Noida demolition becomes internet event

Indians closely followed the Noida twin-tower demolition on the Internet Sunday. Soon after an implosion triggered with 3,700 kilograms of explosives brought the towers to ground in the afternoon, feeds on WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms were flooded with photos, videos and memes.

The twin Supertech towers were the tallest buildings that were demolished this way in India. This was also probably the first time an event of such magnitude was being shot, consumed and mass-circulated, even live streamed, on social media across India.

According to experts, this could even trigger a new trend in the Indian social media space – witnessing a spectacle live – in a way like how the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York turned out to be an inflection point for live television.

“Normally, you imagine things being erected but the idea of something large and imposing, disappearing in a cloud of dust in an instant is a riveting sight,” columnist Santosh Desai said. “In some senses, when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11, it was an inflection point for live television because we were able to tune in across the world and witness an event of that magnitude. It is something of a universal moment being captured, something horrible, and unprecedented happening, that is unfolding before your eyes,” he said. “The Noida demolition is nowhere near the same in terms of magnitude, but the quality of being a spectacle and the fact that there is a certain universal shared feeling, makes it a moment of that kind, which is the reason why you have all the hysteria around it.”

One Twitter user said it was a good thing that the demolition and the India-Pak match were at different times in the day; otherwise it would have been hard to choose which one to watch.

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Cyber psychologist Nirali Bhatia said whether it was something as serious as the Bilkis Bano case, joyous like India’s victory over Pakistan, or sensational like the towers collapsing on Sunday, everyone wanted to be a part of the larger discourse on the Internet. “Everything is about content. And it’s about wanting to be the first one to get their content re-shared and updated on all platforms,” said Bhatia.

There is a complete disconnect or desensitisation towards incidents and people are only looking at something that’s trending or something that is going to be helpful for them to make content, she said. “We look for entertainment and move on to the next trending topic. What it has done is it makes us constantly crave the next big thing on the Internet which will be a talking point that we can contribute to in a conversation at the cost of us lacking empathy and building connections.”

Attention is the most expensive currency today, said an Instagram content creator, who did not wish to be named. “Everything is about views and creating hype around an incident. The twin-tower demolition is the best example of that. And the Internet culture in India today is such that it is all so short-lived,” this person said. “By the night, it was all about the India-Pak match and the morning’s spectacle was forgotten.”

Making content on something that is trending is the best way to grab eyeballs, he said. And it has to be done only when that particular trend is relevant. “There’s no point doing a meme about the twin tower demolition one month from now. It will not have the same impact. As content creators, we are like hamsters on the wheel, constantly churning out stuff just to stay relevant,” he added.

But there’s a deeper-rooted aspect at play, said Megha Marik, a research fellow at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. It is the fact that as long as we are not directly affected by something, we are able to distance ourselves and appreciate the humour in it.

“The internet provides a platform where everyone can form an opinion and accessibility is also an important aspect,” she explained. “So if someone is speaking about something that you aren’t interested in, there is a larger culture which is constantly at work to make you feel that is important and how you need to have an opinion on this or you are not part of the group conversation.”

“The demolition was something which happened in reality and reverberated across the country through the virtual world, thereby connecting a lot of people who might not be physically associated or have been touched by it. It is not the physical touch that we’re talking about, but this sort of digital touch that allows someone to impassionately witness something like this without having an emotional stake and even make content out of it for larger consumption,” Marik added.

And Tarun Kumar (name changed) an IT professional working in Chennai said just this.

“There’s something therapeutic about seeing something come crashing down, that does not belong to you,” he said. “For me, I will admit that after a long day at work and run-ins with bosses, clients and colleagues, I enjoy the mindless scrolling on Instagram and the celebrity bashing and roast videos that people do. And when it is something like the twin towers, it becomes easy office water cooler conversation and no one wants to be left out of that.”