An Interesting Session of Virtual Voyage
+ Hey Saf, I’ve got nothing to do and I’m bored to death. Shite. For ocean’s sake, what should I do?
– Um, try to be active on social media, maybe?
+ Social media? Seriously?! (laughing cynically)
But I tried it anyway.
It was fun at the beginning, but somehow later on I sense that my mood was declining each time I embark on this ‘virtual voyage’. Despite this, I continued to surf the free water of social media anyway, until on one breezy evening I stumbled upon an interesting thing at The Guardian website and I began to notice the slight similarity of the problems discussed there with my own declining mood issue, especially on the Envy and Pride departments.
Like I have asserted on the opening line, my virtual voyage on the social media began several months ago. No, no, not that I haven’t used social media before, it’s just that I rarely use them. But, owing to my friend’s suggestion, and owing to lack of things to do at the dock, I decided to be far more active on social media. Well, so what? They’re fun to fiddle around with, aren’t they?
No, they’re not. Uh, yes, at the beginning of each time I logged on, yes it was fun. It was fun seeing what my friends are doing and what they’re thinking on Facebook news feed and on Twitter timeline and on LinkedIn and on what else and on what else. But as I continued to scroll down, I felt more and more anxious seeing photos and updates of my friends’ recent vacations, new jobs, new gadgets, new whatever. Insecurity, yeah. I humbly admit that to you, dear courteous reader, that at that moment I was feeling insecure with myself and envious of my friends’ life. Great.
So I tried to solve my trouble by posting photos of my recent vacation. Yeah!
“Yeah what, Mard?”, you might ask. Well, dear courteous reader, as soon as I finished uploading those photos―and just so you know, they’re not very great―’the Like count’ began to increment. Oh, how I was very satisfied with the amount of likes and the comments made by my friends. I patted myself on the shoulder and said, “Well done, Mard!” (no, of course I didn’t say that, but you get my point). Well, after that I had yet another vacation and again I uploaded a bunch of photos―this time they’re better than the previous ones but still, not exceptionally great. The likes and the comments are great, though, so I was proud with myself again. “Well done, Mard!”
Nevertheless, during my regular sitting-beneath-the-night-sky session, I felt weird about my pride. I asked myself, “Have I really achieved something by posting those photos?” The answer came swift and precise: nope. So that night I felt sorry for myself for being proud without achieving anything. I went back to my room and decided not to ever overuse social media again.
It’s not that social media is bad, but maybe I couldn’t handle it more responsibly at that moment. I mean, what’s the point of being active on social media if it makes you anxious? I believe that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and many other social media was conceived and developed with the good intention of connecting people. After all, that’s why they’re called social media, not private media. What’s the use of Facebook or Twitter if it’s being used to flaunt your feathers only? What’s the use of Instagram if each time you log on to it you feel miserable?
No, it’s not wrong to upload your photos, it’s not wrong to scroll down the timeline, but from my silly virtual voyage I think it is safe to conclude that one should be considerate when using social media. And yeah, sure, I much prefer real voyage to a virtual one.
Enjoy responsibly
Heineken advertising slogan
The Cruising Battleship 
The Narcissism Epidemic https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140813021707-117706618-the-narcissism-epidemic?trk=mta-lnk
Mind you, lady, it’s not polite to simply paste an URL as a comment. Please let us know what’s inside your mind by commenting properly.
Haha harusnya gak ngasih di comment box ya, soalnya cuma mau nunjukin itu buat kamu baca. Anyway thanks ya, Mard, ternyata gak cuman kamu doang yang punya masalah di 7 digital deadly sins :””) Thanks God jadi sadar.
Reblogged this on Prisoner of Hope and commented:
No joke, this is eye-opening (at least for me).
“What’s the use of Instagram if each time you log on to it you feel miserable?”
Thanks for reblogging this post, San. Suddenly there’s a spike in my site views in the last 48 hours hahaha. Anyway, I despise the fact that everything around us is becoming more and more like a racetrack. This is unhealthy, really.