The Public Diary

Social media, especially facebook, has been good for us in so many ways. We've got back in touch with old, lost friends. We get a daily peek into the lives of dear ones who live far away. We now have the power to broadcast and share ideas, have interesting conversations with people across the world at the same time, share funny jokes, book reviews, movie reviews, and so much more.

In many ways, facebook has been a catalyst of change for the politically inert Indian middle class. Maybe the day is not far when elections will happen on FB- we’ll just have to put a like on the candidate’s FB profile J

But with great power, comes great narcissism. And that is the worrying part.

We are all now radio jockeys of our own channel of life- being glib and interesting is no longer a criterion to qualify. We have the mike to ourselves, and a more or less captive audience. So, most of us make the most of it. We talk talk and talk, and post a status update for every sneeze, fart, and fleeting thought that comes in our fast swelling heads.

Some status updates that have made me boil over in the past:

‘Had a spat with my in laws. Please advise what to do.’  

 ‘Bad cold  L’.   

‘I am down and out, but will be back!’

‘The lounge at Hong Kong airport rocks!’  

‘Life sucks!’

'A healthy breakfast!' (accompanied by an ugly pic of a half eaten bowl of cornflakes)

These updates remind me of page 3 headlines like ‘Ameesha gets a pup.’ And they signify the same symptom that the Ameesha Patels of the world suffer from- a huge attention deficit disorder!

This trend is irritating, but above all, saddening. Because to me, it heralds the end of an age in which our private lives were our own, and we protected them like hidden treasure. Today we are happily violating our own privacy, sacrificing our dignity at the altar of mass attention. That secret diary that most of us used to maintain is long forgotten. It has been replaced by a hugely public diary called social media, where we vomit out our innermost thoughts for all to see and ‘like’.  

And with that also go concepts called quiet rumination, solitude, and deep thought. Because we are never alone. We are a 24x7 part of this heaving mass of online people, who (in our minds) just have to know about everything we do. Because our most beautiful thoughts are not our own anymore. They are fodder for attracting more likes and comments on facebook.

It seems to me, alarmingly, that soon words like silence, secrecy, privacy, solitude, even dignity, will be irrelevant to us- just words to look up on Wikipedia.

Is there a way of controlling this collapse, at least slowing it down? I despair.

Maybe with the ‘like’ and ‘unlike’ button, there should be others like:

‘Get a life!’

‘Get a shrink!’

‘Don’t post it, deal with it!’

‘Where’s my whip?’

‘Where’s your pride?’

And my irritating FB update for today?

‘Taking a break from work to write article. Wish me luck J’  (Please click on ‘Where’s my whip?’)