When Sharing Is Not Caring

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I have the habit of checking my phone as soon as I wake up. I'm not proud of it, but old habits die hard. The first thing that I saw on Facebook this morning was that someone on my timeline had added 169 photos to a album titled 'Trip with frndzzz'. I doubt if I have a total of 169 photos in all my albums put together. My first thought, who on earth has the time to upload so many pictures. And next, would people do the same if Facebook would charge them for uploading pictures? As much as I love social media and think it is a wonderful invention, it is turning out to be a bane these days. There are days when I look at my timeline and wonder if I actually know these people. There are people putting up all their photos that they can lay their hands on, online. Others are giving minute by minute detail of their holiday and many many others are screaming out opinions about issues that once mattered but no longer. I think that all of us on Facebook should only have read rights. If you want to write or share something, you need to pay for it. Maybe this will help curb the filth that is out there.

I've always been a woman who has her own opinion about many things. The place where I would discuss this would be my blog and not social media. I have seen people write paragraphs about what they think of a certain issue on Facebook. Some people who have a huge fan following, have their status liked and shared a million times. Some others have a couple of likes on the six paragraph status and soon both the statuses are forgotten. Initially, Facebook was all about connecting with people, old and new and sharing snippets of your life with them. Now it is all about showing off and trolling others. People have forgotten that they can take a flight to wherever they are going without checking in to the airport on Facebook or anywhere else. You can also travel abroad without putting up your day to day itinerary online. If one is a travel blogger, I think they should use their blog for that. Share a couple of pictures, no harm. But 169? Does one actually think that people have the time to go through all of that?

One topic that I am tired of reading about is depression and mental health awareness. I know the more it is spoken about, the better. I honestly wouldn't mind different articles being written about the issue. But I see people post their same status and experiences year after year talking about the ordeal they had to go through. I have immense respect for people who have survived it, but does one have to talk about it again and again? There was a time when all the posts on my timeline were related to depression alone. While most people comment "So proud of you for surviving it" and similar comments, there are others who silently call such people attention seekers. Is it called for? I know that depression is a personal issue, and I am not saying that it should not be spoken about. But not always and not on every platform. Being a depression survivor should not be the sole USP for anyone. It is a good thing to talk about ones experience, but there are a hundred others out there who are happy that you have gone through it. Sharing is not always caring in the world of social media.

Kareena Kapoor Khan gave birth to her son Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi yesterday and the Internet lost it. The number of tweets and statuses I read about this goes on to show how jobless some people are. I agree it is not the best of names, but as parents it is their choice on what they want to name their child. Why does anyone else want to have a say in it? Celebrities do not have it easy on social media. I follow a handful of them on Instagram and the comments that people leave on their photos are cringe worthy. "Pull your top up and show me your stuff", "Such a slut, will you sleep with me?", "You are fat and ugly", "Post a nude picture of yours"; these are a few comments I have seen on the photos of a top model/dancer I follow on Instagram. I don't know how famous people handle such things. It is offensive to say the least. Just because one is allowed to express their opinions on social media, doesn't mean that one can say/share anything. Somewhere a line needs to be drawn.

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Now coming to the point of sharing. How much is too much when it comes to sharing personal details on Facebook and other platforms? Earlier I used to change my profile pictures pretty often and upload a few photos to albums too. But once, I saw my photographs being shared elsewhere. I removed all my albums and stuck with a profile picture alone. While there are a lot of people around who resort to malicious acts, I think the person who puts up the photograph should take some blame too. Once you put out anything on social media, you don't own it anymore. People will dissect it, criticize it or share it. You need to be prepared for all of it. Want to avoid it? Then avoid putting up things on social media.

I have heard people cry about how much people share on social media. And they choose to voice their opinion about it on social media! I think it is a personal choice to put out anything and bear the brunt of it later. I know of genuine people who put up witty and brilliant statues and tweets. Such words are a treat to sore eyes. Then there are others who write paragraphs about some personal matter of theirs. While some of them might be genuine, most of them do it for the attention. A friend of mine one put up a status on Facebook about how her husband was abusing her and asking her parents for more dowry. All her friends and I expressed our concerns over it and asked her to leave him or reach out to someone for help. Roughly around nine months later, she put up a status saying that she had delivered a baby girl and was in the happiest phase of her life. What does one have to say to this?

Social media is turning out to be a dangerous weapon. Something that can take you to crazy highs and bring you back to dangerous lows. I think this is an area one should carefully tread upon. Like I said before, when it comes to social media, sharing is not always caring.