The surgical social media dive

You have to join Instagram ya Maazrdquo my friends have been urging me for years And Irsquove been avoiding it like the bullet that Trump dodged ldquoIrsquom too old for these thingsrdquo Irsquove been retorting ldquoArre Zeenat Aman recently got onto it and shersquos killing itrdquo one of them said comparing me to someone from that generationldquoWhat do you mean by killing it What do you do thererdquo I asked like an unattractive fossilldquoPeople need to know more about you They need to know the amazing work you are doing Until I knew you I thought neurosurgeons only operate on the brain and that the spine is the domain of orthopaedicsrdquoBeing an ardent subscriber to the ideology that your work must speak for itself I asked a little bit appalled ldquoSo Irsquom supposed to tell people on Insta what I dordquoldquoYou need to put yourself out there Show the world all the brain tumours you remove from the eye nose and earrdquoldquoDonrsquot think of any other orificesrdquo I cautioned simultaneously realising that while wersquore busy pushing the envelope of science through technology we must not jeopardise the lives and privacy of patients just to be on Insta ldquoShow people all these cases you keep talking to us about where patients were bedridden for months but started walking only hours after surgeryrdquo I was being tutored ldquoYou need to bust mythsrdquo another one of them suggestedldquoLike whatrdquo I shot backldquoI was told all through my pregnancy not to wear high heelsrdquo my cousin interjectedldquoWhy because your baby would come out slantingrdquo I jokedldquoNo silly because itrsquos bad for the back I thought But I later found out from some doc on Insta that itrsquos because of the risk of falling and injuring the babyrdquo I was amazed that Instagram had replaced common senseldquoThere are so many cool doctors and surgeons on the Grammdashthatrsquos what itrsquos also called by the wayrdquo I continued to be schooled ldquoThey use it as a tool to reach out to an audience They show their human side worklife balance advances in their chosen field and even to collaborate with othersrdquo FascinatingldquoWould you visit a doctor based on what you see of them on Instagramrdquo I took an opinion pollldquoItrsquos the extra research one does outside of Google and Facebookrdquo Gen Z told meldquoIrsquom not even on Facebookrdquo I rued putting my head in my handldquoI once went to a paediatrician because I saw him speaking on FB about a problem my kid had and he helped me out with itrdquo a friend confessed ldquoDonrsquot consider it a chore just be yourselfhellip be funrdquo was another piece of advice from one corner of the tableldquoBut do be careful yoursquoll get so sucked into it you might end up scrolling for hours and you wonrsquot even realise itrdquo some veterans told me ldquoItrsquos all fakerdquo someone else played the devilrsquos advocate ldquoNo one is themselves Everyone puts on a show I didnrsquot even recognise some of my friends the way they dressed and posedrdquoSomeone added ldquoBut if you must get onto it do it for the humour Therersquos some solid fun stuff thererdquoSo I succumbed about a week ago I didnrsquot even realise that I had an account made over a decade ago with a single picture of my 98yearold grand auntrsquos handsndashwrinkled but healing God bless her soul I searched for a cool photo of myself that fit the circle DP picture well and wrote a brief bio filling in whatever else was asked of me to confirm I wasnrsquot a robot On a platform where everyone is trying to be someone else I was asked to affirm that it was me and not an imposterI have a question Is it only on my feed or Instagram in general that everyone is scantily clad People posing in the sun grazing on gourmet food exercising in the gym raising childrenmdash all with very few clothes on Inflating and overestimating the novelty of their ideas Both provocative and perplexing Alluring yet agonising Beautiful yet bizarre Likes in the shape of red hearts bouncing off reels evaporating into the ether indicating the brevity of our loveThen there are millions of cat videos with a few people who even identify themselves as cats engaging in silly feline acts and offering relationship adviceThere are people selling stuff from chaddis to the chand Dogs are adopted on Instagram but children are let astray Make up tutorials life hacks motivational quotesmdashtherersquos something for everyone There are humans raising a voice fighting for a cause and wanting to be heard but the ones hearing have a different song playing every 30 seconds Energy is channelled healing is done but it all comes with a ldquotagrdquoI asked a friend if she would help me spread awareness about brain and spine issues on her Instagram handle Would she help me bust some myths If she could teach me how to take videos that people might like to see This was a friend who I used to take pictures for when photography was my hobby and modelling was hers She had used my pictures to get her first work assignment We were quite close then but hadnrsquot been in touch for yearsldquoIrsquom an influencer I usually charge for stuff like thisrdquo she told me bluntly ldquoEvery day someone wants to use my audience to promote their workndasheither launch a book open a restaurant or sell a product I canrsquot do this without a feerdquo My heart sank in search for humanitySo this is me mazdaturel What do we do nextThe writer is practicing neurosurgeon at Wockhardt Hospitals and Honorary Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals mazdaturelmiddaycom