Is the virtual world taking over the real world? Well, it almost looks like. Recently a court in Cincinnati, while pronouncing its verdict in a case, directed a person to tender apology on Facebook daily for a month, or else face jail. Does this not mean that the court has considered the apology on Facebook as a comparative punishment for jail term? And extending the logic further, does it not imply that people have these days started valuing and respecting their Facebook personality almost equal to or more than their real personality?
We have been hearing the news that Facebook has been increasingly playing a major role in divorce cases in western countries. This is because ironically the people have begun reflecting their ‘true’ personality on the virtual space. They live a dual personality life. In fact, it is very much likely that a person who is very active on Facebook is in reality a very shy and introvert person.
The Facebook addiction
However, at one stage people have to draw a line and decide whether they want to get sucked into this black hole at all…because Facebook has turned into an addiction for some people. We see many comments such as ‘Good morning friends’ and ‘Good night friends’. Surprisingly there are handful of comments and likes to such status updates also. That means all these people have ample time at their disposal to update their status / post a comment on something as insignificant as a good morning or a good night. It can be easily made out that every time these people log out from Facebook, they do so with a heavy heart and whenever they log in, they experience a kind of thrill and happiness. And if the numbers in red at the top of screen indicating new messages, friend’s requests and new ‘likes and comments’ on earlier status updates is high, they get almost a kick. Few pleasures would match that feeling for them.
The situation becomes so vulnerable that their moods now a day depend on the type of response they get on the Facebook. If their comment does not get the desired response, they suddenly feel humiliated, unwanted and sad. Their moods for the rest of the day are deeply affected due to the poor response from their ‘friends’.
There is a limit to which a person should share his personal life on the virtual world. Another news which made headlines recently was that of a man firing 6 rounds at the laptop of his daughter, who complained on the social networking site that she was not being looked after very well by her parents. The father, enraged by his daughter’s such outbursts on Facebook shot at the laptop and posted it on the YouTube. Surely, this act by both of them was a direct result of attaching too much importance to their image and assumed importance of their entity in the virtual world.
We also see lot of photos being posted on Facebook. These photos attract lot of comments from various people who praise the style, the background etc. How many of these people would have picked up a phone to share their feelings with the person who posted those photos? Why has it become enough that we just post a comment and forget about it? Is this trend not drawing people away and away in the real world, while pretending to bring them closer in the virtual world? There is a kind of cocoon built up by every individual that allows him to react only at his will and apparently that gives a mysterious satisfaction.
One more study done in UK suggested that people who are logged on to Facebook excessively become more childlike in the sense, they expect the people to react to their every single post. This, the research says, is very much like children drawing / painting something and showing it to the elders in the house and waiting for their appreciation. And just like children, these people also get hurt when others do not appreciate their works.
Health tips in Facebook era
These people are logged on to Facebook on a 24 X 7 basis and can’t stay without it even for a while. It would be highly desirable for such people addicted to Facebook, to stay away from it for few hours a day or few days a week, just to ensure that they are able to live without it. During these hours they should express and share their thoughts and ideas in person in real world.
If this trend continues, soon there would be separate wards in all the hospitals to treat the patients for diseases caused due to excessive indulgence in Facebook. There would be many patients visiting the doctors with symptoms like high anxiety, low self esteem, hypertension, childlike behavior etc due to Facebook addiction.
And we might also hear in future, the doctors prescribing something like this:
Please do not post more than 2-3 contents on Facebook in a day.
Please do not be logged on to Facebook for more than 1 hour in a day.
Please take a vacation and do not access Facebook for 7 days every year etc.
Facebook – The new business opportunity
Considering the growing fondness for Facebook, there could be a new business opportunity. There are a large number of people who keep staring at their computers and mobiles almost every single minute to check new updates or any new likes / comments on their earlier status updates. Cashing in on the anxiety and the insatiable craving for such likes and comments, the new business opportunity may sound something like this:
Facebook Management Services: Please outsource your Facebook Management and we shall provide you excellent services in managing your account. Some of our standard services are listed below:
We provide you new friends on Facebook at a cost of Rs. 100/- per friend. You suggest the profile of the friend and we shall create it.
We shall arrange to get likes and comments on your statuses at a cost of Rs. 5/- per like and Rs. 10/- per comment.
We have priority services wherein the likes / comments can be posted within 5 minutes of you posting the status update. These will be at double the standard rates.
The real brainy status updates, which encourage debates and discussions, shall be charged at a premium cost of Rs. 200/- per update.
We can supply debates / discussions on your comments also. The price depends on number of likes and comments, and varies from Rs. 200/- to Rs. 500/-.
We can supply very good matter for status updates on a variety of subjects like Politics, Sports, Current Affairs, and Bollywood etc at special rates.
There is a discount for bulk purchases and contracts extending to a month or a year.
The status updates related to current affairs shall be available at a premium, as there is a special team working on this.
Etc.
And the person who starts this business could be richer than Mark Zuckerberg in 2 years time.
Finally, the fact remains that the Facebook is only an entertainment media for social interaction limited to virtual world. It should not be allowed to ruin the personal relations with the near and dear ones living in real world.
Facebook should be used to wisely connect with others in VIRTUAL world… but not by disconnecting with others in REAL world…!
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