Social Media and Its shenanigans

Words of a socialmedia purist - Lauretta Malaka

It'd been a long day of volleying words in the boardroom. I was glad to be out. I headed for the bus stop. I was just in time. As I got on the bus, I was so relieved that my favorite seat at the centre row close to the window was empty.

I sank into the seat exhausted. I plugged in my earphones and allowed Sam Smith to pour soothing music into my eardrums. I looked out the window (feeling like I'm in a music video) watching vendors trying one last time to market their wares before the bus picks up speed.

As the bus eased into the traffic,

I decided to log into Facebook to know what's new with my friends and check out the latest posts from pages I've liked.

I had notifications and a couple of friend requests. I scrolled through the list wondering why these good fellows sent me requests wanting to sail with me on Friend 'Ship'.

Why did they want to be friends on Facebook? Was it because it gave them the feeling of being friends, being social, without having to put in any actual work to start and build the relationship except a few key strokes? Or maybe while they sleepwalked into their homepage, trying to keep themselves up to date on the happenings in their contacts' lives, stumble on the 'friends you may know' tab, add a couple of names into their friends-shopping-cart and then stumble on? You may be thinking I'm a proud, standoffish son of a gun *hands you two capsules of chillpill and a glass of cold water*. Don't get it twisted, I'm the nicest, and most approachable mortal you have ever met.

I'm sort of a social network purist. This doesn't mean I don't have strangers in my 'ship' but my wish is that if I get to meet these strangers in 3D (i.e. in flesh and blood) we can continue from where we stopped on social media.

I just don't want to build a troop I can only ‘use’ to further my cause e.g. get votes for a competition, increase the number of likes on my posts, potential customers etc,

 but I want to grow a family, a network of people who are real to me. Trust me, it's for our good.

From the 'applications' I received, I accepted a few requests and turned down the others (see me feeling like a HR personnel...come on, this is my 'company'). I then checked out my friends list and discovered that friends aboard had increased to 213 (I know allllll of you boast of more), I was surprised to discover that there were lots of people I hadn't spoken with in years and I suddenly became curious about what they were up to. I started off by checking a couple of their timelines, it helped me continue on an ongoing conversation that made me feel I had known enough of what's happening with them even if I hadn't seen or texted them in years.

I was so absorbed in this and oblivious of my environment that when I raised my head from the lighted box in my hands, I discovered that the sun had fully set, the streetlamps were more brilliant and the bus had finally reached the last bus stop. I tossed my phone into my bag, stretched, got out of my seat and while i joined the file out of the bus, I made a mental note to write personal messages to all the friends on my 'ship'.

If John Kovacevich could write to all 1109 of his LinkedIn contacts last year, I sure can do the same for my 213 Facebook friends.

photocredit: www.theberkeleygraduate.com; stuartjdavidson.com

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THE WRITER - My name is Lauretta. I'm a graduate engineer, a keen observer of others, and intensely curious about the world. A chronic bibliophile, I go into relapse when I'm short of supply. As much as I like my laurels, resting on them has never been as interesting as diving off into a new pool. 

PRISCILLA'S NOTE -I studied for, travelled for and wrote my SATs with this awe-mazingggg lady in 2008. She was my 'co-hostess' on the trip and that was when we got close. Even though life happened and we lost contact at some point, she found me and has never stopped showing immense support for me and all my many 'projects'. Everyone needs a cheerleader like Lauretta in their corner.