Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Five years on Facebook

Five years ago yesterday I signed up on Facebook. It was 2007, and back then everyone, including your mother, your old crush, your classmate from 20 years ago, your neighbour’s cat, every person with a mobile phone was not on Facebook as they do today. Orkut was the place to be, at least here in India. (By the way whatever happened to that guy Orkut, that founder guy? We used to hear rumours that for every click, for every scrap, for every friend added he earned this much dollars. Was that true?)

Well, back to Facebook, it was a bit confusing at first. What is a Wall? And where is my profile? How do I navigate? So many questions. I wasn’t active for a very long time, around two years. I started adding friends and whatnot in 2009. Then I started playing games, mainly Farm Town, Mafia Wars, Poker and that-word-game. I played Farm Town so much so that every tree, every bush, every flower reminded me of my “plants”.

I am not going to tell you every little thing I did, because you are also on Facebook (who isn’t?) and know full well the things we do out there.

The question now is, can we live without Facebook? There are some groups like Quit Facebook Day whose slogan is “Sick of Facebook's lack of respect for your data? Tell others that you're quitting too!” Their website recorded over 40 thousand FB quitters, not a very impressive number. But then every person who quit did not necessarily go and register there, so the number is probably much higher.

I have friends who have left and come back, who have created double profiles, some who are currently away and may or may not come back, and many who are happily entrenched in FB.  Speaking of friends, during my five year tenure I have managed to acquire 328 friends, the majority of who I will never know in real life and who I might be better off not knowing (yes they may say the same thing about me. Quid pro quo.)

Back to quitting. The last few months I was seriously thinking of quitting. See who my real friends are. I tried to wean myself slowly, and spent days without logging in. But then a day will come and I will type some nonsense in reply to “What’s on your mind?” and a flurry of comments and likes follows and it is back to the starting line. I take that question very seriously. I have to update what’s on my mind, the lyrics of the song I’m listening to, passages from a book I read, and quotes from a movie I watched.

I love taking pictures (as Exhibited on my Wall). But nowadays you can’t take a picture without people asking “Are you going to post it online?” “Don’t you dare post this online” “Tag me on this picture”. What, people? Can’t somebody take pictures just for the sheer fun of it? But I must admit I sometimes take pictures with only one thought running in my mind: “The kind people at Facebook will love this picture”. You are guilty too, aren’t you? Yes I know you so well.

Okay, let’s talk about quitting. I spent days planning. How I will slowly move away, and then disappear completely. (As if people will notice). I thought about the friends I will leave behind, the few who will grieve my absence (all eleven of you!), the even fewer who will think of me from time to time and then remember that I am no longer a citizen of Facebook. Oh how sad all that will be! I will be missed, I will be fondly remembered, they will talk about the great deeds I did, the mountains I conquered, the valleys I subdued, and the seas I sailed. But time will pass and my name will be a distant memory, my face a blur, my status updates and picture posts all gone with the wind.

Then I decided not to quit. Yes people, I am still there.

The thing is, Facebook is like a master key which lets me in everywhere; Pinterest, Goodreads, Spotify, and all the other places where you can login with Facebook. Yes you can still go and create a username and password, like in the old days, and go about doing your business. But who can remember all the usernames and passwords? Not me.  More than half of my “friends” are strangers, but there are a few real friends, a few family members, whose updates and pictures are valuable to me. Half of the stuff displayed at my homepage at any point of time is useless information to me, but a few precious things come along and it is for these things that I hang on, barely, just for one more day.

23 comments:

  1. Mizo zingah chuan a khawih hmasa pawl i nih ngei dawn chu, i khawih tanna a rei ta em mai. I luh tan atanga kum thumnaah kan lo lut ve chhek chhek alawm le... 2010-ah internet ka khawih tan ve chiah. Facebook hi a lo pawimawhin a lo tangkai ta em a, a hmang tangkai apiangin bansan harsa an ti dawn a nih hi, hmang tangkai lo mahin bansan harsa an tih chuan. Mahse, hna leh zirna leh kan thil tih lai a tihbuai lem loh chuan kalsan tum tlatna chhan tur a awm lo ka ti. Eng pawh ni se, tluang takin, tha takin, dam takin i thiante tan thian tha han ni zel phawt mai teh.

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    1. Ekhai kei aia member ni rei tawh fe fe an tam mai. Nia hman tangkai thiam leh thiam loh hi a inkar a hla khawp ang. Kalsan lo mah ila tun atanga kum 5 velah chuan a vanglai a pel anga thil dang a lo chhuak leh thuai ang.

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  2. Deleted my account last month to find in order to create my social graph from scratch. But FB made me wait two weeks to have my a/c deleted. Then after two weeks, I was told my email ID was disabled. Surely I can use another email ID but I decided to stay off FB for now again. PS: I was off FB for 11 months in 2010-11.

    No FB, the less people I piss off :)

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    1. The 14 day waiting period is a very smart trick played by FB, methinks. I'm sure there have been many who gave in during those 14 days and reactivated their accounts.

      Recreating your social graph from scratch.. a very good idea. Now you know exactly what to do, who to avoid, etc etc.

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    2. haha.. Benjamin was my first fb fren .. :D. That's on 4th June 2007 :D

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    3. I've deleted my first fb account as fb would no longer allow me to add photos and create docs at one of our fb groups. I need to update news (weekly news) there , so I've created new one :D

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  3. A tha ka ti viau fb hi. Kan inhmu lem lo na a, kan innelin kan inkawm a, thian tha tak takah kan insiam zel a(a tha lo zawng chu a tam ve khawp ang like Assam MLA who's run away with her fb friend).

    Social site fb misual vela kan inkawm hi tam tak tan chuan a lo remchang khawp mai a, a tak taka inkawm tur chuan tam tak hi chu kan inbe hlei thei lo. Misual.comer pakhat kolkata mi hi ka hmu leh zauh thin a, biak ka tum ngial a a kimki deuh tut thin a, min nel thei lo-mahse site lamah chuan kan titi thei viau.

    Nang hi fb kaltlanga ka thian i ni a, facebook hi a tha ka ti viau..account i neihna a rei tawh nen friend i ngah vak lo hi a tha ka ti hle bawk...ngah dul mai hi sawisel tur ka hre lo na a, a tleirawl thil deuh bakah a hlu ber si lo va.

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    1. Friend neih del dul hi a tulna vak ka hrelo, kan in contact tak tak chuang lo. Request nazawng lo accept chut chut hi chu ni e a tleirawl hna deuh e.

      Khawvel a zau tawh a, hmun hrang hrangah kan awm a social network hi kan inkawmna ber a nih tawh mai hi le. Inhmu ngai maplo te pawh kan inkawmngeih em em thei a nia, a mak ve angreng.

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  4. Ilo van senior tawh roh ve... kan inang anih hmel e :)

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  5. Joined Facebook in Feb 2009, but was not very active those days... since I had only few friends... Became more active when I started adding more friends...As a matter of fact, you don't really enjoy face book unless you have sufficient number of friends. Of course, having too many friends sometimes could be a drawback as you tend to dwell in facebook for more time than you actually permit to give yourself... indeed, a real time waster....:)

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    1. Exactly. The more active friends you have, the more you spend time online, and the more you waste your productive hours. But it is useful for keeping in touch with the ones you really care about.

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  6. Internet khawvelah hi chuan ka rei ve tawh fu..FB tak hi chu ka khawihna a la rei lo hle mai. mRIC Dalnet hunlai vel khan ka ti ve nasa mai thin.. en lova (blind) word ka type thiam hmasak ber pawh cyberArmy tih kha a nia.. haha..

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    1. Thanks for visiting saint sammoo. mRIC??? Hahahah I too used to waste a lot of time at mIRC, but it was fun back then, before all these social networking sites came up.

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  7. 2010 atang chauh ka fb a, ka la active viau tluang zel chuan ka hria. Thinchhiat tihtauh thilah vawi 2 chu ka deactivate ve tawh, lai deuhin kan activate leh hnu hnu a, a ho duh lutuk.Deactivate/ quit tihvel chu ka sim rih

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    1. That's exactly why I haven't quit yet. Because I know I will come back sooner or later.

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  8. PRELIMS AHEAD
    HAVE TO FACE THE BOOK
    INSTEAD OF FACEBOOK

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  9. 2008 ah ka inziak lut ve a, ka hrethiam lo a.2009 ah a tharin ka siam leh a. A tirah Mafia Wars leh Farm Ville khelhna lamah fawren thian ka ngah khawp mai.2010 ah kum khat hnuah Games khelh ka bansan a, account thenfai hna ka thawk a. Thian 100 vel atangin ka ţan leh a. Tunah 400 chuang fren ka nei in ka hria. Misual zara thian (hriat lem loh) zawng hi group khatah ka dah a. Luh a piang hian "What's on your mind?" a lo tih ziah avang hian status update hi ka ching khawp mai.

    Orkut kha ka awm rei nen ţhian za vel chiah ka nei :)

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  11. Ka fb account hi ka second RSS feeds reader a ni ve tlat :)

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  12. "Facebook chu, tleirawl ho khawih chi, a tunlai mah mah.. " te kha kan ti ve a.. Mahse, a lar chak viau sia, 2010 ah khan ka inziak lut ve ta a.

    Ni e, hun chu a heh ngang mai, thiante Active deuh neih ngah chuan, hun kan hmang hnem a ni a, thiante nen chuan kan inpawh ṭhatphah viau lawi bawk sia.

    Ka hun chu ka pe hnem ta khawp mai, tum ai tam hun ka seng ziah.. mahse,, Deactivate êm chu..!!

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  13. Lo va hmang hma bik ve maw le...Kan lo zui tha mah mah che anih dawn hi, a tangkaina a tam rual in thatlohna erawh nei hnem viau bawk si, a hmangtute a zir ani ber in ka hria.

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