If you are like most people, you already use at least one social media platform and at some point you might have thought to quit using it. Here’s my story.
Initially it was fun to be on Facebook; it was fun to stay connected with friends, classmates, schoolmates and cousins. I loved receiving ‘likes’ even from people I didn’t actually like. I enjoyed updating my status. I liked chatting with my friends. I liked browsing across the never ending photos of cakes, puppies, funny-cats and memes. Log-in, “like”, go to school and come back only to log-in again, look at notifications, chat for hours , log-out and that is all what Facebook was about.
But, being a dedicated student, determined to score the best in the final exams and live-up to everybody’s expectations, in January 2015 I took the resolution of quitting Facebook (a year and three months before my board exams). I thought that it lacked meaning, that it was making me unproductive and was “corrupting my soul.” I figured out that if I deactivated my account nor would I feel the urge to check notifications neither would I want to post my status updates.(Note that I did not have any other social media accounts-no instagram, no twitter..etc)
Well it took a few days for me to finally quit after reactivating and deactivating my account THRICE.
And then I thought I would make a comeback soon, quite possibly in my summer vacations. But that did not happen. I started enjoying… my friends calling me and trying to get in touch with me in all the other possible ways if they wanted to wish me, invite me or needed my help. But I started feeling bad when their endeavours declined to the point that I did not even get a single call from my classmates on our result day. As for my birthday last year, after I joined LPU and changed my contact number a classmate of mine called my mom to get in touch with me but I was furious enough to not call back. Well how could I forgive her so easily after she chose not to call me for a year? (I think I was just being childish)
Now that more than 2 years have passed, I decided to reactivate my account and see what all I missed on and what my friends were up to. I reactivated and updated my status –“Woke up from my hibernation. Turns out it’s 2017! Hey guys!!! Remember me? Saw your updates…Congratulations and best wishes to everyone whose special days I missed.” And it got flooded with comments. About how much they missed me, how much they tried to contact me, how they all wondered where I was and why I was not contacting them, there were questions- about my health, family, whereabouts and so much more. But had my absence really mattered? What did I learn from all this?
To be continued….
