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‘Ello Mate, You on Facebook?

You know that feeling when you sense all grown-up vibes in yourself because you are having reunions now, visiting ‘old’ friends.

I was over a call with this friend, and as I said, being all chirpy that how I’m looking forward to meeting our old friends whom we haven’t seen in ages.

“I don’t know what you mean? I see them every day!” came those words traveling from my phone to my ears bearing a shrug voice. Seeing them every day? Has she been making a secret trip? Why wasn’t I invited? Have they been hanging out without me? Did I become the loner from school again? Am I still as boring as I used to be in school? Is it you or is it me?

Neither of these conjectures was correct. My friend was keeping in touch with all our friends in her hometown and elsewhere, on the social media site called Facebook, a totally alien concept in my territory of Area 51, a socially challenged dinosaur, who thinks you only connect with those people on social media you have NOT lost touch with and are around you.

Indeed, we all should be grateful to Facebook, My Friend- along with the rest of the million people all over the world who have made a lot of friends with whom they never met; she will never meet, all their interactions being conducted in the cyberspace.

Call me out-mode, call me Victorian, this was a bit bizarre for me to settle with. In several ways, or so was I told, Facebook friends are friendly and more cordial and amiable as friends than real-world friends. Real world friendships have disadvantages- geographical distance, and not to mention the effort, the driving, and the petrol that goes into maintaining it( just a few hindrances to name).

There is always a problem of variance in time. Suppose you are free to hang out but the friend with whom you want to hang out might be drowned in work pressure or perhaps an impending deadline from his boss.

On Facebook or any social media you may pick (there is a buffet) there is no contradictions like these, no constraints, no bounds, they don’t practically matter. You can touch base with your mates wherever you are, or they are, and whenever you are free to take a look at their wonderful posts on Facebook and whenever they are free to look at yours. And if by any chance in hell Mark Zuckerberg interdicts and you fall aloof with a friend there is always this holy grail of the “Unfriend” button that you can mutually use and guess what you will not even lose face. What you lose is Facebook!