I believe, our fingers these days are busier than our brain, just the way our social friends are more than our real ones. With 24 hours Internet access and an account in every social space, our lives today, is more virtual than real. Before the new car has been driven home, its beauty captured in a camera, has been uploaded online. The proud new owner braves down the traffic as congratulatory messages continue pouring in. These messages make no noise instead, they show up as text!
We have suddenly fallen in love with numbers and it shows on our facebook friend list. 500,700 and a few lucky one's have more than 1000 friends displayed on their friend list yet, we hardly know who stays next door. An acquaintance, a forgotten relative of a friend, the lady we meet at the vet, some not even that and still, they live on our laptops and mobiles devices which we carry next to our heart. Social media today has made forging friendship so easy. Friends today are just a click away. Forbid it but, as time passes and if you develop a dislike for a person, you may un-friend them with equal ease. No emotions seen, no tears lost, no drama involved.
What once started as a realm of connecting, has not been limited to I, me and myself. Social network after all, is all about an individual's greedy quest for their share of the virtual cake. Connectivity, visibility, feedback and all of it at the speed of a single tap. A celebration of achievement, a tear for loss, a foolish learning, a funny joke--it is all on the timeline shown. Where a person is offended if asked a personal questions, the same person is okay sharing the minutest detail of his/her life online. "At Hungry hippos with Alex and 3 others", "Hogging on parathas for breakfast at home", "Off to nani's place for a day or two". Writing this here I wonder why do people write such things on their time line and to answer my curiosity, I find likes and comments to such post. Are people really interested? Is there a genuinity in those likes or, comments? And what is the need to share one's day to day activity to such irrelevant detail? What else, if not a suppressed desire to be liked, loved and be the center of attention? While a nosy neighbor is a pain in the right place, a vicarious need to share each intimate detail is okay! From break ups to hook ups, from Monday blues to Friday grooves, noting is consecrated Online images have overshadowed ones real persona. People are judged based on the number of friends they have, people who follow them, what they have subscribed to, pages they have liked. Social sites have made up opinionated too. We have comments for everything ranging from politics to movies to fashion. From sports to books and the state of the world economy, we show our pseudo-intellect in every bit. Psychiatrists believe that this obsession with one's online life is unhealthy. And you do not need to be a psychiatrist to know this. But who is listening? Fingers, like I mentioned in the beginning, have taken over the communication stratosphere. Tap keys. Scroll. Click. Upload. Download. Share. Like. These are the words that now guide and govern the net-izens like us. Elections come and go, governance shines or, fails but, this is one successful party, displaying no signs of winding down. Instead, it is gathering more and more virtual merry makers who bring with them more goodies to enhance the party's motto. From neptunium to meetings being held online, given the trend, I wouldn't be surprised if I had to meet up a person for dinner online as well. Oh! That's so Sheldon and Amy types from the Big Bang Theory! Happy posting to you all!
