Victim of Social Media

Sometimes I am forced to think that Social Networks are my best friends. I get to speak to unimaginable number of people free of cost (but if time is money, I have lost millions). I gain a lot professionally. Most of the new ideas and solutions to my problems come through social networks. I found excellent professionals and subject matter experts on these social networks who have now become great companions. We help each other (It is a two-way street always). I found lost friends on social networks. Some of them are my schoolmates, some college mates and others are recent ones. It gives great sense of satisfaction to find lost friends, great companions, professionals and experts.

But you have to pay a cost for everything that you consume so much so that the air you breathe, water you drink, and space you live in doesn’t come free. If you are not paying the cost directly, it is being accrued indirectly. As I mentioned above, the amount of time invested can never be regained. Social networks are intriguing but intruding. These networks take away ‘privacy’. As a student of psychology, I can challenge that every human being has tendencies to be secretive. If one claims to be transparent, it is a false statement – not true at all! But the fascination of revealing/publishing the things (which were best kept secrets) has surmounted the mind and remains unconquered. But I haven’t revealed the worst yet. These social networks take away your imagination. These social networks make you the victim of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). I am not writing this as a preacher. I am a victim of social networks. Orkut, (the only network that I exited) Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Live Journal, Yammer and many others (I profusely reject requests for joining any other social network).

Not so long ago (10-12 years back) we exclaimed when we found a long-lost friend in a crowded market, on board an aeroplane, in a train or some other place like that. Today we exclaim when we see someone after a gap of a week on Facebook. “Where’re you for so long.” Most people hate those who are not on these networks. They are considered ‘downmarket’, ‘illiterate’, ‘non-progressive’ and ‘naive’. Today photo albums have been replaced by Flickr, Picasa and other such sharable online albums, where anyone and everyone can see you (you can put some policies to avoid onlookers to some extent).

I am a classic case of a mentally sick social networker. If I am going for leisure trips, my laptop, camera and data card are the ‘must-have’ tools. Why! Because I would probably not cherish the memories of the nice landscapes, vast horizons and unexplored nature with naked eyes. I would like to put the pictures, memoirs, descriptions on my social networks and wait for people’s reaction to them. These reactions no give a kick. Similarly, smallest of the issues, which could be resolved by doing some self research, are now solved by throwing the topic on the social networks.

To be there or not to be there - this state of dilemma has crippled me. I am not able to take a decision whether I shall be there and continue to harness the great deal of advantage or just simply detach myself to be more imaginative, original and free myself from enslavement.