The best way to communicate to someone you value and care for is to talk to them. It’s not through digitization for sure. Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. are the social media tools meant primarily for connecting people who are not of same notch, either at geographical or intellectual levels. I become connected to someone whom I hardly know or hardly speak to. If that is meant to be modern day social circle, I am clearly out of the game. My social circle means the persons whom I will help, respond to and most importantly, talk to.
Take the case of Facebook for example. Eventually it will turn into a world full of marketplaces, though all not being sponsored by Facebook itself. Almost everybody will be advertising about him/herself, their achievements or about things that bring some financial and/or power or status gains to them. Those who have nothing to exhibit to their credit will shout about any random thing in any random time-space. I am not saying it is a bad thing. In fact it is very good for marketers. They will get billions of customers, who get swayed by subtle marketing pushes, and correspondingly multiplied revenue. But on a personal level, it brings in a level of discomfort to me. I even don’t like personally advertising my NgoSphere page anymore (probably because I am no more a street newspaper hawker) and have stopped doing it long ago.
Not that I am going to send all my social media accounts to recycle bin tomorrow itself. But if I stop reacting to social media, what do I lose and what do I gain? Loss: maybe a few hundred attentions which I do not want to seek. Gain: a lot. How?
Since the last month when I came to Mumbai, managing everything by myself has often left very little time or flexibility for me to indulge extensively in social media. This is unlike my earlier couple of years when I lived often jobless at home. But during this time span only, I met some of the best people in the industry and gained invaluable inputs. I made some ‘real’ good friends and build ‘real’ good repo. I ‘git’ involved in creative stuff to compensate for the losses made at college. I also had much good news to tell my mom and dad. And to add a smile afterwards, unlike earlier times. I did all these without social media. I lived a ‘real’ life; during these two most valuable months of my life.
This might be overstatement from me at this stage, but, social media is nothing better than a channel to kill your precious time and efforts, irrespective of whether used for personal or marketing needs. If you don’t agree with me right now, let time tell you eventually.