What If History Had Social Media?
Social media is the supreme power that rules our world in this vast, connected, and conflicted era. I strongly believe that we are not the most advanced generation since the dawn of time. Now that we can learn about history so effortlessly, it makes me ruminate on the wisdom of our ancestors. If ancient wisdom was connected through a nexus — discoveries and inventions would be shared when population explosion was not the problem. But most importantly, the truth would have survived. Most of our history is erased by either invaders or zealots.
The logic on which religions like “Sanatan Dharma,” (Hinduism) was found should have made their way across lands so humans could make informed choices rather than following faiths with blind beliefs. Sages of the ancient era solved the human mind and they knew that only your consciousness was needed to be conquered, not kingdoms or lands. If you take out the soul-sucking advertisement business models from social media, it is the most profound platform for freedom of expression. Even today the best ideas, videos, poems, or any type of content gets viral organically. Imagine the ancient architectural technologies and blueprints of Dravidian-style temples, the Chola dynasty architecture, Taj Mahal perfectly preserved in the form of first-hand data. The Kanchipuram Varadaraja Perumal temple in India has chains made from stone. A technology advanced enough to bend elements unheard in the entire world existed but is now extinct.
Religious zealots controlled the flow of information back in the day, and they preached what they are sharing is the One and only truth of God and life. If social media existed in any form, men of science and truth seekers could destroy any notion which was designed to manipulate. The fact that names like Aryabhata, Galileo, and Raphael are still alive demonstrates the power of their efforts to spread truth and knowledge through allegory. The war between science and the Catholic Church could have ended way too different. Truth be told, today we know who was right.
All the generations have to fight society, to tell the truth; be it past, present, or the future. Before capitalistic concepts took over the power, social media of history would have prevented countless issues from being born. Technology has two uses like everything, one man’s tool is another man’s weapon. The fact that bombs were invented before the steam engine shows that humans will find conflict in any situation and will keep finding it till the end of time. Fuel was discovered in 6,000 BCE, and it was used for melting metals and metals like Steel, and steel shaped our history. With social media and a few ethical men, the fight becomes more than just a disagreement, it becomes a revolution.
Taking into account that the speed of communication technologies was poor back then, rumors would rarely spread like vines, but secret communication channels (closed groups or communities) would store the truth in multiple locations creating an information cloud. If the information gets destroyed in one place, the other still has it intact. The truth should have a life of its own, which seems like a distant dream in this day and age. We want to listen, read, and see what we think should be true, but never the actual and discomforting truth. But we are programmed that way — by technology and by society. The meticulously thought-out origins must never be manipulated or else an idea loses all of its integrity and meaning.
The corrupted medical system of today would not have taken its shape if the cures founded by our ancestors without any side effects were to be distributed as education to all the castes and creeds. So many man-made diseases that sicken and kill won’t find a home in our bodies if we followed an alkaline diet. The Vedas didn’t discriminate among any caste because there is no actual birth-based caste system. The zealots wrongly preached the Vedas and put themselves on a pedestal which caused our country to be divided to this date. All it would have taken is a few visionaries who knew how to channel and spread the truth. Not as the word of god, but as a revelation to life itself. If history could defeat the notion that different is unacceptable, what a wonderful world it would be.