By Niranjan Pathak
Imagine this. You are scrolling through YouTube, sipping chai, and suddenly you find yourself nodding violently at a video saying, “This politician is ruining the country.” Before you know it, you have shared it on WhatsApp, debated it with colleagues, and maybe even started questioning your parents’ voting choices. All this just because someone on the internet with a cinematic background score told you so.
Welcome to the modern world where thinking for yourself has become optional and taking someone else’s opinion as gospel has become the default. My name is Niranjan Pathak and I’m going to explain, how people are losing the ability to form their own opinions and blindly following what they see on YouTube and social media.
Why Opinions Are Now Copy-Paste
Once upon a time, forming or making an opinion required effort. You had to read articles, watch debates, maybe even talk to people or maybe you needed to think a lot before going to bed (who knows) with different perspectives. But now just watch a 10-minute YouTube video with slow zoom-ins, dramatic piano music, and a guy with a strong voice saying, “This is the truth” and suddenly you are an expert.
For example, your friend might say, “Bhai, this party is completely useless.” You ask, “Why?” and your friend responds, “Arre, YouTube video dekha maine. Full HD, slow-motion clips, suspense music, it’s clear as day.” And just like that, your opinion is formed. No research, no thinking, just copy-paste.
How YouTube Creates Opinions
Humans are visually and emotionally driven creatures. That is why when someone plays emotional background music while explaining something, our brains go, “Wow this must be true.”
The reality is that we are forming opinions based entirely on music, quality audio or if you see someone who is looking more rich and famous than you with his/her video editing. Cinematic truth has replaced critical thinking.
The reality is that we are forming opinions based entirely on music and video editing. Cinematic truth has replaced critical thinking.
Political Opinions Made Easy
Politics is the easiest example of this phenomenon. Forget reading reports, checking facts, or analyzing policies. All you need is a 15-minute YouTube video with dramatic narration and you are qualified to debate strangers online.
For instance, a video might show Party A building a school and Party B repairing a road. Slow zoom-ins of kids smiling, sunlight streaming through clouds, piano playing softly in the background. And just like that, you vote for Party A because the kids looked happier, not because of research or policy impact.
A 15-minute visual clip can turn a chai-sipping engineer into a political expert overnight.
How Memes Influence Opinions
Memes are fast food for opinions. A single image with a witty caption can convince people of ridiculous ideas.
For example, a meme says, “This politician sleeps 18 hours a day, obviously useless.” You laugh, share, and start convincing others. Suddenly you have an opinion about someone’s professional life based on a photoshopped image.
It is like someone saying, “Eat this carrot and you will become Superman,” and you believe it because it looks cool in the picture.
The Truth About YouTube and Background Music
YouTubers know the formula. Good camera work, slow zoom, emotional background music, and strong confident words. That is all it takes to convince viewers that they are experts.
People can watch a 10-minute video and be completely convinced that aliens control politics, the world is flat, or some random celebrity secretly runs the stock market. The scariest part is everyone trusts everyone else’s opinion without thinking.
Losing the Ability to Think Critically
The real problem is that we are losing the ability to think critically.
Instead of asking, “Is this true?” we ask, “Did the YouTuber make it cinematic?” Instead of researching, we forward links. Instead of forming our own opinions, we copy-paste someone else’s.
This is why people debate policies based on 10-second TikTok clips or memes. This is why your uncle argues about geopolitics after watching one CNN snippet while eating samosas.
Hilarious Real-Life Examples
Here are some real-world-ish examples of people blindly following online opinions.
The Anti-Alarm Clock Activist
Ramesh watched a video that said, “Alarm clocks ruin your sleep cycle. Real winners wake up naturally.” The next morning, he overslept, missed a client call, but proudly forwarded the video to friends.
The Coffee Guru
Priya saw a cinematic video claiming coffee before 9 AM “destroys your gut flora and makes you lazy.” She stopped drinking coffee and became the self-proclaimed Coffee Sensei, lecturing colleagues about coffee timing.
The Flat Earth Debate Champion
A group of college students watched a 20-minute video claiming NASA is lying and the Earth is flat. The next day, the canteen turned into a debate battlefield. One student even tried to measure the Earth with a pencil and water bottle.
The Political Analyst Who Watched One Clip
Vikram saw a 12-minute political video and announced, “Voting for this party is national suicide.” Three months later, another video convinced him of the opposite. He is now banned from family discussions.
The Fitness Freak Inspired by Cinema
A video claimed doing 17 push-ups a certain way adds three years to your life. Deepak tried it, pulled a muscle, but posted proudly on social media about his new “fitness routine.”
The Instant Guru
Shreya watched a motivational video with sunrise shots and booming voiceover: “Wake up at 4 AM, meditate, and your life will change.” She started sending motivational quotes to everyone while still arriving late to the office every day.
The DIY Expert Disaster
Someone watched “Build your own drone in 20 minutes” and tried it indoors. The neighbor’s window shattered, the cat ran away, but the person proudly posted, “I can build anything now.”
Meme-Based Political Expert
Vijay saw a photoshopped meme about a politician and argued for two hours citing only that meme and YouTube videos. Friend left the chat, Vijay’s ego grew.
Fitness Advice from TikTok
Rani saw a TikTok claiming, “Do this 3-second move to burn 500 calories instantly.” She tried it in the gym, almost fell over, but posted on Instagram, “Fitness hack unlocked.”
The Instant Conspiracy Theorist
Rahul watched a video claiming pigeons are government drones. He chased pigeons in his neighborhood yelling, “Ye surveillance kar rahe hain.” Neighbors were amused, pigeons confused.
How to Stop Copy-Pasting Opinions
Here is the way forward.
Pause before you share. Just because a video looks dramatic does not make it true. Check multiple sources. If only one YouTube channel says it, it is probably biased. Think like a five-year-old. Ask why and how. Don’t accept statements just because they sound confident. Watch YouTube for entertainment, not for truth. Laugh at memes, but don’t worship them.
Forming your own opinion is like going to the gym. It takes effort, it is hard, and most people skip it. But once you start, you feel stronger, smarter, and less likely to argue with strangers about nonsense they learned from background music.
Final Thoughts
We are living in an era where opinions are created by cinematic videos, memes, and dramatic music rather than critical thinking. People have stopped questioning, stopped researching, and started copy-pasting.
Next time you watch a YouTube video with slow zoom-ins, sad piano music, and someone claiming, “This is the truth,” remember it might just be a cinematic lie. Think for yourself, question everything, and don’t let a 10-minute video run your life.
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This was such a relatable read. It’s crazy how easily we let dramatic videos, memes, and random YouTube creators shape our opinions without a second thought. The examples you used were hilarious but also painfully true. Definitely a reminder to slow down, think for ourselves, and not let background music decide our beliefs. Great article!
This is one of the most insightful and refreshingly honest articles I have come across in a long time. Niranjan, you have captured a modern crisis with surprising clarity. The way you portray how people form opinions today is both hilarious and painfully accurate. Each example feels like a reflection of someone we all know and sometimes even a reflection of ourselves.
What makes this article powerful is how effortlessly you show the difference between information and influence. People are no longer thinking, they are reacting. A dramatic edit, a confident voiceover, a meme with bold text and suddenly it becomes gospel. Your writing exposes how easily we surrender our judgment to anything that feels emotionally convincing rather than logically sound.
The idea of thinking like a five-year-old, asking why and how, is such a simple yet profound reminder. Curiosity is the foundation of intelligence and somewhere along the way people have replaced curiosity with shortcuts. Your comparison of building opinions to building muscles is brilliant. Developing a real viewpoint requires effort, patience and self-awareness and most people avoid that because consuming ready-made opinions is far easier.
I also appreciate how you highlight the role of entertainment in shaping modern beliefs. People no longer seek truth, they seek stimulation. A meme becomes a political argument, a motivational clip becomes a personality and a photoshopped image becomes evidence. You show this shift with humor, but the underlying truth is deep and slightly worrying.
The conclusion is especially powerful. The reminder that even the most dramatic and emotional videos can be nothing more than cinematic lies is something everyone needs to hear. You make it clear that thinking for yourself is not just a skill but a responsibility. In a world overflowing with content, attention has become currency and manipulation has become effortless. Your writing encourages the reader to break out of that cycle.
Niranjan, this article is sharp, thoughtful and incredibly relevant. It deserves genuine appreciation. Thank you for writing something that not only entertains but genuinely challenges the mind. This is the kind of content that stays with the reader long after the page is closed.
I wanted to share the same message, I feel the same. But, you said it well. I can share it easily instead of writing something by my own. Thank you for saving my time and energy LOL!
Finally someone said this. It’s also about laziness. We don’t like to struggle we just want easy to get. Everyday we people just want the content to share on social media without confirming it, because they f*ck care about the reality they just want to be come first to share the news as they are getting any reward. It is just became their daily habbit and this one of the results of illiteracy. Gradually the neutrality in openions are falling down as people are copying each other’s opinions without having their personal thoughts.