So it has come to this! (yes, that's a popular line that I didn't invent. Go figure out the reference)
I have been noticing a disturbing habit that I have developed ever since Facebook became a thing. I wake up and the first thing I do is tap the 'f' icon in my phone or start typing 'f' in the browser. It's very comforting, perhaps very refreshing even to scroll through all the things I missed while I was sleeping. There are wonderful heart warming videos, extreme videos, interesting shares, personal anecdotes, war of words about politics, tons and tons of pictures, HONY and also the entire world's comments to everything you can imagine. It feels a very newspaper-like thing to do first thing in the morning - catch up with the world. It's even better! It's dynamic, has a new update every second and that too from your very own "friends"! Very fascinating but very time consuming as well. Before I realize, I've already devoted 2 hours of my precious morning to this comforting blue and white interface (the color was actually designed to soothe). And then, it is also very addictive to quickly browse through the FB newsfeed between tasks or when you don't feel like working.
So here I am trying to think about the next paragraph that I should write to complete my dissertation proposal argument but I get this sudden urge to "utilize" this gap to check on the FB updates. Poof! I lost my train of thought and I'm not sure when or whether I'll catch the next one. Oh well! Now that I have lost my thought, might as well "utilize" the time by scrolling through some of my friends' profiles and see what they have been up to. After 5 min of scrolling, I feel very content. Somehow knowing what time they woke up, brushed their teeth, went to gym, had breakfast, what they had for breakfast, how they look (selfies) when they left for work, what they thought about the guy next to them in the train/bus, where they went for lunch, with whom, what they think about the game last night, their lack of desire to work (and spend time on FB instead... exactly), what their kids/spouse is saying and even that they have an upset stomach or are doing some sort of countdown to some mysterious event in their life (that they don't want to share but still want people to know that something important/terrible is going to happen), is very reassuring. I feel connected to the "world." Never mind that I just ignored what my friend sitting next to me said. I would have "liked" what he said if he said that on FB. Why waste my precious FB time that I want to spend virtually shadowing all the people in my friend list?
Perhaps the biggest reason for my addiction to this endless stream of updates is my desire to know something new. My wife reminded me of this just now and I think it's pretty accurate. As human beings (this is the only philosophical line, promise!) we all have an innate tendency to be attracted towards learning new things. Had that not been the case, we would be still living on trees (perhaps there is a TailBook for our monkey friends?). The point is that FB newsfeed very nicely caters to that innate need. There's a new update every second so how can we look somewhere else! The other reason is that I feel very connected with my friends. To a large extent, FB really has helped me get in touch with friends from my childhood days. It feels good to catch up with them once in a while and stay connected. But beyond that, I don't think I want to "live" with them. The FB newsfeed essentially makes me feel that I am living with all my friends in one giant house! That's the level of connection that I can do without. It's not even meaningful after sometime. There's also the gratification that you get by seeing how many people approve of what you are saying a.k.a Likes. That symbol is perhaps Facebook's biggest contribution in this century. But do I really care about that kind of approval? It's like paying importance to what your neighbor thinks about your new socks.
So why this long rant about my FB habit? First, it needs to stop, hence the face-off. Second, I think I have found an alternative for myself. Yes! From now on I'll feed my curiosity to learn new things by actually reading about innovative things and cool projects. Feedly (or any other RSS feed reader) effectively pulls together all the cool things happening around me. So I'm replacing my FB newsfeed with more relevant feeds (you know, still trying to keep that newspaper-like feeling). I also want to start reading books again (it's been so long!). Actually ReadBook, not FaceBook.
This public rant also means that I want you, my friend, to help me break my habit. Maybe, next time if you see frequent updates from me, send me a reminder? :) Yup. I'll use Facebook to help me get rid of Facebook. How cool is that?
