Why I went off Facebook…

The 30-day blogging challenge… just to check if I can ever run out of words… Joining me is friend Sushmita at www.xgeekinthekitchenx.wordpress.com and little cousin Soumya at http://thelastraw.wordpress.com/

On the first day of 2013, I went off Facebook. What’s so earth-shaking about that, you may wonder. Nothing, really! But for me, the online junkie I am, it was something momentous. On the afternoon of January 1, I got disconnected (albeit temporarily) from a large number of people who were only connected to me on Facebook. That included family (more of them) and friends!

It was a snap decision that was not prompted by anything. Somewhere, the superficiality bugged me. Maybe, the ‘all’s well in my world’ vibes I got were ‘too in my face’! Everything was too good to be true! Or worse still, I was surprised to see a lot of my angst got transferred onto social media, however inane they might have been.

The disconnect was temporary – only for two weeks. I had to eventually get back, I moderated ‘pages’ for work and the younger lot in my family kept touch with me only on Facebook.

I enjoyed the break, however short it might have been. On New Year’s Day, I called up most of my friends in India and spoke to them. I sent SMSs instead of leaving messages on Facebook. I wrote long mails full of ‘real’ news! I even sent out a few cards. I read a lot and watched movies. And I smiled a little more… instead of some forced emoticons. It felt good.

How did people react? They probably didn’t realise that I was ‘off’ until a couple of days passed. And then the lack of updates probably hit them. A friend sent a concerned mail asking if everything was okay and if he had said anything to upset me in the last chat conversation we had. My nieces and nephews asked why and I said, “Chumma!” (just like that!)

My friend Madhubala sent me this little ditty:

Arrey kya hua Rekha Baala

Tumne yeh kya kar daala

Apne FB account ko hi maar daala????

Hui kya humse koi khata

Hum to na the kabhi bewafa

Maaf kardo, yun na do humein saza

(What happened Rekha, why did you kill your FB account? Did I do anything? I was always so true. Please forgive)

Cute! And so a lot of mails went back and forth. No FB likes, pokes or comments. The ‘connect’ happened with some time lag. So what? The bond was still there. I discovered that if people wanted to keep in touch with me, they would do so irrespective of Facebook. And the true ones did!

Now that I’m back, I believe I am no longer the ‘emotional’ commenter I once was. I am funny… and more importantly, I am amused, entertained and take things at ‘Face’Book value! For the real connect, there’s GTalk… WhatsApp, Skype and well, more can be talked about over coffee.

Care for a cuppa, anyone?