I surprise even myself, that's how Facebook active I've been the last 6 months or so. For someone who speaks sparingly (you'd think good listener at least but no, generally distracted describes me best), the words come freely (IF and) when I sit to write.
I suspect others answer to that description too, where our online persona is more the life of the party than our real ones. Most of us don't lead lives as constantly exciting as our Facebook/ Twitter activity would have you believe. But that's precisely why its become so irresistible, and why social media is here to stay.
That most middle aged men (and women) lead lives of quiet desperation may be too morbid to suggest. But clearly: we're never on a year long vacation, don't produce impossibly cute babies every 9 months, we're not bumping into famous people every weekend, not acquiring a diamond trinket every month.
But the beauty of social media is that's exactly what it would have you believe we're doing all the time. Because its not just instant but prolonged gratification: a newly added FB friend gushes on the timeline pic of your wedding from a year back and its like a virtual reception all over again (if you're an Indian, your wedding guests likely outnumbered your FB friends, but I digress).
You can showcase your Facebook year in review and you may well be the most popular person that never lived. Time has stood still and you're still the most promising geek from b-school, the most outgoing girl in your college, never mind what the rest of your life suggests.
One can even be memorialized on Facebook or if an "ironic legacy" is more your style, there are social media services such as LivesOn that maintain your "personal digital afterlife" ("even after your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting").
To close (but not in conclusion), my personal homage to social media here.
I suspect others answer to that description too, where our online persona is more the life of the party than our real ones. Most of us don't lead lives as constantly exciting as our Facebook/ Twitter activity would have you believe. But that's precisely why its become so irresistible, and why social media is here to stay.
That most middle aged men (and women) lead lives of quiet desperation may be too morbid to suggest. But clearly: we're never on a year long vacation, don't produce impossibly cute babies every 9 months, we're not bumping into famous people every weekend, not acquiring a diamond trinket every month.
But the beauty of social media is that's exactly what it would have you believe we're doing all the time. Because its not just instant but prolonged gratification: a newly added FB friend gushes on the timeline pic of your wedding from a year back and its like a virtual reception all over again (if you're an Indian, your wedding guests likely outnumbered your FB friends, but I digress).
You can showcase your Facebook year in review and you may well be the most popular person that never lived. Time has stood still and you're still the most promising geek from b-school, the most outgoing girl in your college, never mind what the rest of your life suggests.
One can even be memorialized on Facebook or if an "ironic legacy" is more your style, there are social media services such as LivesOn that maintain your "personal digital afterlife" ("even after your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting").
To close (but not in conclusion), my personal homage to social media here.
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