Social media and the roses
“Did you accept my friend request?” – my new friend asked me in a text message, the day after talking to her for the first time in class. We were more interested in making sure ‘my friends in Orkut’ knew that we are talking than actually talking to each other. Then came the social media sensation in 2006 with the super-power to see everyone’s profile without being caught!.
I remember wasting hours and at times, days creating a profile with all glitters, smileys/icons, and now-nonsense stuff.
In my mind, I was just trying to show off that I’m the most knowledgeable, romantic, and eligible person with all jargons, flashy poetry, and life quotes. I was 21 then and social media gave me a platform to showcase my never-found maturity.
Multiple other social media networks were born in the later years. The tech gurus understood that the age of typing long sentences is long gone. Pictures and Videos are the latest trends. I’m involved in this trend as well, while not a fan of videos / short texts, I tend to post awesome pics (Yes, they are awesome, ask those who liked them expecting me to like their pics! 😉 ).
From being a good student in my initial college years to barely clearing a few exams in final semesters, my wall posts spoke only about the butterflies in my stomach, the joyful rides, and later soup songs (sad songs).
I moved out of my hometown and my posts spoke about missing my college friends, college days & my mom’s food, with the flavor of Hyderabadi Biriyani (Alexa – Add a reminder to write a post on ‘Biriyani love’) being the biggest positive. A post about a new bike but didn’t follow up with the bike being sold.
Someone told me that I’m good at photography, though it was the software of my dad’s Digi-Cam that was doing the trick, I started buying costly camera phones and then finally a mirrorless camera (Yes, not a DSLR – as somehow my heart asked me then – ‘Do you really think you can learn photography just because you have a DSLR?’).
I used one such pro-level camera to post about my new car, with a thoughtful nickname (Yes, like everyone, I took inspiration from various movies/novels). Many of my life achievements (I hope) and great victories in wars and battles made my wall, post, and feed.
Then came the various professional social networks. Again, I started spending days creating a profile of an employee that everyone would love to have in their organization or everyone would love to connect with.
I started posting about the various huge multi-national organizations that I joined and the miracles that I did for each customer. The titular roles I played, the famous locations I stayed, and the great certifications I completed.
As per my Orkut, Facebook, Google+, Yammer, MySpace, Insta, Snapchat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Twitter – My life is glittering like the stars and is a bed of roses.
Life, social media, and the missing thorns.
But all these posts, status messages, and articles missed many life-altering incidents and depressing decisions. Yes, there were some glaring misses in these posts. For example, My relative once asked about a missing post on the horrible accident I/my car met with, a few months after the new car post. I didn’t answer then. But 9 years later, I still remember this question.
My awesome decisions about joining great organizations didn’t follow up with the mistakes I did in picking up some incorrect roles. My vacations around the world didn’t follow up with the pandemic spoiling all travel plans and changing the course of my career. Birth and birthday posts didn’t follow up with death and sad posts. My successful certifications didn’t follow up with the failures I met in clearing a few. My great shares on the technical aspects of the product I work on didn’t follow up with the actual posts on my blog! (Yes, I was worried that my perspective on many things in this blog might not go well with my network!).
Yes, my social media feed showed only the roses and not the thorns.
A different perspective
So why this long post??
I have a college friend who is a gifted individual. What’s so great about him is, unlike me, he is doing wonders in his field of study, while I’m doing a job that is not related to my college degree. Yes, I envy him. But his perspective was different about me and his other friends.
I remember him, talking about how our lives are great and how he is facing difficulties in each and every aspect of his life. Based on the quotes and citings he made, I understood that his opinion about my great life is based on what he sees on social media. He forgets that ‘Social media is a filtered facade’. Sometimes, I forget too. Sometimes, like him, I too get bogged down seeing the various achievements that my friends post, thinking I’m just wasting my life and abilities.
The pandemic showed us what life was all about. It showed us that nothing goes by plan. It showed us that while we are enjoying here with the best that life can give us, there is another person who is facing the worst.
So should we start posting all our thorns? or should we stop showing our newly blossomed roses?.
Neither.
Technology is part of our lives now, and we have to adapt.
To all those people who forget that ‘Social media is a facade’ or getting bogged down by seeing the success of others, remember these –
- ‘போதும் என்ற மனமே பொன் செய்யும் மருந்து.’ – Contented mind is golden medicinal elixir.
- ‘இதுவும் கடந்து போகும்’ – This too shall pass
- Do the best you can, with what you can, while you can, and success is inevitable
Remember: Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light ~ Albus Dumbledore.
mgrb 