Faces Of Facebook

Do you take your FB post likes seriously? I stopped taking them seriously when the below incidents happened. A couple of months back a friend of mine updated her status as "My mother is no more" with a picture of her mother. The next day, there were quite a few likes on that post. The Father of a cancer suffering child asked for some help. Loads of people liked that post instead of sharing. Another post was of a teen girl missing and there was a picture of her crying father. The post could have got many likes, however there was a note below the picture, “Don’t be a stupid to like this post, kindly share.” What is the mindset with which people browse through their FB Newsfeed? What makes them click "like" for any post as sensitive as someone’s mother's demise? It is just that in today's hectic pace of life, when people browse through, their newsfeed, they click "like” carelessly without looking what the post is truly about. They just want to prove that they are social and they are not missing anything from their friends' updates.

In another incident while I was abroad, Sarah commented to a post of one her friends who happened to be few years older than her. She just said her opinion about something which was contradictory to the author's view. The author turned violent and used very harsh language for Sarah in his reply comment. He also blocked her .Why someone so immature and impatient who can’t digest a different opinion starts sharing his /her views in a social platform and invites people to discuss about it?

 

Teens and adults text while driving, because for them the possibility of a social connection is much more important than their own lives (and the lives of others). You might have seen people browsing FB every ten minutes to see how many likes they have got on their posts as if there is nothing more important in their life other than FB “likes”. Many stories are floating on internet about couples split up on FB. It so happened in a story, the boy changed his "Relationship Status” to “single” from “committed” and the girl committed suicide. I ‘m sure there is nothing more stupid than suicide, I just hope the girl would have at least discussed face to face with her boyfriend before taking such a drastic step. Now it's a trend, you want a separation from your partner; just change your 'Relationship status' in FB. You do not have to do anything else. What kind of social era are we in? Is Facebook helping us build a social network to enhance the quality of our life or it’s on its way to destroy us? What I gather, a person’s tendency to suicide is  more because of being dumped on FB as she/he thinks now the entire world knows someone dumped her/him. If couples’ love  and separation become private affairs rather than  Facebook affairs, it may save a few lives.

These days people consider their  FB activities as their "Good Karma" (Good deed). This incident highlights the judgement day scenario of a person after his death. The God refreshed his diary and asked, “I can see that you didn't do anything good on Earth”. The person said, "Almighty, I did ample good work there. For example, I shared loads of useful information on FB among my five thousand friends such as 'donate blood to a sick baby', 'missing child information', 'free cancer medication information' etc. He had such a long list of FB activities that the God was amused to listen how he remembered in detail each information He shared on FB. “Also I liked numerous posts from different people" the person added. This really surprised God. The God questioned, "So what? You liked posts because you found them interesting or useful for you, what is the good Karma here?"."Ninety nine percent of those posts were rubbish". He replied,."I liked them just to ensure the people who posted those feel good about themselves. Please consider those as my charity work". Now it was time for God to reconsider his points. I do not know  what happened to our guy, whether He was sent to heaven or not based on his FB deeds, but I am sure, as I am writing this blog, the God may be thinking seriously  to make a rule on how to consider people's FB actions going forward.

 

Finally, to top it all, now Doctors have a say on our social media usage. They seem to have come to a conclusion that if a person frequents social media apps every thirty mins or less to browse or update status or post pictures, they suffer from a social anxiety called "FOMO(Fear of Missing Out)". FOMO refers to the blend of anxiety, inadequacy and irritation that can flare up while skimming social media like Facebook, Twitter etc. This may lead to stress and lack of concentration in long run.

While all the above incidents make one side of the story, social media really helps people who are alone or far away from their family to connect to their world, stay in touch and it is a stress buster for them in many ways. As with everything else, how we use Social media decides its impact on our lives. Needless to say, overdose of anything can kill.

Disclaimer: As I am in a mood of story-telling today, let me tell you this amalgamation of what I gathered from people around me and fiction. If any of the incident(s) resembles your experience, it is just a matter of coincidence.