Faces Beyond Facebook

My mother called me excitedly, “Why don’t we all gather this Saturday? Vinaya (my elder sister) has come back from Mauritius and says the photographs are amazing – Lets see the photographs together – will be fun” “Yes, but we have already seen the pictures”, I almost regretted my response as soon as I uttered those words. I could almost sense her disappointment on the other side of the phone. “Siddharth (my nephew) had uploaded them on Facebook but yes watching it together will be lot of fun”, while I desperately tried to salvage the situation, I knew that I had already spoiled her party!

This small incident set me thinking.... Personally I am a great fan of facebook... I have been able to reconnect with so many people whom I thought I have lost forever. In the era when you spend most of your waking hours at office it almost saves you from getting alienated from the rest of the world..... Its just kind of nice to stay connected with your friends and know what they are upto... whenever you see anything interesting, funny you share it instantly with the world for it to appreciate......

I must admit – I am relatively new to all social media........ I am a sort of fellow who always craves for feedback, reinforcements so whenever I upload anything on facebook, I am almost eager to know the comments on it.... it always amused me how your basic nature does not change even in the virtual world!

There is a tremendous information that explodes right in your face electronically....be it your mails – official and personal, your orkut, facebook, linked-in, Twitter and what not.... it is not very uncommon to have multiple windows open on anyone’s desktop. There is an interesting study published by Stanford University (I hope I remember it right) on multitasking – it says that the information explosion today also causes lot of distraction. Multitasking is not the best way to respond as your brain almost works in a fragmented manner. It also remains that way even if you are not multitasking – basically it narrows down your span of concentration. Your mail and your electronic communication is a stimulus which is always easy to react and you are almost looking forward to your next one to guide your life.

I think the process has not really started with Social media or internet.... Television channel surfing is the predecessor for most of us when it comes to surfing....

The beauty of it all is that though options are plenty, that most precious resource – time has remained constant...... it means the timeshare occupied by the new options will take toll on something else and couple of incidents come readily to my mind....

I was talking to one of the Ph.D. guides of Mumbai University who has been a Guide for years and quite contemporary in her outlook. I asked her how has the field of research changed due to availability of information at fingertips. “Its good that you don’t have to lose precious hours and days searching for the information. But somehow the cut-paste regime is really going out of hand.... rather than spending some quality time on thinking followed by looking for relevant references, today they almost feel handicapped without google. Reading habits and span of concentration definitely has taken a heavy toll”.....

I believe that best conversations always happen when you finish your meals and just continue on the table chatting. Once, all of us were sitting around the dining table on a Sunday post lunch.... we heard an alarm on my sister-in-law’s phone....she just got up saying “Its harvest time on my Farmville”.... I had a tough time explaining the elders on table that she is ok...this is normal....... only to have them worrying about my sanity at the end of 15 minutes!!............

All the social media is great .. in fact I dare say that this is even a necessity of today’s life.....provided................
you still catch up with old friends for a no-agenda talk.....
you still appreciate fresh air and farms in real life........
you still get lost in a book over a steaming cup of coffee......
you still lose the track of time playing with your toddler........
you still sneak out those 15 minutes to gossip with your mother.....
..... and..... never forget that there are faces beyond facebook for whom you mean the world!