely, Diwakar Motwani diwakar.motwani@gmail.com 8450983366 The letter narrates how distracted, clueless, hopeless tech firms are in these times. It also expresses the frustration that one faces with the maintenance/reparation as these tech giants lack resources now and have promised to be open only on certain days. Many might be hesitant about the idea of stepping out to get their broken appliances/gadgets/objects repaired or calling a technician for the same. Hence, they try to adjust and make things work.