Essay map
Opening scene
Anecdote
A feed shows a face, a count, a fight. The product is the user. The topic is harsh: inherently selfish — not only ‘some trolls’. The exam wants the design, then an honest exception.
Keep this in every paragraph
One stand
- Inherently: in the grain of the medium — a profile, an algorithm of more-me. Selfish: the self as the unit of value. Write a riot rumour and a disaster thread as cousins.
Use once, in a scene — do not dump names
Quotes to earn
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Gandhi
Means — a medium that trains vanity is already a politics.
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Ambedkar
Public reason — a feed is not a constituent hall.
Turn each heading into a full paragraph in the hall
Heading map
What the line is asking
- Social media: platforms of broadcast-plus-mirror.
- Inherently selfish: structure, not a mood of users.
- Medium: McLuhan cousin — the form is the bias.
Design
- Like, a streak, a rage-click. The self as bait and catch.
Politics / street
- A rumour that flatters ‘our’ people. Polarisation as a business model.
Mind
- Comparison, a loneliness that still scrolls.
The counter
- A missing-child post, a flood SOS, a worker’s union group: the same pipes can carry a we. RTI-style leak, a feminist hashtag. The medium is selfish by default; a public is an achievement against the grain. Law: IT rules, a intermediary — do not make it the whole essay.
Drop one peg where it fits — not a data dump
Value addition
- Art. 19 Speech — and a reasonable restriction when a rumour kills.
- IT Act / intermediaries The legal pipe — peg once.
- Election / IFCN A fact-check as swimming upstream.
Last 8–10 lines in the exam
Last paragraph
- Close: use the pipe; do not worship the mirror. Expand — this is only the map.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Is this the full essay?
No. It is a map. In the exam, each heading becomes a paragraph with one Indian case.
-
Tone?
Cool. Design first. One SOS thread as the counter. Not a boomer rant, not a Silicon hymn.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
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More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2017 · Essay · 125 marks
Farming has lost the ability to be a source of subsistence for majority of farmers in India.
Philosophical and ethical quotes
Not a full essay — a map. Open with a field and a godown. Stand: subsistence failed as a system. Headings: land/climate, market, household, counter. Peg MSP / a small-plot fact. Close on a living, not a plough hymn.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2017 · Essay · 125 marks
Impact of the new economic measures on fiscal ties between the union and states in India.
Philosophical and ethical quotes
Not a full essay — a map. Open with a compensation wait. Stand: unified market, strained purse-share. Headings: GST, grants/borrowing, trust, counter. Peg GST Council / Art. 280. Close on two chairs.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2017 · Essay · 125 marks
Destiny of a nation is shaped in its classrooms.
Philosophical and ethical quotes
Not a full essay — a map. Open with 62 children and a register. Stand: equal, alive rooms — not a rank factory. Headings: access, quality, values, counter. Peg Art. 21A / ASER. Close on a present teacher.
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