A brief rant against social media

Today, the outlets of self-expression are numerous. People are hungrily expressing themselves either on facebook, twitter, instagram, whatsapp and what not. Ranging from the banal to the motivational, philosophical to the ridiculous, there’s never a shortage of ways of knowing what others are thinking or doing.

Some might see all these increased avenues of self-expression as revolutionary, and indeed in some cases they are, but largely, they are a bloody waste of time. One can already sense a welcome fatigue setting in among users. Technology-czars, cannily understand this and in the name of innovation (which is frankly just fancy tweaking), inject novelty-shots to resuscitate their users out of the fatigue, who in turn are struggling to reverse their free-fall into wastefulness.      

I have a few friends who are completely unmoved, untouched by such frothy and fluffy aspects of technology. It’s not indifference that they show but a complete lack of interest. I envy them and admire their zen-like detachment.     

In the celebrated song Hotel California, there’s a line that goes, “you can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave.” This ‘never leave’ part in the song and the lead guitar that follows, sung and played in a manner that portends ill-omen and intrigue, is the essence of social media websites. You can deactivate your account many times, but you just can’t erase your past presence. Your past is indelible; a clean slate is unavailable.

As I write this Facebook has launched something that they warmly call, ‘HOME.’ Not content with hijacking and paralyzing your PC or laptop, Facebook now wants to confiscate and cripple your phone. This social media pugilist, punching your face out of every available screen, now wants you to live in a state of permanent soreness.

Writing about social media fatigue tires you out and I have just realised I don't want to continue with this post anymore. By the way, if you want to read more, you can read it here