- Arnav Sampigethaya
Earlier this year, the editorial team of The Green Pages came to me and asked me if I wanted to write Current Affairs for the school newspaper. Of course, we had no idea about the pandemic that was about to hit, and it was going to be an actual physical newspaper that would be distributed around the school. I agreed without a second of hesitation. But that decision was not an impulsive one. Here is what moved me to choose Current Affairs.
Ever since I was really young, I’ve always loved gaining as much knowledge as I can. I was an extremely avid reader, reading the Harry Potter series in first grade. While most of my friends would watch comedy and gaming videos on YouTube, I would watch educational videos and learn about current affairs. So naturally I was interested in quizzing as well.
I remember when I won my first quiz, I was 9 years old and there were people there who were 13 or 14. I was the youngest participant and I came second. I was so happy that day, I decided that I would never stop trying to keep up with current affairs and increase my general knowledge. Through all that has changed in the 7 years since then, I still do my level best to keep up with the current affairs.
Around first grade, I also started writing. I would write stories and ‘books’ all the time. I loved telling stories and my love for reading made it possible for me to gain access to a rich vocabulary at a really young age. There was a time in my life, where I genuinely wanted to become an author.
I wrote a book in 5th grade that got illustrated and printed. It’s been a long time but I remember that we didn't publish it and my parents gave me a weird explanation why (in hindsight, it’s because the book wasn’t good). That didn’t deter me though, I made sure every year the school magazine has something written by me in it.
In eighth grade, I fell in love with film and filmmaking and decided to become a screenwriter. I honed my craft some more and wrote a lot at that time. This was when I matured as a writer and the progression in the themes of my screenplays, showed the progression in my writing ability.
Around the same time, I got an Instagram account like all the other kids my age. It was the ‘savvy’ thing to do and I succumbed to peer pressure. I’ll be the first to admit that it took me almost a year and a half to learn how to properly use the platform and understand its intricacies. It didn’t take long though for me to realize how much fake news and politics was slipping it’s way through “Rate/TBH” stories.
Via @wsj on Instagram
As the years went by, Instagram became more and more a platform for highly opinionated pieces in the name of ‘news’. Often, facts were completely thrown out of the window, with the appeal to emotion instead. The herd mentality on the platform made it so that if someone supported a cause or reposted such a post, another person would be pressured to do so. There were times where it was a genuinely good cause or a completely morally unambiguous topic but in politics there is always two sides and there was/is a severe one-sidedness to it all because people are either too scared to put up their real thoughts or have been brainwashed into blindly believing whatever they read.
Source- Groundviews
I’m one of the biggest advocates for facts over emotions while making an argument. While it may not be as effective in ‘changing’ someone’s mind, it adds so much more integrity to an argument when it’s based in fact. Just the other day, I was reading an article on Instagram, that was criticizing Bollywood for its nepotism in honor of Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely demise. The argument was very well made, but there was a lot of slander and insults being hurled at prominent people in the industry. They claimed Karan Johar was a college dropout and made many such comments. This immediately cheapens their argument, no matter how right the morality is, the second you show only the facts that are convenient to you or show incorrect facts to build your arguments, it takes away the integrity of the argument. It’s like planting evidence at a crime scene.
Keeping all this in mind, I quickly said yes to my friend when asked to write for Current Affairs, and I’ve tried to maintain that journalistic integrity throughout my writing at The Green Pages. Even in my most controversial articles, I’m glad that I haven’t skewed any facts or reported lies to sell my argument. I’m extremely grateful to have this opportunity because it means a lot that I can be the source of information for people. Thank you if you’ve been reading my articles, I put my heart into them and it makes me really happy to know that even one person learned something from them.
PS – I’m writing an article about Racism in the next issue, please fill in this survey if you get the time
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