20th of June 2013 shall always be a red letter day for me of my so called life. Today I was allowed to open my first ever Facebook account; or to be precise, a social networking account.
Since class 10, I had seen my friends put up about their daily mundane lives on Orkut, Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. I was like a dumb. I had none. My parents forbade it. I was not sad, but somewhere deep in my heart it always struck me that I could get more site views on my blog if I had an account on Facebook.
My parents never approved of this. They knew that I was worse than a drug addict. I can sit glued on my laptop monitor for hours, without a single blink. And Facebook is nothing other than addiction. [Sorry if I hurt anyone] but this is true. Even I admit it and I know it is hard to admit this when you are a mere 17 year old ‘kid’.
I had permission to access Gmail, WordPress.com, and other websites where I could post some of my writings so that I could be called as a Content Writer or a Freelance Writer [you can call me an Unwanted writer or whatever]; but never to Facebook. “These sites kill your zeal for studies, provide you fun in the virtual world; keeping you miles away from the real thing, an internet zombie, a whiny kid, you kill your own privacy, time waste and what not.[sorry, no offence]”: mom said right. I got the taste when I sat down thinking it as a treat for my stranded, stagnant living.
I rushed into my mom’s bedroom with great excitement in the air. “Mummy!” I screamed. I need my FB account! Now!”
Mummy had no excitement on her face, though. So in her plain old voice, she told NO.
“Please, you had promised to me that you would allow me to open my account once I finish my Class 12!”
Why I used this cause I don’t seem to understand, because I feel that it was better to study with big headaches of home works, practical and tests rather than that of results, questions on capability, and admissions to good colleges. [I mean, moving into the big league].
“If you don’t allow me then I’ll use your account to create a page to popularize my blog.”
This was the real reason why I was pestering my mom during her afternoon nap. Since June 1, I’ve been an all time blogger [translated, I’ve nothing better to do], and I am trying helplessly to get at least one freelance writing project. Everything starts off smoothly- I send my email id to the person who needs the work to be done, he/she takes my CV- and then does not reply back. They check out my blog as well, but perhaps they don’t think me as much capable to handle out big responsibilities like part time jobs. Or perhaps, I’m a downright stupid. A jump in the site statistics would soon change all that.
So I was inclined towards the all time favorite FB.
Perhaps Mummy’s heart melted. She smiled.
“Go and open your own account.”
Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was just going mad. I mean, I have a reputation among the people who know me that I am a great guy. I can never manage Facebook and all that stuff.
I took my seat and in no time filled out the details that FB demanded. It’s free & cool. So what’s wrong in that?
Sonali rang me up the moment I sent her the friend request. Nilofar too added me on her friend list. In one hour itself, I had acquired over 15 friends [I was going on sending friend requests to friends, relatives and seniors; OMG! It’s absolutely amazing! Others recommended me]. FB even warned me: SLOW DOWN! But did that damn know that I had been never so happy in my life? Many commented on my profile photo and my first post. It read:
I’M SO HAPPY THAT I’M ON FB! I’VE GOT BACK ALL MY SENIORS!!!
With a solace in my heart, I came out of the website, thinking what would be my first step to enhance my blog’s statistics. I went out for a short walk. Just then daddy called me up.
He asked me to DELETE my FB account.
“You can have a Linkedin profile but not a FB account.”
“But I had taken mummy’s permission!”
“No, no, it’s not good for you. Delete it now. And why have you put your photo? Take it off at once.”
I was not sad. It was okay. He must have said it for my well being. But what was he doing on FB? He couldn’t have seen my mail request as today morning itself he had called up to say that his mails have some problems in the office premises.
Aha! So he was on FB as well!
After much pestering from my uncles and aunts, my mom decided to give FB a chance in her life. But since our internet is very slow and she remains very busy, after a week she stopped checking.
“Bah! Hogwash!” She would say.
I returned home drenched. 2 hours later, I sat down to delete my account. When I opened my page, I had 56 friends!
Voila!
From 0 to 56 in a day. What a transformation. My eyes misted, my heart felt heavy, and I started crying. I got a big splitting headache. My body was a big ache. I thought I was an eyesore.
I started crying. Nothing could console me now. The thought that I would lose contact again with all the friends like Sambedana, Subhasis and many others with whom I was with till Class 10 and after that we were separated due to change in courses and institutions. My senior Arti didi had loved me a lot. She was my House Leader when I was in Class 6. She was smart, affectionate and cool. She had accepted my friend request too.
I started to miss her too.
Today’s generation solely depends upon FB, only old fashioned guys like me demand an email from the friends every day. At FB, every thing’s updated frequently. You get lost contacts. You can make your old friend groups again. You can say publicly sorry.
You can also increase your site traffic.
The addiction had hung me up in an hour. Now I really think this FB is not for me……..Daddy’s right. I would not be able to concentrate in my studies………………he knows me better than me……………..I’d go zany again………………….
So this is my first and last appeal to you, my friends. Thank you for your tremendous support. Thanks for being my friends on FB and in real life. I love you all. I shall remember you always, no matter what. You have filled my life with warmth. If you really think I’m worth it, please pen me down a line or two on my blog. I’d be more than elated.
See you next time on my blog’s comment page!
Take care.
Regards,
@Debashrita
THE FUNKY WRITER 