FROM NOW, I WILL BE HEARD LESS AND SEEN EVEN LESSER
Every technology is novel in a way. But the trajectory of success varies by innumerable factors of which timing, competition, competitiveness and chance play significant roles. There is always a zenith in the adoption of a technology. Unless there is a redefinition and remake, the technology then goes the way of all, decline.
If there is a redefinition and remake, the core technology then takes on what is called technology-offshooting. As the core one wanes, an off-shoot continues in another trajectory.
The ubiquitous camera is an example. For me, facebook has been a novel technological package. An idea that merges information dissemination with internet to provide instant news and resource on the fly. When people talk about social media, it is indeed facebook that has been at the core. I have reached people I never knew I could reach, shared ideas with thousands I couldn't touch, cultivated genuine friendships with hundreds beyond my shores, and propagated my thoughts and ideas to acclaim and sometimes indifference and or condemnation without destroying the core values of respect for one another.
Many have found true love and affection through connections built and nurtured on facebook. But it has also brought its own pains and burden to many, myself included. When used properly to promote information sharing and dissemination and to rekindle connections long missing, facebook brings people together like no other tool and when genuine and respectable information is shared, it can build friendships, knowledge, respect and trust between individuals and a rich network that serves good purposes emotionally and economically.
But when misused (as is often the case when a user lacks self-discipline and a good sense of morality), trust and relationships can be broken beyond healing. The intrusiveness of facebook (notification especially) often knows no bounds and the breaches of personal space sometimes cannot be suitably prevented by it's (facebook) own privacy infrastructure.
There is the obsessiveness (if not addiction) of many users that cause them to be less productive, there is the offensiveness of many posts and the invasion of many personal relationships. No wonder many organisations ban access to facebook at work. Marriages are being broken daily by the invasion of personal space through facebook.
Calm relationships are daily troubled by the emergence of long lost boyfriends/girlfriend on the scene as a result of facebook. Many homes are split daily by fears and insecurity occasioned via the re-establishment of long lost links through facebook. Many married men have abandoned their homes chasing phantom or deceiving facebook lovers and many married women have brought their homes into peril after discovering their school days boyfriends on facebook.
Sadly, many of these new found connections have only ended in unmitigated disasters for everyone for they have quickly melted as quickly as they were formed but not until after destroying the stable relationships that was sacrificed in the first place to go on the flights on fancy.
One of the most embarrassing stories I have read was of a married woman declaring to a lover she met again on facebook: "maybe a good thing you're married to another beauty cos if I find out you're doing this to me [cheating]... I'll die in your arms". Age and experience does not protect anyone from the burdens and pains of, and/or the insidious attractions on, facebook.
Only integrity does and a great measure of it; but sadly integrity is a scarce commodity for millions. Having enjoyed facebook myself for years, I have also personally experienced, in a very profound and destructive way, many of its downsides. I have met people and formed respectable and enduring friendships but I have also had my personal space breached irresponsibly and irreparably through facebook.
For me, the facebook journey had reached its zenith and started its decline in a subconscious manner sometime ago. From now, I will be heard less and possibly seen even lesser. Will that be the end of facebook? No. just for me the end of the facebook journey. There will always be new users for a good time to come but the more of the old users disappearing like me the more will the imperative towards offshooting be strident. Yesterday, I test ran my impending departure by shutting down my profile for 24 hours.
It was such a relief to do so. No notification of the posts or users that I follow came disturbing my calm or my sleep or my concentration at work.
Apart from other instant messaging apps on my smartphone (IMs) some of which will soon be shut down too, I got less disturbed and less distracted. I am so welcoming of my new life with less of facebook so I can embrace a new life with more of my Bible. Welcome to a new world of calm.
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