I have never been active in social media. I am not part of any group that I actually joined. But not long ago I was added to a couple of alumni groups and I remain part of them mostly in a passive mode.I do enjoy staying in touch with my friends and the odd forwards now and then but I must confess that I find myself quite unable to keep up with the torrent of messages.
Many of my classmates in these groups reside in India and when I wake up in the morning they have already been posting at a good clip for many hours. Not having been in the middle of it all, I feel like I have arrived late to the party. On a typical day, I open up WhatsApp and find there are more than one hundred messages waiting to be read. I realize that I will not be able to read them without being late to work. There are several videos too that have been forwarded which will take even more time to watch. I skip many messages especially those that just share a link without any context or comment just sliding the thumb down the screen.
The messages themselves come in random order so it is difficult to follow any particular thread. One of them catches my eye and interest but if I reply to that, I will be taken to the last message. Besides, what if someone else has already made the same point I am going to make? Maybe I should go through the rest of the messages to be sure. But I don't want to keep thumbing back and forth. You see my problem? Anyway, by the time I reach the end the urge to reply has usually dissipated. So I end up not replying most of the time.
I really admire those that are willing to type long messages in these apps. Some are merely forwarding stuff but there a few prolific texters (I am assuming they are typing on the phone). I also see that they are passionate about what they are posting. As for me, even with autocomplete, I find it tedious to type out long messages. Without that feature, I probably would keep to monosyllables.
Speaking of monosyllables, I must mention the emoticons that show up on the messages. Sometimes the entire message is just a couple of symbols. Not knowing which message prompted that response, I am left scratching my head (is there an emoji for that?). All I can say is that the rather grim previous message could not have drawn that response. You can probably tell that I am quite a novice with this thing but so are many others in the group, it appears.
Every now and then I find that I learn something new or gain a new perspective. We can easily go through our lives not reading or watching news or articles that run contrary to our political positions. The group exposes you to such views and on the whole I think that's a good thing. The discussions can become overheated especially when religion or politics is concerned. Unfortunately, sometimes it can even get personal and uncivil. I am intrigued to find that people who have not really been in constant touch are able to use strong language talking to one another. It is quite clear that we did not get to know all facets of our classmates even of some close friends during the time we spent in college. In the many decades that have gone by people have changed. Views which may or may not have been apparent back then have clearly evolved. We were a diverse group then and are still diverse probably more entrenched in our positions now.
One of the great things about the group is that makes it easy to get together with friends when travelling to different cities. They are always up for a lunch or dinner at scant notice and the resulting meet up is without fail enjoyable. We feel transported back to our days on campus where a special bond and camaraderie were forged among us. So we mark the occasion with a group photo or two. The waiter snaps them and one of us will share it on, what else, WhatsApp. Someone comments on how so and so has not changed at all. Many others respond with an emoji or two. But then there are others who want to know who is who in the picture proving that we have either changed enough or just gotten old and forgotten the faces or never knew a few of our classmates. I will leave you to decide which.
Many of my classmates in these groups reside in India and when I wake up in the morning they have already been posting at a good clip for many hours. Not having been in the middle of it all, I feel like I have arrived late to the party. On a typical day, I open up WhatsApp and find there are more than one hundred messages waiting to be read. I realize that I will not be able to read them without being late to work. There are several videos too that have been forwarded which will take even more time to watch. I skip many messages especially those that just share a link without any context or comment just sliding the thumb down the screen.
The messages themselves come in random order so it is difficult to follow any particular thread. One of them catches my eye and interest but if I reply to that, I will be taken to the last message. Besides, what if someone else has already made the same point I am going to make? Maybe I should go through the rest of the messages to be sure. But I don't want to keep thumbing back and forth. You see my problem? Anyway, by the time I reach the end the urge to reply has usually dissipated. So I end up not replying most of the time.
I really admire those that are willing to type long messages in these apps. Some are merely forwarding stuff but there a few prolific texters (I am assuming they are typing on the phone). I also see that they are passionate about what they are posting. As for me, even with autocomplete, I find it tedious to type out long messages. Without that feature, I probably would keep to monosyllables.
Speaking of monosyllables, I must mention the emoticons that show up on the messages. Sometimes the entire message is just a couple of symbols. Not knowing which message prompted that response, I am left scratching my head (is there an emoji for that?). All I can say is that the rather grim previous message could not have drawn that response. You can probably tell that I am quite a novice with this thing but so are many others in the group, it appears.
Every now and then I find that I learn something new or gain a new perspective. We can easily go through our lives not reading or watching news or articles that run contrary to our political positions. The group exposes you to such views and on the whole I think that's a good thing. The discussions can become overheated especially when religion or politics is concerned. Unfortunately, sometimes it can even get personal and uncivil. I am intrigued to find that people who have not really been in constant touch are able to use strong language talking to one another. It is quite clear that we did not get to know all facets of our classmates even of some close friends during the time we spent in college. In the many decades that have gone by people have changed. Views which may or may not have been apparent back then have clearly evolved. We were a diverse group then and are still diverse probably more entrenched in our positions now.
One of the great things about the group is that makes it easy to get together with friends when travelling to different cities. They are always up for a lunch or dinner at scant notice and the resulting meet up is without fail enjoyable. We feel transported back to our days on campus where a special bond and camaraderie were forged among us. So we mark the occasion with a group photo or two. The waiter snaps them and one of us will share it on, what else, WhatsApp. Someone comments on how so and so has not changed at all. Many others respond with an emoji or two. But then there are others who want to know who is who in the picture proving that we have either changed enough or just gotten old and forgotten the faces or never knew a few of our classmates. I will leave you to decide which.
