Social media serves the purposes of interacting, networking, sharing and learning. With Covid – 19 driven lockdowns, social media’s flexibility and pervasiveness become vital in connecting, virtually. Rida Tharana utilises this very feature to bring about much needed positivity, gaiety and zeal in this community. This 22-year-old girl who shot up to fame with her ‘It’s a pandemic, not a productivity contest’ IGTV, is a video creator and an emcee with over 2,80,000 followers on Instagram.
Rida began her journey to digital recognition in April 2020. When the idea that ‘productivity validates a person’s existence’ became popular, she posted a video about it. In this video she addressed issues like taking care of mental health during the pandemic. “That was when I realised that I love staying in front of the camera and I love talking about certain topics,” Rida added. Her IGTV videos cover issues such as mental health stigmas, stereotypes, fat-shaming, self-love, toxic femininity and so on.
Chasing the City Lights
To say that Rida’s journey from Coorg to Bengaluru has been enlightening and life changing, would be an understatement. With differing opinions about self love and independence, Rida believes that some things shall remain the same. “When I go home, I still prefer to dress a certain way because of how my mother would want me to appear,” she expressed. While Bengaluru has certainly provided opportunities with better exposures, Rida assures, “as long as I am down to my roots, I believe I can tackle things that come my way.”
Content Creation 101
When ‘Reels’ was introduced on Instagram, Rida was one among the content creators who benefitted from it. She said, “the only reason I jumped from IGTV videos to reels is that it was much more convenient to make. It was either a 15 or 30 seconds video. It didn’t require much editing and luckily my reels started trending. Slowly my journey as a content creator began.” Withal, she confessed that she hasn’t given much thought about monetising her content creation. “I still do it as a hobby as it’s not giving me my bread and butter right now. The aim of making it in the first place was because it gave me my peace of mind and happiness. I’d definitely continue doing it regardless of its financial aspects,” Rida asserted.
Rida’s motivational reels gain up to 1.3 million views. Although she tries to help people through her content, she encourages therapy when needed. “Social media in itself is a very toxic place. My mental health has been tampered too. So, most of my reels are things that I tell myself. I didn’t really think it would elicit a real time impact as much as I expected but it did,” Rida claimed.
As a content creator, one has to face pressure to put out content frequently. This isn’t the case with Rida who takes a break as and when she needs. “I don’t feel any pressure to put out content because honestly I have enough content ready. I write down my content ideas in my journal. Every time I get ready, I record my content and post it. I go easy on myself,” she said.
Pandemic: The Period of Self Discovery
Apart from conducting workshops on public speaking and giving podcasts interviews, Rida has had her share of experience in the corporate world. She considers that for a lot of the people, “it took a virus to realise that their passion can also be their occupation.” She substantiates this by citing instances of baking businesses and thrift stores that have opened recently. She is a realist who maintains that one can always turn his/her passion into occupation given there is hardwork and dedication. For Rida, nonetheless, the virus was vital in understanding that a stable job is required to survive since during the pandemic events had completely shut down, even though emceeing is her passion. This pushed her to work in the corporate sector for six months, although it wasn’t her true calling. Rida believes that the corporate world is somewhere one with dreams and passion could get lost in.
Nevertheless, she admits that she has observed a lot of people who enjoy the 9-5 desk job. “Everyone is different in their ideas, perspectives, thoughts and passion. So surely, there’s a blend. But, a 9-5 job is definitely not my cup of tea,” Rida mentioned.
Unconditionally Unconventional
Rida Tharana possesses an intellectual social media presence and uses it to influence the youth in the right direction. Her content which stems from personal experiences, aims at addressing issues that are still prevalent in the society. These social issues include gender discrimination, colorism, and many other ideologies requiring scholarly discussions. However, Rida exclaims that she did not expect her satirical instances from middle class households to be very common. “The sad part is how from adolescents to mothers relate to my content excessively. I believe that we’re definitely not there at the point where such social issues are completely tackled. As a society, we have still not reached a position where things like colorism aren’t normalised at all,” she upheld.
Feminism and patriarchy are few of the most talked about subjects in her content. Rida agrees that feminism holds a different gravity, analogous to her religion and the lessons she’s been taught. “The way we’ve been raised is all about how a woman’s existence is entirely to take care of a man, marry and bear children. I started questioning as to why is it that for women, the rules change. Why is it that I can’t dream or be ambitious? These questions pushed me to a point where I felt like I have an equal right. And I strongly believe that everyone should be a feminist,” Rida asserted. Her professional account is a platform which acknowledges the growing trend of women vocalising their needs and not being submissive to the existing patriarchy. She talks about toxic men who have observed their mothers looking after their fathers, thus expect the same from their prospective wives.
Rida fearlessly admitted, “I firmly believe that all religions are the epicentre of patriarchy, although I cannot speak for all.” However, she added that her opinion is based on what she has observed. “As much as I see the traditions and customs, most of them have women working under men. Women are certainly checked and kept under control,” she added. Rida also informed that there is an increase in westernisation and regressive cultures are slowly fading out. Hence, there are always two sides to the same coin.
In the times of quarantine, social distancing and distress, such cerebral and pragmatic social media personalities guide individuals who are behind the screen. With consummate utilisation of networking platforms, Rida Tharana adds value to virtual interfaces. While content creators alleviate the adverse effects of social media, Rida Tharana surely does help in seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!
