‘Free Apps’ don’t exist. Your attention is currency and where you choose to give it determines who you are.

No… this is not a logline for a dystopian futuristic Bladerunner type movie, but a very present reality.

Most of the times we are swayed by the screen in ways that we don’t even know. Years of research and billions of dollars have been spent on determining whether you’ll tap on the bottom right of your screen, or on the top right… or left. Our cameras can track the movement of our retinas during our screentime. We have hunchbacks worse than that of the cavemen carrying rocks.

The ‘screens’ are demolishing our sense of reality whether it is in a good way, or bad way.

‘Doom scrolling’ is a thing only because we make it. Social media is what it is, only because WE make it.

Let me add a disclaimer before I go further.  Yes, I am writing this on a screen and do not condemn the use of screens, but I am pondering the use of the things that are within them.

Now that being said. Enter Facebook and all its subsidiaries.

The one I would like to specifically single out is the Facebook Market Place tab. It feels like a half-hearted try to democratize Amazon, or eBay.

In an attempt to research this article, I did doom scroll Facebook Market place for a while and found the most hilarious products for the most insane prices. I mean, Women’s shirt for 20 rupees?  Why wouldn’t I indulge myself? So to speak.

The first thing that surprised me is the range of things that are available on this tab. Right from a 3bhk worth 7,500,000/- to a kurta for 32/-

Wide options of things can be rightfully amazing but quite detrimental when no one knows what they want. Facebook marketplace is the answer to the question of “Do I buy a car today? … or just ice-cream?” (Asked by no one)

I wasn’t brave enough to contact any of the sellers on the app and in doing so, opening myself up to a plethora of spam calls, messages and emails.

There really isn’t such a thing as a free lunch. [1] I’m sure this does help some people make a quick buck. Have some kind of passive income. Promotes small businesses. So good for them.

What I don’t understand is how did a thing we used to ‘poke’ our friends with, turn into this gargantuan invisible entity that listens to our conversations? And affects our mental health in more ways than one?

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[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/no-free-lunch