I think 'social life' has a whole new context today. A person has two social lives in this day and age- one virtual and one real. And you would think the former is actually pretty trivial, but not in the least.
It's quite amazing how social media has grown to be an important part of lives of millions of average people around the globe. Being able to socially connect on so many different levels has made us social networking junkies. You could use LinkedIn and connect with people on a professional level at work; take a coffee break and comment on you best friend's profile picture uploaded 5 minutes ago on Facebook; and just as you're two hours away from getting off work, you twitter it up and announce to all your friends/co-workers/acquaintances how you just can't wait to finish up and head towards the local pub to kick start your weekend! So technically, you're living two lives- a virtual one and a real one. Besides that, you also have an incessant need to know what's going on in people's lives on an hour to hour basis. And even if you don't, well let's say you don't really have a choice!
Being a victim myself, I sometimes think I live an overfacebooked life! I feel the appearance of my Facebook profile or how engaging my Twitter feed is has started defining my existence and general well being to everybody. So much so, that in the process people become insensitive and impersonal- when all along they thought social networking was supposed to get them closer to others. When people are able to keep track of someone's life by the hour in spite of them residing on the opposite side of the planet, I find that they forget the pleasure of using more personalised forms of communication like a telephone call, text message or even an e-mail.
Lately a friend of mine was quite insulted when he received an invitation to his high school mate's wedding via Facebook. A wedding invitation via Facebook?! Really?! Am I attending? Sure, you can count on my virtual presence!!
Being a victim myself, I sometimes think I live an overfacebooked life! I feel the appearance of my Facebook profile or how engaging my Twitter feed is has started defining my existence and general well being to everybody. So much so, that in the process people become insensitive and impersonal- when all along they thought social networking was supposed to get them closer to others. When people are able to keep track of someone's life by the hour in spite of them residing on the opposite side of the planet, I find that they forget the pleasure of using more personalised forms of communication like a telephone call, text message or even an e-mail.
Lately a friend of mine was quite insulted when he received an invitation to his high school mate's wedding via Facebook. A wedding invitation via Facebook?! Really?! Am I attending? Sure, you can count on my virtual presence!!
1 comment:
spot on!
Post a Comment