Remember the time when anyone with a multimedia phone was considered rich and anyone with a blackberry phone was considered the richest of the riches? Kids exchanging BB Pins were considered cool while others struggled to even get a phone for themselves!
Remember when Orkut, Facebook and Google Plus were trendy and how we used to go to cyber cafes or to our friend's home to log in and check our feed or post our pictures or those status updates which if we look now would definitely make us cringe? 🤪
Can't relate? Well you missed being in the time when social media was just starting and the fun or not so fun but equally memorable times we used to have in real instead of reels!
No, I am not saying that I don't like Instagram. Or the present times. Wouldn't it be ironic to say this when I am a content creator myself?
I am maybe just a little nostalgic today of the time gone by.
The attention span then was quite good amongst us as we literally used to write essay long captions and everybody on our friend list actually cared to read it completely and give their comments on it.
People were not endlessly scrolling on their feed as the internet was slow or costly whichever way you put it and the screen time was way less even though the engagement percent on each others posts was still surprisingly strong in comparison.
Now, friends rarely comment or talk to each other through social media.
They just like the post whenever they see a familiar face and then scroll to see the next thing on their feed.
Nobody has the time to write a simple Hi, let alone read the caption or actually appreciate the person instead of just liking the content they post.
Friends meet in all these aesthetic cafes and all they do is try to figure out the best angle for their selfies and order the best looking food that would go well with their Instagram Feed.
A hundred selfies are clicked, a couple of boomerangs for stories but not a few meaningful words exchanged. Is this what meeting a friend means in today's world?
This is not the case for everyone. I am glad it isn't. There are many people who still meet friends and forget to even check their phones or get any pictures clicked not because they didn't want to but because they didn't feel the need to or maybe forgot to do so just because they were actually talking to their friends and genuinely were bonding well.
Sure before leaving, they do realise it and take a picture or two but the conversations do happen. Genuine laughs are shared. Problems are shared, solutions are discussed.
Care and empathy isn't lost.
In this world of social media where everyone likes to put up just the happy moments of their life or sometimes just compensate it with a #IWokeUpLikeThis or some other form of #realitycheck which just doesn't feel real,
people have subconscionsly started believing that everyone is leading their lives happily and have little to no concerns in their life.
This has dangerously made people even cringe or completely ignore people who aren't "Insta type" or don't pass their vibe check just because they aren't trendy or popular in the social media definition of popularity.
Let me tell you, this is a vicious cycle.
This pressurises people to post only positive things on their feed too and it even goes to the extent of people considering themselves unworthy of love or appreciation, not good enough or not beautiful enough in their own eyes which is much worse than looking bad in someone else's eyes!
When friends meet, they don't feel comfortable to talk about what's actually troubling them and instead talk about random topics or stick to only happy or cool conversations. Maybe this is the reason people now feel lonely more than ever.
According to a global survey, 43% of adults feel lonely in India and worldwide it's 33% ! More than one in ten children, feels lonely. These figures make me think, only if we were comfortable talking to each other without the feeling of fear, embarrassment or being judged, we could all have been in a better state than we are in right now.
Currently, As I am sitting at a local coffee shop, I see a group of friends who are here having pasta, pizza and cold drink and taking only pictures, not a single conversation about anything except which filter to use, snapchat or Instagram?, tagging someone to make somebody else feel left out or jealous, and on the other table I see a couple who look so in love... with the pictures they are clicking of each other and then there's me silently looking at them all and writing this article.
I don't like coffee or tea but here I am sipping my second cup of cold coffee, coming to terms with the life around me and thinking if anyone would read my long captions on Instagram anymore.
Maybe they won't but here you are reading this article till the very end. 🥺
Here's a warm virtual hug to you not only because you read it till here or your attention span is much higher than others but because you, like me, are nostalgic about the old times too. And a hug can fix things, isn't it true?
See you in my next blog 😇
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