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'Reels have quietly taken over the world': Bengaluru founder's 6:40 am observation sparks discussion
The founder described a series of encounters during his morning commute that all had one thing in common: people scrolling through reels.
A Bengaluru-based founder has sparked a discussion online after sharing how a short trip to his badminton court at 6:40 am convinced him that "reels have quietly taken over the world."
In a post on X, Aaditya Aanand, founder and CEO of Multibagg AI, described a series of encounters during his morning commute that all had one thing in common: people were glued to their phones, scrolling through reels. "I live in Bengaluru. I leave for badminton every day at 6:40 am on my bike. But I booked an auto to the court today," he wrote.
Aanand said the auto driver arrived within minutes but did not call him or seem annoyed when he took time to come downstairs. "To my surprise, driver neither called me nor he was angry when I went downstairs. He was busy scrolling reels," he wrote.
The pattern continued during the ride. He said at a traffic signal near his home, the driver tried to cross before the light turned red but missed it. While waiting for the signal to change, Aanand said that he noticed a woman in a Tata Nexon beside them. "The lady driving must be in her early 30s. She turned off her engine, picked her phone and started scrolling reels," he recalled.
Then, when Aanand reached the badminton court, he shared that he found the receptionist, an elderly man, absorbed in his phone. "I went to reception to ask about the court number. An old uncle who was of my father's age was sitting there. He didn't respond in the first time. He had held his phone to his eye level and was busy scrolling reels," he said.
Even at the court, where one player was waiting for a game to finish, the founder said that the man was not watching the match but was busy scrolling reels. "It was 6:55 am. This court was probably booked by 5 people from 6 to 7 am. 4 were playing doubles and the 5th guy was waiting. He wasn't bothered about watching the game, he was busy scrolling reels," he said.
Ending his post, Aanand concluded, "Reels have quietly taken over the world."
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How did social media react?
The post struck a chord with many users, who shared their own experiences with social media addiction.
One user wrote, "think mobiles have taken control, we should start 'fasting' by being without them couple of times in a day, when we walk / exercise/ lunches / dinners etc."
"One of the rules i follow without fail is to putoff the wifi and keep the phone atleast 1 mtr away from my bed before i head to sleep. Result - dark circles started healing, eye sight improved, long sleep hours and feel fresh in the morning," commented another.
"The brain rot of Instagram is a real curse. So many of my hours have been wasted. I'm working actively to cut down my Instagram and over all Social Media addiction," wrote a third user.
"It's been 5 months since I am off that app, and I have started to feel better, see better and hold conversations. Though Twitter and reddit have taken its space, still much better than the doomscrolling mayhem on insta," said another.
"Not just reels. I see people picking up the phone to see any notifications every few minutes- so many notifications flooding our screens every second. And some of them may actually be important because a lot of stuff gets done on the phone now," wrote one user.
