Hi everyone,
My name is Naina, and I am a Facebook addict.
Sounds like a legit statement today. I have made one unsuccessful attempt to go offline, I think I succeeded 4 days before I was back. Pavan shared an interesting TED video with me today. It made me realise I need to write about this and speak up about my spiralling condition before it gets worse. I have a hundred things running through my head right now that I want to talk about, I shall try to keep this post as structured as possible.
Let's go back a decade. Facebook was the new thing in town. Nim introduced me to it, I coaxed a bunch of people onto it, Indian population on Facebook hit critical mass, and wham! Suddenly everyone was using it. Remember how cigarette smoking was cool back in the day, before scientists discovered its harmful effects? I am not hinting at anything here, but it just felt like an interesting thing to highlight. My own dad went from, "Beta, don't put up your pictures online" to "I have a political opinion and I shall share it with the world" in a seemingly short span of time. He has also begun sharing pictures of us on his profile. I am fairly certain he is not the only dad in the world to have undergone that transformation. My sister, the very person who introduced me to the monster, decided to quit the habit before it got to her. I think that's one of the few sensible things she has ever done in her life. (Even if she was doing a course in Corporate Communications which involved pieces of Digital communication at the time). I, meanwhile, went from an overly-excited-teenager-who-liked-to-share-all-pictures-she-ever-clicked (while avoiding emotional online outbursts), to randomly updating status, to seldom changing profile picture, to silently stalking PoI, to obsessing over my newsfeed while changing my profile picture once a month routine. Facebook was also evolving. It was taking in all of my habits, feeding it into a database, learning from it, and spewing out more stuff that would keep me coming back. I hate it. I wake up at 6.59 AM every morning like clockwork. I try to rest my brain to go back to sleep. I pick up my phone telling myself it's just to check the time. Before I know it, it is already 8AM and I am watching random videos on Facebook. Videos which now have ads. On my way to work, I promise myself I will make the traffic jams productive. I end up draining 50% of my battery watching random crap on Facebook. A year back, I would idle away time spent in a car looking out the window, taking in the buildings and eateries all along the road. Today, I hardly notice where I am headed. I have to force myself to look up, out the window. Whenever I have a few minutes to myself, I am instantly bored. I pick up the stupid "smart" device, and I innocently click on the Facebook button. I have stopped arguing with Karthik when he tells me I am addicted to my phone. I agree with him. I am an addict. In fact, I spend so much time on Facebook, that each time I open the app, only the first 5-6 stories in my feed are new to me, the rest I have already browsed a few minutes earlier.
I don't think being online helps you stay connected. My attention waivers each time I am out with people, my legs are shaking and my fingers fumbling around looking for my smart phone that is just yelling to be unlocked. I am not with the people, I am without them. 8 out of 10 items on my newsfeed are not even about people. It is sponsored content, recommended content or content from some group that I follow. I know exactly which people on my friends list hate Modi and which ones love him. I have stopped reading articles or comments shared by them sub consciously because I realise they are going to be biased. I hate taking sides in political matters. I don't have an opinion any more. I am convinced we are headed towards an Orwellian world, where Facebook, Google and Apple will be the Big Brothers. We have, to some extent already lost the freedom of choice, and will continue losing control over the next few years. Before that eventuality, let's live a little more.
Giving "offline" another shot.
Tell your friends what's on your minds, no more!
Naina
My name is Naina, and I am a Facebook addict.
Sounds like a legit statement today. I have made one unsuccessful attempt to go offline, I think I succeeded 4 days before I was back. Pavan shared an interesting TED video with me today. It made me realise I need to write about this and speak up about my spiralling condition before it gets worse. I have a hundred things running through my head right now that I want to talk about, I shall try to keep this post as structured as possible.
Let's go back a decade. Facebook was the new thing in town. Nim introduced me to it, I coaxed a bunch of people onto it, Indian population on Facebook hit critical mass, and wham! Suddenly everyone was using it. Remember how cigarette smoking was cool back in the day, before scientists discovered its harmful effects? I am not hinting at anything here, but it just felt like an interesting thing to highlight. My own dad went from, "Beta, don't put up your pictures online" to "I have a political opinion and I shall share it with the world" in a seemingly short span of time. He has also begun sharing pictures of us on his profile. I am fairly certain he is not the only dad in the world to have undergone that transformation. My sister, the very person who introduced me to the monster, decided to quit the habit before it got to her. I think that's one of the few sensible things she has ever done in her life. (Even if she was doing a course in Corporate Communications which involved pieces of Digital communication at the time). I, meanwhile, went from an overly-excited-teenager-who-liked-to-share-all-pictures-she-ever-clicked (while avoiding emotional online outbursts), to randomly updating status, to seldom changing profile picture, to silently stalking PoI, to obsessing over my newsfeed while changing my profile picture once a month routine. Facebook was also evolving. It was taking in all of my habits, feeding it into a database, learning from it, and spewing out more stuff that would keep me coming back. I hate it. I wake up at 6.59 AM every morning like clockwork. I try to rest my brain to go back to sleep. I pick up my phone telling myself it's just to check the time. Before I know it, it is already 8AM and I am watching random videos on Facebook. Videos which now have ads. On my way to work, I promise myself I will make the traffic jams productive. I end up draining 50% of my battery watching random crap on Facebook. A year back, I would idle away time spent in a car looking out the window, taking in the buildings and eateries all along the road. Today, I hardly notice where I am headed. I have to force myself to look up, out the window. Whenever I have a few minutes to myself, I am instantly bored. I pick up the stupid "smart" device, and I innocently click on the Facebook button. I have stopped arguing with Karthik when he tells me I am addicted to my phone. I agree with him. I am an addict. In fact, I spend so much time on Facebook, that each time I open the app, only the first 5-6 stories in my feed are new to me, the rest I have already browsed a few minutes earlier.
I don't think being online helps you stay connected. My attention waivers each time I am out with people, my legs are shaking and my fingers fumbling around looking for my smart phone that is just yelling to be unlocked. I am not with the people, I am without them. 8 out of 10 items on my newsfeed are not even about people. It is sponsored content, recommended content or content from some group that I follow. I know exactly which people on my friends list hate Modi and which ones love him. I have stopped reading articles or comments shared by them sub consciously because I realise they are going to be biased. I hate taking sides in political matters. I don't have an opinion any more. I am convinced we are headed towards an Orwellian world, where Facebook, Google and Apple will be the Big Brothers. We have, to some extent already lost the freedom of choice, and will continue losing control over the next few years. Before that eventuality, let's live a little more.
Giving "offline" another shot.
Tell your friends what's on your minds, no more!
Naina