Facebook has lately become like a lice, that crawls over the
head. It itches, scratches the skin on the surface of a world we carry inside
us. Status updates are confessions we make to a hundred or more mediators. The
more, the merrier. Depression is a catapult that is set free as the burden we
carry through such a communion of secrets escaped into the blue. The syllables are a war of words
when it gets typed into the box that asks me with a pause “What’s happening
Rinzu?”
It is a bourgeois concept to fill that
empty space every day when I log into my facebook account but often I’ve felt
that rants and especially those against the destructive demurrals of the
society make a way into that white space often. And many times it talks of the
boredom I encounter, but not for long. Once the wall appears in front of me I
am treated to a Pandora’s box that I feel opened the world’s woes in front of
me.
Well most of the times I am a silent
spectator to what my friends and acquaintances have to utter, with many
registering their most trivial of triumphs on their wall, as a record or in a
vain vaunting of vanity. While for me staying honest is a must, since I haven’t
mastered the art of creating tales about me or my family. And so am I too shy
to ruffle the feathers that I wear in my cap.
Facebook is more of a cloistering
compulsion to market my writing. Somewhere still I am struggling to set my feet
firmly in this world of words. This free marketing tool allows me to connect to
poets and writers and even editors, who haggle me with what they have to say in
an attempt to sell their alphabets. Often I have watched from behind this
screen, people becoming self confessed best selling authors within months of
the release of their book or just an anthology in which they might be a
contributing author, jostling for space with many authors.
Facebook is also a labour of love for the
nameless authors in this planet of pen and paper. Any and every publication
even that in an ordinary collection is the talk of the town for them. Once on
the wall, it reaches every nook and corner of the facebook world by the word of
the mouth. Congratulatory messages and comments keep popping up on your wall, if
the tags on your profile have been opened to every Tom, Nick and Harry . I wish
becoming famous was easy a cake walk as these people make it to seem. Yes, I
have ten and hundreds of such self proclaimed best sellers on my profile, while
the request to buy their book is still being made via a message or e-mail.
Then the laymen and women who do not write have
usually been spotted harping about the latest car they bought or the last
luxurious trip they undertook.
At what cost I usually wonder? The
pictures paint my wall in gold, and it gets difficult to stand up to the fablery each of them write on their walls. Narcissism is nettled in every nook and corner of the social networking world, and to be alive amid this attention deficit disorder, egoistic gratification is a necessity.
Such is this world of social networking.
Everyone is a page 3 celebrity here. A single status update or tweet can make
or break friendships. Air kisses are blown, hugs are given with everything
written in capital, love is usually a red heart smiley that is laid for
visual display.
The same is the story with the
microblogging site Twitter. More number of followers make you a star and
retweets are like one liner interviews that get circulated. I’ve seen faceless
figures becoming celebrities overnight with fame blinding their vision and
virtues.
Life in this web of social butterflies has
often spliced me to smithereens. That might be one of the reason that facebook
is not my second home anymore. Having taken
a time out I was visiting people and places. Reading
THE TRUTH.
2 comments:
Think of Facebook as a cafe. Some people come alone, some with friends. Some come to drink coffee or eat, some come to have a good time with friends. But everyone can have a different intent of using the said facility
You are right. If we aren't careful, social networking could easily take up a lot of our time. It is like food - we know too much isn't good for us and it is up to us how much we consume.
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