Taking a virtual break

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We all love our friends. Don’t we? We were already so close to each other that we were just short of being called conjoined twins. Then a few years back, we were sucked in by the whirlpool of social networking and as we spent more time together, we were drawn to it with greater intensity and addiction.
We were informed about the tiniest of details concerning our “friends” and soon unsolicited tagging of photographs and other stuff followed. As more and more social networking sites kept popping up from nowhere, we found ourselves lapping up every single opportunity to “be in touch”. Now where has all this led us to? Many teens have started feeling that too much interaction in the virtual world has given birth to extreme and debilitating loneliness.
So many are, if not completely abandoning Facebook and Twitter, taking a break and opting for weekend get-togethers and more face-to-face meetings to recover from the online overdose.
“This was bound to happen. The charm of virtual camaraderie is slowly fading. I’ve been on a self-declared ‘social holiday’ because I feel I have hit a point of information overload. I am actually tired of having a hundred friends tell me daily what they had for breakfast, through various channels, plus all the other details of their daily lives. I started getting cranky and cynical. I am sure I need to free myself and focus on my exams, which are already giving me nightmares,” says first year student Pratyush S., who prefers reading poetry to his friends to make the most of the evenings together.
History student Stutee Singh too is stepping off the hamster wheel and has no qualms about being termed “anti-social” by her Facebook-junkie friends. She says, “Before anything else I’m trying to find out why am I so drawn to the Internet and virtual contacts. And so far, it’s been great. I’m back to dreaming, exploring and writing. Now I’m seen more in cafes than in front of my computer.”
But for Himanshu Verma, a Class 11 student, who is off-Facebook for at least a few months, the reason is the upcoming cricket World Cup to be followed by IPL4. “Who needs Facebook when we can have unadulterated entertainment for six weeks during the World Cup. The evenings are going to be fun-filled in the company of friends and I am looking forward to it,” he sums up.