Again, while I should be studying, I find myself typing a post. It’s been a while, not for lack of anything to type, but just for lack of anything to type that the public can view.
Social networks, hey? The irony lies in the fact that you probably found this link on some social network or other.
In short, I’m over social networking. In a clichéd way of putting it, it is neither social, nor networking. It bores me. It irritates me. It confines me. It, ashamedly, defines me.
I remember some years ago, I had a friend who took himself off all social networking platforms. At 15 I couldn’t understand why. Now I do.
I no longer count a chat on Facebook or BBM or Whatsapp as a proper conversation as much as I count it as banter. And I am BORED of banter. I’ve mentioned before that I’m yearning for a decent, proper conversation with someone, and how terrifying is it, that months later I still haven’t achieved that. I haven’t been able to sit down with someone and just speak freely, comfortably and openly about anything and everything.
This may be a comment on the type of person I am. I suppose I could sit down and analyze myself, or those of you that know me well enough could do it too. However, for now, that’s not my point.
It terrifies me that everything that I do (as I’m sure many of you guys do too) revolves around my cellphone, or even just merely has my cellphone in the periphery. I ALWAYS have my cell on me. That blinking red light holds preference over all other activities. And I can’t deny that it has held preference over real conversations, lectures, studies, music, and just experiencing NOW. Even as I’m typing this, I see the little light flashing. I stop. I look. I realise that it’s not actually there.
If we were ever worried that robots would take over the world, it is now. It is happening. And we don’t even realise it.
Where I am, what I’m doing, who I reply to and what I’m saying can be tracked by not only me or the person I’m speaking to, but also to people it doesn’t concern. The lack of privacy is astonishing.
I know far too many people who count online conversations as more important than face-to-face conversations. I can’t do that anymore.
Too often, I find, friendships have fizzled because the value and quality of an online relationship is not the same as a real, substantial face-to-face relationship.
I am a hypocrite though. I can bitch and moan for hours, but as I save this, I’ll go back to my cellphone, waiting for the next email, tweet, BBM, Whatsapp message or SMS. My phone will be at my fingertips, not in case someone needs to get hold of me, but so that I can continue to devalue my experience of now.
Though, I will vow to stop looking for meaningful ‘online’ relationships. I vow to keep looking for that real conversation offline and to cut down on my dependence on my cellphone.
Lastly, don’t get me wrong. I solidly appreciate the friends and conversations that I do have on these social networks. It helps to keep us in contact when life gets a little crazy. All I’m vowing to do is not let an online relationship with someone take preference over the offline and real relationship that I could be having with them.
So, please, do not judge me on my social networking. That is not who I am. I will no longer try to project all of myself into an online persona. If you want to have a real conversation with me; if you want to find the real me… come and chat.
this is brilliant. I am gonna share it. :)
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