Mirror Mirror on the wall

Written on May 1, 2020

The timeline of her life can easily be described as pre-mirror and post -mirror

Pre-mirror, She was college-educated, married, employed, and a mother of two. She had a routine, a schedule. Of boring things mostly, but still …structure.

Instagram was her relief, her escape. Into the “good mornings from Greece hotels” and “Look at my 45,000 Rs jewelry” lifestyle. A peek into the window of a house that she can never enter. She knew her addiction to it, subconsciously aware of the serotonin hit every time she heard a notification.

But all that was Pre-Mirror. Post Mirror she was something much simpler.

“Mirror” was the new Instagram feature. Quite simple and ingenious really. Most destructive things are.

All Instagram users now had a small mirror icon next to their profile pic. You click on it and you get a number. That number was you. On a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. Simple and Ingenious.

The Magical algorithm utilizes multiple factors to objectively adjudicate the content you are posting and present you with this score. While follower count is a factor, it doesn’t decide the score. There were people with 5M followers who have gotten a 6, while there were people with few hundred followers who had gotten a 9. This score changed daily. At 6 AM.

The nifty thing was once you pressed the mirror to find out your score for the day, anyone else can see it on your profile too. So even if you want to know your score for the day, you have to decide if you can deal with others knowing your score.

Something clicked in her when she was reading the instructions. She had always anguished about the fake follower influencers, the boob show influencers, and the copy cat influencers.

There were countless days in which her posts had gotten <10 likes when worse content had gotten a thousand times more. All that was coming to an end now. This is her chance, to enter the house that she never thought she could enter. No people to please, no asses to kiss. Quality will reign supreme. The machine will decide.

She signs up for it in a flash

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Day 1

Mirror Score : 4

“Mirror Mirror on the wall

Why give me this score at all?

Do I delete my account to save face?

Or post a comedic take, as a picture of grace?

Should I post more? And design my grid better?

Or should I take more selfies and lose the sweater?

Damn this, others can see my score

This is the lowest point in my life,

Lower than the floor”

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Day 6

Mirror Score : 7

“Mirror Mirror on the wall

Like a child, do you see me bawl?

I took a vacation to get better pictures

Started working out, to get a little fitter

Removed photos of my family, for that, made me look plain

Paid a couple of 9’s huge money for posting a pic with me on their feed, again

All this and more, for a seven?

I hate this app so much that am gonna put my phone in an oven

What does it take to be a F*cking nine?

You know what?

Am tired of this game, this is asinine”

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Day 26

Mirror Score : 9

“Mirror Mirror on the wall

I gotta say something, for the sake of all

Your algorithms, while fair, are beginning to err

A 9 is not just a number, but what we breathe, what we eat and who we are

While I am a nine, I just found out that this other person was too

And that just really made me blue.

For my nine, I left my husband, my job, my friends and my kids too.

For my nine, what am spending now is Lakh number twenty two .

And you are just handing nines out to anyone? Surely it can’t be true.

For my sake, please explain, What sacrifice did she do?

So, revisit your algorithm and get it right. Once and for all!!!!!

Maybe Trump was right, Maybe we do need that wall?”

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Day 35

User found inactive

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Day 45

Public Announcement from the Mirror

“Hello there, This is your mirror speaking

Congratulations on your score and Thank you for participating

Am sure you will agree that it was such a fun and happy phase

Ad revenue, record interactions and Suicides. All in 45 days

Hope you and your loved ones had fun. And were entertained

And BTW all your complaints got deleted. Our tonal inflection is ‘Pained’

Importantly, Hope you and your loved ones had fun. And were entertained

Also By the way, there was a small mistake

Our exceptional algorithms are unique but also opaque

But apparently, to our surprise , they can still make a mistake

Anyways, keep scrolling and keep sharing every single detail of your life on our digital kingdom

What’s the mistake you ask?

Nothing big, just that the daily mirror scores were random

Yours Sincerely

Mirror on your wall”