This article written by Srishti Aishwarya has been republished from A First Taste of Law archives as this seems to be still very relevant.
20s are interesting, full of surprises, realizations, revelations, experiments, love, lust, career, friendship, transition. Last time I covered the case of a revelation, now I have an experience to share. Read on.
Once upon a time there used to be something called Orkut, back in mid 2000, when I was sixteen, sorry sweet sixteen, I measured achievements in terms of number of scraps, having 200+ on a day was a deal, pretty big one. It was a place of all the hunky dory. In fact, I sort of stumbled upon my ex school mate over there who later on became my ex boyfriend as well.
Then came Facebook, and Orkut died a lonely death. Things started being measured in terms of Likes, lobbying for a dislike button, relationships were now being made here and also being unmade at a great frequency. Status meant the one on Facebook, blue was no longer the color of sky but that of Facebook. We clicked pictures not for anything but for a new DP. And now that we have smart phones, we find it smart to check in on Facebook, upload pictures instantly, and then spend time replying to the comments pouring in.
After paying my due homage to the Orkut, I shifted to Facebook, a shift that happened along with the shift to college from school. Now, my friends and I would sit down in our respective rooms and spam each others’ “wall”, and then all of us would tag the others and then sit down and comment, swearing to break the previous record of comment, like, let’s have 200 comments this time. It was funny and interesting.
Definitely all of us were addicts. I would open Facebook in auto pilot mode. Scrolling down randomly, oblivious of the time going down the drain. But yes, when exams/ projects/ work would come round the corner, I would pull my socks and start out on my stuff, suppressing the irresistible urge to check Facebook “just once”, with imaginary boulders. Sometime using Soft wares to block it on my laptop and then accessing it from my phone!
Eventually I was getting tired of being a cat and a rat in my story. And may be growing old as well, urge to chase my dreams, and first and foremost to get a job catching up. So, this time out of sheer seriousness I deactivated it. Planning to get back after a while. Given that I also had exams, so for the first fifteen days, I didn’t have the time to let the urge to get back on it brew inside. I went home after that where internet was not working. I successfully spent a month of not being on Facebook.
When I came back to college. I had a feeling that may be being in college would make me feel like being on it. But surprisingly, by some magic, I lost the urge to get back there.
Now when I meet people instead of asking them how was the movie they watched, I ask them if they have watched any new movie and how it was. I gauge people’s mood by seeing their faces, action and reaction and not their Facebook status. I don’t automatically get onto Facebook, the moment I get bored but open a book in PDF version.
To be precise, these are the differences. But mostly, I don’t just appreciate but practice all the nice quotes/ posts etc. etc. shared on Facebook. I don’t check out images of nice rain and read people talking about pearl like droplets falling on leaf. I get my ass on there. I prefer to stretch my hands and feel the rain rather than use them to furiously type on the keyboard and tell the world how I feel about rain.
These aside, I save a lot of time. That I positively spend with myself and people, not virtually present but physically present. And that is a nice life. This is a nice life. When little is left unknown, and the boon of omniscience is left in the oblivion.
