Death of an Influencer

 

Recently, a very popular Indian social media influencer died due to an ailment. He was a meme creator and a photoshop artist. He went by a pseudo name on social media platforms and had used a profile picture which showed his face only partially but gave away his age and fitness to a certain extent. I had come across his posts many years ago, and although I suspect I could have interacted/commented on his posts a few times many years ago, now I don’t have any memory of any interaction with him.

After news of his death came, his fans and other social media users started mourning his death. There was a huge shock and disbelieve among people, though all newspapers had published about the death. People were horrified with the news; perhaps many even cried. He was still young, to make it worse, newspapers told he was only in his late 20s. After reading people’s posts, I understood that they did not know how to cope up with this news. This brings into my memory my first experience of coming across such a news: death of an influencer.

I used to write blog posts, and there was a very popular blogger who wrote mainly on politics. I shared his political inclinations too and I understood that he was a senior person while I was only in college. I quickly began to look up to him and was fascinated by his knowledge and understanding. I remember he adored me too, like his younger brother. A few times he would write comments to guide me or enlighten me on political topics, since I was really a novice back then. He had an image of Bhagwan Ram carrying a Dhanush Kaman as his profile picture, since those were the days of post-Ram Janmbhumi Andolan and perhaps he was inspired by the movement. Both of us had a few common connections (bloggers) who we mutually respected and I remember once another blogger said to me, “Oh, you are also a Ram Bhakt” and I took it as a huge compliment because I knew she was a big fan of that senior blogger and I was flattered because she had counted me in the same league of Ram Bhakts.

After many years, the blogging platform looked deserted since most people migrated to social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and after a gap of few years once I found him on a platform. He was very popular there too and I realized he had entered politics by that time as I understood he assisted some politician in Haryana.

Once he gave me his phone number, asking not to share it with anyone else (since he was in politics) and he asked me to call him and meet him whenever I was in Delhi. Once a common connection had tried to call him for a get together but he was not available. Afterwards, I visited Delhi few times without remembering to meet him and then once finally I thought to call him. Now I don’t have exact memory if I did call him or if my call did not get through or what happened. But I remember that I tried to check his blog and social media accounts to check on him and I came to know that he had died a year or few years back due to an illness. I guess he must be in his late 50s or early 60s or somewhere in his 60s when he died. His daughter had posted using his social media account about his death. I was shocked for many days and I remember I did not know how to process that news.

How to mourn the death of a person you never met but have only read his writings on the internet? You have never met him, so you don’t have his images and pictures in your mind. You have never heard his voice, so you can’t recall what he said and how he said it. With passage of time, you do not remember even his exact blog posts or writings. All you can garner are glimpses of his posts and some broad category of topics which he chose to write on. I don’t think human brain has evolved to fully connect with totally virtual experiences. Or maybe it has, by believing virtual entities as real, just like I imposed “big brother” image on him based on how he interacted with me in the comments section or chats.

This whole experience of coming across death of social media influencers also makes us think about the time we shall be in their place. If we are writing/posting on the internet, there are many others who know us only by our writing. Maybe they also project some kind of image on us, like a brother, friend, senior, or an enemy. In the end, everyone deserves a coping mechanism.

It has been about three weeks since the photoshop genius died. I searched about him on the internet and realised that barring the news of his death three weeks ago, not a single media house published any single news about him after that day. Maybe because they did not know anything about him other than the known facts that he was a photoshop artist, his age, real name and picture, which they had shared in their breaking news article about his death. Or maybe they did not care.

Such things make us realise the mortality of everything we are about. After we die, a few family members will remember us for many years in the real world. But in the virtual world of the internet, people will not really remember us because they never knew us, and now, with fading memory of many things, I am not even sure people will remember our writings, or our poems, or anything about us.

In the end, we shall all become like an unnamed star in the vast sky. Or maybe, we were always one and did not know.

- Rahul Tiwary