Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

I watched EEAAO this evening. I have not discussed it with anyone yet, nor have I read any reviews. So, I am interested to see if the below interpretation of the movie is the common interpretation of it. Note: Spoiler warning. 

While it appears as a Sci Fi movie involving Multiverses, which is a common trope of sci fi movies of the 2020s, I think it's also a commentary on our life in the times of social media and modern media. 

Our social media feed can be described as 'everything everywhere all at once' because people seem to be doing Everything or All kinds of things (bungee jumping, going to museums, going on hikes, reading, drinking, hanging out, watching live matches). They obviously are doing it everywhere - Vietnam, Bali, Maldives, Tromso. And on our feed, as we scroll through, we see it all at once (separated by barely a few seconds, as we scroll through the infinite feed). We then get FOMO- because we too want to do some of these things! Our mind gets fragmented- we want to do everything be everywhere, and now, or very soon! Even if we don't experience FOMO, through our mirror neurons - a powerful mental system which allow us to empathize with whoever we are interacting with-  we would put ourselves in the situation of what the feed shows us. In one moment we would be in the shoes of our friend bungee jumping in Hong Kong, and a mere second of a thumb scroll later, we would be (through the eyes of another friend) watching the France-Morocco World Cup semi final in Qatar. This would lead to fragmentation and confusion in our mind, as experienced by the protagonist in the movie. 

People on social media might put up 'idealistic' versions of themselves and their experiences. Thus, we might expect idealistic people and experiences. 

Coming to how the movie might describe 'modern media' itself- even the movies we watch or books we read are highly processed- with beautiful sceneries and clean narratives with clear causal links. Real life is messy and there's often no clear causative links.

The antidote , drawing from the movie and also from the book 'How to do nothing' which I read a couple of months ago (a book I found insightful and is reviewed on this blog)  - is to firstly be aware of this effect of social media and modern media. One is to be mindful in the moment and invest in the experiences and people around you.  With all their imperfections or problems, we can still find a lot to appreciate in the people and circumstances around us in our current universe. 

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 11:10 PM