By Marien Oommen
It is the best of times; it is the worst of times. It has insidiously entered our home and taken over our lives. It used to be the teenagers’ prerogative, but its glamour disappeared when their moms got on board… keeping tab on their movements! The ‘clever’ ones have two accounts.
A safe FB for family, and a ‘cool’ one for their friends. Who wants their moms to patronize their wall anyway? Or an old, unfashionable aunt saying something outrageous?
We heard of the oldest woman on FB: the114-year-old woman had to lie to join Facebook .Due to its age limitations, a newly tech-savvy Minnesotan had to lie about her age to join the social network.
In another case a 70 year old mama told her husband, ‘O hon, did you post that hippo picture? Do it quick.” After ten minutes, her hubby happily announces there are ‘two likes’. They both sip coffee, munching on their doughnut in glee.
Rewriting a Steve Jobs Quote
On a FB wall, you come across the ‘crazy ones, misfits, rebels, and troublemakers’. Some who see things differently – who are not fond of rules. You can share their quotes, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but you can’t ignore them. Part of the human race surges forward with a brilliant quote – while one half sees them as the crazy ones, the other half sees genius. The highly motivated ones think that they can change the world; and sometimes they actually do.
Jump in the Fray; its Good for Your Mind
When you don’t have a mind boggling, debatable, insightful, ecstatic update-deserving thought in your mind, consider it bad. Thinking positive and powerful thoughts can keep Alzheimer’s and boredom away. It can start you giggling inwards, with a sense of joy and achievement. The mind benefits when on full alert. Watching television news these days does awful things to your brain.
You Can Update While Waiting for Oven to Beep
Visiting somebody else’s wall is like dropping in to someone’s home. Often times we are caught up within our own (home’s) walls: sprucing it, making it look intelligent, worldly wise, funny, holy, spiritual, linguistically superior, and as ethical as the moment seizes us. And after we ‘post’, we sit back and wait for our guests to enter and ‘like’ our decor and little appetizers.
There’s also the desire to keep up with the Joneses! Even coveting your neighbor’s good (updates) and wishing you had got there first. There’s a race to show one’s intelligence quotient, one’s travel diary, one’s charitable vein, one’s luscious curves…the list is endless. The truth is nobody wants to own a colourless home… or a blank Facebook page.
This is a good revolution. So write on my wall, please!
(Photo from: http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9717136.ece/binary/original/Facebook.jpg)
