I am off Facebook ! : Blog # 211

I am off facebook !

A while back, one of my friends put up a post on Facebook saying he is leaving fb. Another friend of mine commented on that post saying “A huge loss for facebook!” In my mind, that comment was the best reply that post could have got. Many a time, we tend to misread our own importance in the scheme of existence of the whole Universe.

Before you jump at me saying it is a personal choice, I agree with you on this aspect. It is indeed personal discretion. But the only person who has anything to lose is him/her. Whenever a new technology sweeps mankind, there is a group which step aside from that wave. They attach an almost evil dimension to it. Would you believe me if I said there were people who said they were against computers? It worked for them for a small time. In today’s world, if one doesn’t know to operate a computer, it is as good as saying that person has stopped living or is frozen in time. Add to that, life could become immensely easy for them if they had kept an open mind.

Social media exists to connect people and to share information. Of course, it has its frivolous sides where we use it to boost our self esteem albeit momentarily and to sustain relationships even if it’s through exchange of fake pleasantries. But many a time, we do that even in a social gathering too. Does that mean we stop meeting people or that is all we do in a social gathering? At times, to get along in a society, one has to hold back a few words and utter a few generous words even if one doesn’t subscribe to a fellow being’s school of thought completely.

Now there is this angle of addiction to this debate. Whatever we start doing in Life, it goes through phases. Initially, there is a lot of enthusiasm about it. Then comes a stage where the enthusiasm slows down gradually and then it plateaus. Social media is also no different. We learn to deal with these phases at various points in life. One should learn to rein in ones addictions and exercise control over ones urges. Stepping out completely from something for fear of addiction only hinders this learning. It is like saying “I am not taking an electricity connection for fear of getting a shock!”

There is a concept called ‘Network Externality’ in the study of business. An application of this concept is that a good or service gets used by almost everyone that it becomes extremely popular and furthers its own demand. So what happens is when you choose to not use that good or service, you kind of get left out. In our case, social media essentially facilitates communication. So it becomes difficult for people around you to know about you and stay in touch with you if you choose to not use this service. And if you really think those who care about you will make an effort to reach out to you inspite of your absence in one of the popular channels of communication of the day, it is like waiting for a telegram. And by the way, telegrams are dead J.

Keywords : facebook,socialmedia,deactivatefacebook,quit facebook,quit twitter,twitter,leave facebook, delete facebook,leave socialmedia

Tweet