Memes or Distraction Tax

[Subbiah Sridhar]

Unlimited memes and reels are circulating round-the-clock on various social media platforms and those ‘so-called’ humorous clippings can indeed pose an obstacle to the development of a nation by eating away productive man-hours, if not produced or viewed in moderation. The country has hyper-connected population of around 1.2 billion mobile users with around 900 million internet users.  Some study reports peg average Indian social media use at 2.5 to 3 hours daily, with Generation Z (Gen Z) also known as ‘Zoomers’ and Millennial leading.  These short, so-called humorous reels which are like quick, dopamine-driven, algorithmically addictive eat away a chunk of that online timing spent.  It captures massive attention, especially among the youth and even school going children, who form a significant portion of country’s population. 

It is a common sight to see many of the youngsters even gig workers lying flat on their bikes parked under the tree shades or sitting on platform and watching such videos even during normal working hours.  Even office establishments are no less effected for that matter.  If 500 million young people spend an extra hour scrolling instead of doing some productive work, then billions of productive hours are actually lost annually.  Such alarming trend hinders progress in areas like productivity, education, research work and what not and which are definitely critical to national development.

Social media funny videos, with its accompanying throat-stripping laugh and terms like ‘Oh, My God’, while often providing sarcastic amusement and providing a sense of false humour, can have more of a negative effect than positive one.  Such vexing reels can hardly be played in public places or while commuting, unless one ignores or is mindless of others’ frowning at the individual.  If individuals, especially young people, spend excessive time watching such unproductive videos at the expense of studying, working, or engaging in productive activities, it could hinder not only personal development but even national development.  IITs and IIMs churn out global talent but the broader workforce lags with only a meagre percentage of Indians being formally skilled – World Bank data backs this up as only 2.3%.  Though memes do not cause that, but they do not help either.  This unchecked digital sprawl is a symptom of a bigger issue or obstacle particularly for a nation racing to modernize.

It may mentioned that funny video clippings and such other reels distract people from more serious societal issues like politics, education, and health. If these distractions become overwhelming, they could contribute to a disengaged or misinformed population, which can negatively impact civic involvement and progress.  Many such videos focus on trivial content, which may not contribute much towards intellectual or creative development. This could lead to a generation which is less focused on innovation or solving important challenges.

Laughter and humour are definitely known to have positive effects on mental health but anyone getting glued to such unlimited contents at the expense of their own studies or career is most dangerous not only to individual’s own mental and physical development but acts as a barrier to national development even.  Excessive scrolling might erode attention spans, making it harder to engage in deep, constructive tasks—think coding, research, or even civic participation. If a generation prioritizes memes over learning, the country risks a lag in its human capital development, a key driver of economic growth in a country aiming to be a global tech and manufacturing hub.

As mentioned before, the hurdle is not the memes themselves but rather the absence of study or work-leisure balance.  In democratic set-up, free speech protections typically allow a wide range of humorous content, but if they dominate attention at the expense of education, innovation, or action, they could slow a nation’s climb.  If balance could not be maintained then the only course of action is evolve a mechanism to charge heavily on such memes-makers, be it using Indian or foreign social media platforms and put a charge for circulating in social media.  For foreign contents, put a sort of jammer or not allow their circulation. Something like a ‘distraction tax’ could be imposed on domestic memes-makers.  Since such influencers are making money out of their business at the behest of younger generation’s education and career, there should be no harm in imposing a ‘distraction tax’ for making such funny videos & circulating them, thereby add-on to public exchequer.   Introduction of ‘distraction tax’ seems the only option as imposing a ban on producing and circulating such memes is not possible in a democratic set up.  In fact, such memes-makers should themselves make an attempt to behave in a responsible & disciplined manner by restricting production of such memes and thus desist from contributing to enormous amount of productive hours being wasted and thereby contribute their own bit to nation’s development. 

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Yours truly,

Subbiah Sridhar

Former Indian Diplomat