Swathi Reddy Instagram – This birthday when loved ones called to wish me, I made them promise not to post about how much they love me, all of them laughed and most of them sounded relieved. I kid you not. Point? Social media has a reputation of being superficial, stressful, peer pressure inducing, aggravating complexes wala medium and I agree. But, it has a whole other side. Cooking videos, work out guides..Several ways to be even more productive, especially now, with the lockdown – learn a new language, pick up a skill, basically, how to – Version 2.0 of you. Ironically in reality, most of us are wiped out by the end of the day or guilty we couldn’t achieve the above list, and in that state, some memes we get as forwards/tagged in, tiktoks of a stranger saying/doing something funny, the viral video of a female cop belting irresponsible folks offer much needed light hearted moments. We share and enjoy, briefly forgetting the bad news the channels are churning out all day. Smiling, we have a shift in attitude towards our situation. Mostly after a good laugh, if we notice, our conversations tilt towards the positive, how this will pass, how blessed we are, earth is healing etc. Comedy is power. Unfortunately those who make us laugh are rarely given enough regard. I was once shooting with a senior Telugu actor, popular for comedy who told me he stopped smiling in public because he was tired of people coming up to him excitedly, asking for an autograph and then saying “ Now, tell us a joke funny guy“!! Sigh. Anyway, this isn’t about injustice to comedy but more to say, HEY YOU stranger out there who is risking judgement such as silly or immature from your circle.. Who has people assuming you are “on” 24/7, you who are editing videos and putting out content ,we will never know what some of your names are, what you are going through but may you know, when the chips are down, your creativity gives us a break. Social media will remain predominantly fake, but the LOLs it provides with sharp and timely satires/funniness is real. All the not so popular but talented artists out there, who, write, act, sing and bring in the humor. .Thanks guys!