Social Media

Long back I decided not to use social media. It's been almost 8-9 years, and I have not yet looked back to any of them. I don't remember the credentials for any social media websites, nor do I want to be.

Yes, I do have a LinkedIn account, but that too hibernated.

I think my first social media experience was either Google+ or Orkut, I can't recall exactly. People told me it's all about being socially connected with people who are physically distant from me, people who I never met before.

It was a surreal experience to see what people been doing in their personal life, without being physically present in the scene.

I was still in university then and started following a few good local writers. First time I discovered on social media about political awareness of few of my friends.

Subscribing to celebrities was another level of fun. I remember, I subscribed Irfan Khan's Twitter page and received a direct message in my inbox, perhaps it was an automated reply, but that really made my day.

Soon this joy started fading away, perhaps, when Internet became cheap and a common household thing. Soon this magic turned into a platform for discourse, a platform to be viral, a platform where curiosity died and suspicion was born.

A platform where I did not want to be anymore, because now it's binary, where half of the people have better life than me, and other half struggling to survive. No one resembled with me neither in thoughts nor in their lifestyle.

A platform where every word became an agenda, authenticity died and religion became a primary subject for discussion. A platform where you learn hatred before harmony.

A platform where we no longer need to engage our inner brain, because all complex subjects are now explained with simplicity; the professors, experts, scientists, researches, scholars are either politically influenced or biased according to social media warriors. Now, we morons are the judge for justice on social media.

A platform that decides when to celebrate festivals.

A platform which took away hundreds of life because their algorithm could not make their content viral. A platform where privacy of a newborn became public before she can understand it.

A platform which subtly shifted the way we experience the world.

Maybe those who are active on social media are more 'social' than I am. But I am happy in my own small world.

Perhaps, I don't know where all my old friend keeping up to these days, but I've made new friends; the kind who meet me in person, not just online!

I am not going back to any of the social media websites and I don't see any need to be!

I hope this continues with my daughter too!