My life on Facebook

Two months ago, I was among the minority of teenagers who had not yet found herself on Facebook.

But those days were not to last long. My inbox threatened to explode with the number of messages that were, in essence: “You aren’t on Facebook yet?! Which planet are you on??” Apparently, the popular notion was that unless you had taken refuge at the bottom of a garden pond or somewhere similar during the last few years, you had to have a Facebook account. For over a year now, I’d been making excuses to myself not to join. But exams were over, reasons were running out, and above all, the lure was intolerable. Come on, everyone was there! And in next to no time, I had a Facebook account.

Within a couple of days, my life changed. My daily schedule went something like: Wake up. Facebook. Shower. Facebook. Breakfast. Facebook. Lunch. Facebook. Coaching classes. Facebook. Dinner. Facebook. Bed.

I’d sit for hours choosing the ‘Top 5 people I hate in the world’ or taking one of those ‘When and how will I die’ quizzes until my back and neck muscles protested. I would spend almost the whole day commenting on people’s status, browsing through albums, or uploading videos. When I wasn’t on FB, I was thinking up an appropriate status for myself. I used to gobble up lunch and dinner just so I could get more time on FB. And just when I would feel like signing out, one of my friends would pop up online and I’d just have to chat.

How I had survived without FB for so long was a puzzle to me.

After a couple of months, the initial enthusiasm had died down, and the rate of increase in the number of friends had slowed, and it seemed like there was nothing new in the quizzes, and dawned on us that there was nothing left to chat about, FB had started to get monotonous. But the number of visits did not reduce, just in case.

The other day, I happened to glance at my mobile. Seven missed calls. Four from mom, two from my little sister and one from dad. I’d been cutting their calls short for over a month. And then, it dawned on me. Facebook had been ruling my life all along. I had to do something about it.

In a sudden brainwave, I thought of making an ‘I hate FB’ group on Facebook; only to realize that there were about a hundred such groups already. I was not the only one. There were many others struggling to make a choice between living life their way on one hand, and being ruled by FB on the other.

I would be one of the first few to make the choice. I deactivated my account __ then and there. Anyway, FB had served its purpose.

It’s been a week since then, and I have absolutely no regrets. There are countless ways to spend dull, boring afternoons __ read a book, watch a movie, or speak to family.

Facebook can wait.

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