Too much of anything becomes too weird. So what if it is happiness. People’s portrayal of being ‘happy’ has gone overboard on FaceBook or so I feel. This feeling of mine has been more pronounced in the past 3-4 months. Has the world become such a happy place to live in all of a sudden? Are people competing against each other to express their happiness? Are people on FB proving they are higher on the HQ (Happiness Quotient) scale? I almost feel this trend becoming an obsessiveness of a particular kind.
There are many types of disorders these people on FB are affected with. There is this community called ‘Check-outers’ who want us to know where all they check-in. They add pictures of every meal they eat, who are they with and where they are while at it. Food is something important for your survival, c’mon you don’t have to share it 7 times a day! A photo of cereal and milk in a beautiful porcelain bowl and writing something as funny as ‘For a hungry heart’ conveys more than necessary. We know for sure that you are definitely NOT telling us just the fact that you were hungry. You want us to see your new crockery or the NEW kitchen slab on which you have placed your bowl.
There is another community called ‘New Parents’ who think that their children are the “cutest” or that they are the Adam & Eve of the 21st century. I know that you are excited; I also know that you stay in a far away country where people don’t talk much to each other and this is your medium to express how you feel about beings and things. But think of us – Are we interested to know when did your child wake up? Whether you slept for just 3 hours or 4 hours? Whether or not he/she is growing cuter by the day? How are you enjoying motherhood / fatherhood with every passing minute?
And then there is this community called ‘Unsettlers’ who don’t know their next goal in life and who unsettle others who do. Let me make one for you if you will allow me but don’t spam my FB wall with your opinions / suggestions / questions / agendas from politics. You were born brilliant, finished your engineering at the age (may I call it tender) of 21, found a job at one of the well-known companies of the world while the world was still thinking what to do with their lives and now are married with the first child(ren) due. Now that doesn’t mean you have to talk about every speech our PM delivers. If that is what you were good at, you should have taken up creative writing or should have studied Journalism. Even if you’ve realized (late) this is your true calling, there are far better venues than FB to act as outlets for your editorial skills.
Lastly, there is this huge community called ‘Digitally Smart Living Roamers’ of new DSLR owners who are trying to prove that travelling is the new fad of the town and by town I mean the world here. From pictures of your fourth visit to your small hometown to the first and the last visit to Antarctica, almost everything is up there. I know you like counting how many times you have been to a particular place but your photos betray you by looking the same as those you took in your last visit(s). The problem becomes worse when ‘DSLRs’ meet ‘New Parents’ and then I get to see your “cutest son on the planet”'s 3rd visit to his hometown. Let’s think about it, half of your friends on FB have interacted with you ≤3 times till date. Do you really think ‘they’ need to know all this?
Recently FB showed me some updates from a ‘distant’ friend who was going to a Business trip to London. Happy news. Glad he shared it with us. But I don’t think what he “actually did” made any sense. Here are how those updates looked to me:
Off to London. First international trip.
My first visit to London. Feeling toooooooooooo excited.
Thank you Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Uncle, @Cloudy, @Shady, @T, @D, @H, blah blah. Dream come true. [18 old pictures attached, 4 of them are collages with don’t know how many pictures each. I have a brain with poor BS processing power.]
My first business class flight. 600-seater. One stop in France, the fashion capital. Hooooooray!!!
The lounge in France provided by ABX is simply awesome. I had an amazing English meal, followed by wine. Met this pretty lady at the bar. She was excited to see me. A photo of mine with the beautiful lady. Wish I can see her again. [4 pictures attached. Believe me, the lady looked more shocked than happy.]
Watching the following movies on the video screen inside my business class seat no. ××π (flight no. ΩΓ-×××). The aircraft is 40,000 Km away from the ground. These business class seats are Wi-Fi enabled. The air-hostesses really seem to be taking care of me. But “one of them” seems to be more happy than the others. It’s an amazing feeling. [4 Pictures of the ground, 3 pictures of the airhostesses including the special someone and a selfie to add a cherry to the otherwise amazing blandness.]
Yipeeee!! Reached the wonderful city of London. The real journey starts now. God – Keep me blessed.
On my way to JW Marriot. It’s a */* star Hotel with the following amenities … [It was a 4 liner. TLDR] I will be staying here for the whole month.
Reached the hotel. [20 pictures attached.]
View from my room [24 pictures attached.]
A perfect dinner on a perfect Business trip [4 pictures attached. 5th picture is of the empty plates.]
Good morning Friends. Feels like I’m breathing in pure air. We breathe such polluted air in India. [What the hell?]
First day to Office [2 pictures attached – one trying to wear a tie, another after wearing the tie.]
On my way to office in Lamborghini ZZZ. In India, we just spend our time but out here, we live our time.
That was it, it was time for me to stop checking any more of his messages. I feel sort of ridiculous now to have read all those messages and spent time scanning all his photo albums. This shows that beyond the last one, there is yet another community called ‘Passivists’ like me who actively follow FB posts and passively opine on the blogs.
Jokes apart, I am happy to see people sharing their opinions, articles, music, reviews, etc. with the world. But I also feel that FB is definitely not a place to record the log of our life in full public view. Just my two cents on FB. And don’t get me started about
