LOL: Life Of Leo

Image Source I consider myself a fairly well-informed person, even though I no longer access social media. I read the news, I keep up with books, and I like to think I understand the world around me. But watching Adolescence on Netflix felt like being hit by a tidal wave of something I had never truly grasped before. While the whole world is talking about the brilliance of this show, with each episode being shot in a single take, it exposed me to a word I had never encountered: ' incel .' I had no idea about this subculture of young men who blame women for their loneliness and frustrations. To such an extent where they create groups and have meet-ups to discuss and trash women. Apparently, this culture is catching up in India as well. There was an article in last Sunday's paper about this. As I watched Jamie, the protagonist, slip deeper into this world, I felt a growing sense of horror. How could such a community exist? How could something so dangerous and hateful be shap...

Image Source I'm not a believer of new year resolutions, mostly because I cannot keep up with them, but one thing that I surely wanted to do this year was to go off social media. Instagram especially, as that's the only channel I'm active on as a viewer. I stopped posting updates months ago. Most people enjoy being on social media. It gives some a sense of purpose or a sense of validation. It did for me too, a while ago. It started feeling like a hindrance a few months ago, something that I was compelled to look at even if I did not want to. I was not enjoying it anymore. While I know most of the content out there is genuine (yes, I'm being generous using 'most'), more often than not it felt like "fitting in". Like being forced to do something just because others were doing it. Honestly, I got saturated of the monotonous dancing videos, baby updates, food and travel updates and milestone photography, even if those were of people I cared about. I knew I...

Image Source Over the past few weeks, with innumerable scandals coming to light, social media is filled with statements from every celebrity, every media house and people whom you have never heard of before. Every statement ends with a line that says, 'This is my final comment on the matter, please do not reach out to me for more statements'. The daily Quora notifications that I receive are only revolved around these scandals with common people like you and me wanting to know intricate details about the how and why of what happened. Why do people feel entitled to know everything about a celeb? I know they chose to live their life in the eyes of the public, but even they are entitled to a sense of privacy. How hard is it for people to understand that? This hit a new low with the passing of Sushant Singh Rajput. Some actresses were bullied and trolled because they did not share their grief on social media. A tragedy is usually personal and everyone deals with it their own way. Th...

Image Source Social Media was the perfect tool for us to connect with our old friends and like minded people. It also was a good tool to express your thoughts, have discussions and learn about many things. And then, it turned toxic. Now, Social Media is nothing but a place one goes to feel good or miserable about themselves. It is like a competition where everyone feels the need to prove something to someone else and everyone is competing with one another for an invisible prize or an inflated ego. People are quick to take offense and retaliate often spreading hate and vitriol. While it has given a platform for everyone to have a say, most people use it as a tool to show off to the world or desperately try to fit in to it.

Image Source " Show me the pictures. I hope you clicked many of them ." " How much did it cost? " " What did you bring from there? " It's been close to two months since we've come back from our vacation and we are still being plagued by these questions. Some people prefer to right away ask these instead of asking how our experience was or what places we visited. It is really annoying, to be honest. Travel to me was something new until I met my husband. Right from when we started dating, we started traveling together and we enjoyed it a lot. As people who can talk non-stop, we were each other's perfect travel companions and since our thoughts and ideologies match, we love traveling together. Initially, it was all the thrill about the travel. I used to take a lot of pictures and check in on Facebook as often as I could. After a couple of vacations, it was all about the place and the person that I'm with. Nothing else mattered aft...

Image Source Recently, one of the badges that I pin to my bag bag broke off and I googled " How to mend a broken badge " I could have just gone ahead and bought another badge worth 50 bucks, but the Monica in me wouldn't let that happen. From " How to get ball pen ink marks off leather " to " How to get peanut butter off hair ", I have googled it all. Anyway, I digress. As I was typed " How to mend a broken... ", the first option that google suggested was " broken heart " followed by " broken soul ". It is almost amusing to think that people turn to google for mending a broken heart. Having been through a couple of heartbreaks myself, I know how hard it is to get over a broken relationship. But never did I ever resort to google to help me get over the pain. In today's social media age, it is very difficult to get over a heartbreak. More so because every social media platform has remnants of the relationship. Plus...

PHOTO PROMPT ©  J Hardy Carroll The clear blue skies, the slight chill in the breeze, the chirping of the birds, the happy atmosphere - I was not the one to appreciate all this. I buried myself in the virtual world. You see, I was famous online. I was an fashion star with many followers. I kept myself busy by posting my pictures on all the social media platforms. I was addicted to selfies and my phone. One day, while driving, I took a selfie and ended up killing a pedestrian out for a walk.

Image Source 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 onl...