Digital Fame and Social Shame in Pakistan
The TikTok economy has become a major social trend in Pakistan. It is important to understand how social identity, visibility, cultural acceptance, and digital platforms are changing in our country.
Two Different Paths to Visibility
One group includes people who built their identity through education, institutions, and traditional ways. The other group gains quick visibility and financial success through new digital models, often without traditional skills.
The tension between these two groups is not always about real moral disagreement. It often comes from insecurity about not adapting to digital platforms and new identities.
Acceptance of Dramas but Not TikTok
Pakistani society is still in the early stage of accepting digital economic participation. Many people now earn financial independence through the platform economy.
Sometimes this insecurity comes from concerns about cultural values. Other times, it comes from importing a single global social structure.
TikTok and other platforms represent new economies based on platformisation. People without traditional intellectual credentials can now turn social performance into income.
Our society accepts the same content in dramas and films. But it becomes hard to accept similar expression from ordinary people who lack conventional educational credentials.
What is celebrated on television can become embarrassing when ordinary people do it on digital platforms and earn money from it. If someone else uses it as income or content, it is seen as a disgrace to culture.
No TikTok creator has mainstreamed objectionable content like nudity or bodily exposure. Then why do people in Pakistan associate all bad things with TikTokers?
Two Main Reasons for Social Shame
First, there is an unconscious lack of acceptance of new earning potential through digital platforms. This causes stress among people who feel they cannot achieve success through these platforms.
Second, there is cultural rigidity in labeling everything as good or bad. If something is not introduced through socially accepted norms and long-term hard work, it becomes morally unacceptable.
Changing Dreams and Social Institutions
In the coming days, the traditional idea of the American Dream will become less relevant. This does not mean we should abandon education. It means economic activity has diversified.
Diversification and adaptation are difficult. Social change needs time to build new momentum for accepting emerging norms.
The idea that children's grooming and future prospects are declining is not directly connected to TikTok or digital platforms.
Social institutions like family, religion, and schools should change their approach to raising children. They must consider changing economies and how people perform in them.
During social change, it is easy to blame new institutions for the failures of old ones. Social institutions must reconsider new designs and values to prepare coming generations.
This will help develop future generations as individuals and in their relationships with others.
