Page 70 - EW-June-2024

Interview

“Our minds have been colonised by social media megacorps”

ogi Kochhar is the Dharam- of regulations and persisting with ar-
shala-based former Director chaic pedagogy. We must realise that
Yof Microsoft India and cur- our minds have not only been hi-
rently founder of YOL Happiness jacked, they have been colonised by
Foundation and a happiness savant social media apps that have trained
and evangelist. Excerpts from an our minds for neural switching ‘off’
interview. and ‘on’ every three seconds.
To counter this, YOL Happiness
Congratulations for your appointment Foundation has designed a gamified
as a director on the board of the World solution that has been approved by
Happiness Foundation (WHF, estb.2022). AICTE — All India Council for Tech-
What are the aims and objectives of the nical Education — which oversees
foundation? technical higher education country-
We work in partnership with the wide. The foundation has the support
United Nations, institutions, organ- of several truly eminent thinkers in
isations, community leaders and the higher ed space including Prof.
individuals to attain the target of 10 Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Prof. T.G.
billion free, conscious and happy Sitharam, Prof. Abhay Karandikar
people worldwide by 2050. It’s an among others. They support our
honour to be on the WHF board of crusade to rescue children and youth
globally respected eminences such as rush that nudges us to buy more. The from Western mind colonisation.
marketing guru Prof. Philip Kotler, YOL Happiness Foundation has been Yol.com enables users to win back
Dr. Satinder Rekhi, Dr. Saamdu promoted to educate people to limit the mind that Western social media
Chetri and social entrepreneur wants and optimise their lives by magacorps have eroded.
Luis Gallardo to name a few. We pursuing happiness instead of wealth
are aligned with all 17 SDGs of the accumulation. Therefore to counter the machinations of
United Nations. Metaverse, Google and their apps such as
How satisfied are you with the progress of Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube, you
An economics and marketing alum of the YOL Happiness Foundation in India? have designed the YOL app? What are the
Punjab University and the American We have designed a blueprint for es- features of the app?
Global University, Florida, you began your tablishing Happiness Cities in the US YOL is an app approved by AICTE as
career as a tea planter and later rose and Europe. We have also designed an essential program that provides
to the position of Director of Microsoft a Happiness blueprint that can be a ‘mind map’ for students from class
India. What were the major factors adopted by states in India. Currently, VIII onwards. It enables social media
that prompted you to exit industry and India is building hundreds of Smart users to assess the mind share lost
promote the YOL Happiness Foundation cities lacking soul and heart. to mindless screen viewing — video
(www.yol.one) in India? reels and online trivia — on a daily
My epiphany moment came when An interesting proposition advanced basis through colour-coded signal-
I was in Maui, Hawaii, on vacation by YOL Foundation is that third world ing. By making users aware of time
where I met and was inspired by countries, India included, are experiencing spent on random and ambiguous
Harold Bloomfield, the celebrated a “second colonization” by Western coun- viewing, this app enables people
author of books on happiness that tries. Except that this time, it’s western to rewire their brains and focus on
have sold over 12 million copies social media mega corporations who are more important things rather than
worldwide. invading and stealing the minds of our random stuff such as the mating
After meeting Harold, I became children and youth by stuffing them with habits of amazonian spiders. Today
aware that excessive industrialisa- trivia. Please elaborate. young people are lost in a dark rab-
tion, economic growth and wealth Indian youth expend an average bit hole where they suffer fear and
accumulation have destroyed the six hours per day on social media anxiety that make their minds brittle,
Earth’s forests and precipitated watching video reels featuring random, anxious, non-linear and
climate change. Ironically last year, trivia that is ambiguous, random and weak.
1,210 private jets streaming carbon meaningless, devoid of any context
dioxide landed for the annual World or contiguity irrespective of whether What are the future growth and outreach
Economic Forum fiesta in Davos, they bring their phone with them to plans of YOL?
to discuss the co-relation between school or not. Neither parents, teach- My partner Jaya Kumar and I have
climate change and global poverty. ers or youth are aware of this danger, ideated and designed yol.com to en-
To arrest climate change, we need therefore it is our responsibility to able people to remain at the centre
to decarbonize the minds of people. make them aware. of this universe. We believe this app
Primitive capital and goods accumu- Today, education is a mere busi- will help users to retain the mind-
lation happens because our minds ness sans true value creation with share that has been taken away,
seek to placate the dope or dopamine educationists toeing the official line hijacked, and colonised from them.

70 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2024