Socially yours

It must have been more than a year since my last tweet. I reset my long forgotten Twitter password today and logged in. I felt like a man who had ventured on a voyage into the blue and returned home, only to discover that it was a completely different place. Ok, that's an exaggeration but I could see that Twitter has changed a great deal from the last time I logged in. People tweeting away to glory,  giving a minute by minute account of their lives, debating current affairs or just harping on this and that. It must be a lot of fun. Strange it may seem, I find it intimidating.

The reason for this is manifold. Even though I make the most of my life and work as many enjoyable things as I can into my calendar, I always have a sense of flatness that my life is not as interesting as it could be. I might as well keep it under wraps than show it to the world and make an ass of myself. I would rather write a post on my blog (which gives me all the privacy as there is no one really following my blog) than tweet about it. Besides, being out of social networking sites gives me a lot to jaw about when catching up with friends. It's so much more fun to hear it from them than reading about it on internet.

Being an introvert doesn't really help in this matter. This may surprise a few but the fact is beneath the cheerful and friendly exterior I maintain, there is a shy person who feels uneasy in the company of strangers. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook serves largely for people who revel in the company of people, strangers or otherwise. Moreover, one needs to have a reasonable intelligence to not make an ass of oneself on networking sites. There is a quote that says "It's better to be stupid and quiet, then to be stupid and let the whole world know". Believe it or not, an appreciable amount of human beings (myself included) believe that Balaji Srinivasan has a wise head on his shoulders. :-P The best I could do to them is keep my mouth shut and not let them down. :P

Most of all, I positively believe that friends can stay connected without any social networking sites. Friends never go out of touch. Yes, you get to meet your buddy from fifth grade about whom you never gave a moment's thought until Facebook sprang him/her on you, but how does that change your life? (Unless you renew your childhood crush and begin a new innings but it's most likely that he/she will be married or committed. :-) ) Yes, Facebook reminds you of your friend's birthday, but the sentimental fool that I am, I'd rather take blame for forgetting my friend's birthday than be reminded by Facebook.

Gee, what started as post on what I did today turned into introspective and self-defensive. I logged into Twitter to check a photo of my friend. Once done, I wrote a tweet for old time's sake ("Boo! You never belonged there," says an inner voice). And logged off. So long, Twitter!