Selfie-Fanatics!

 

I am relieved!

After much deliberation & thought, I decided to exit the Whatsapp Group that was created by one of my classmates in school.

I had been part of this group for quite a while and was shocked at how behaviors of some of the group members (yes, yes, they were my classmates in school!) were anything but inclusive. Rather than collecting birthdays of all members in the group and having a practice of wishing all of us,  there were selective birthday greetings - often based on the current status of that individual! 

The Whatsapp group almost resembled like an elitist group where people who were (supposedly) globe trotters exchanged greetings, wishes and shared the success stories of their children with wahs wahs from other members. Shockingly, the accolades were also given selectively.

One female member of the group was such a selfie-fanatic that she believed that it was her right to tell others where she was (at any given point of time) - Dubai, New Zealand, Coimbatore or Hono Lulu. You guessed it right - there were photographs of her in colorful costumes - sometimes with her parents, relatives, other class-mates, etc! While there is no harm in sharing personal success stories, what cannot be

condoned is using social media for flaunting your social status! Selectively appreciating colleagues is another dampener.

It was becoming unbearable beyond a point. Considering that I knew what their social status was doing their school days, it became clear that these members of the group were unable to handle their so-called success in life! All that is shared in social media seldom reflect the real behavior of that person! Some people are craving for attention and this is aptly reflected in their social media behavior!

One more classmate of mine who is now based in the UK made me go on a merry-go-round. He was in Bangalore and claimed that he was so busy to even talk to me because his relative was in the hospital! But he had time to check Whatsapp and reply to messages!

He sent a Whatsapp message that we should meet for lunch and expectedly canceled it at the last minute! So much for NRI-vanity! I was left wondering why did I strike a conversation with him in the first place!

It is rather unfortunate that people change so much and value an individual's social status more than emotional bonds that had been forged during the school days!

Strangely, not one of these classmates (who were part of the group) ever bothered to pick up the call and talk to one another. I did call a few of them a few times but the response from the other side was tepid!

So much for social media etiquette from so-called NRIs...

Let me narrate a real-life instance of how pictures posted on social media can be deceptive. A Bengali family lived on the first floor of our apartments. The husband and wife quarreled day in and day out so much so that it became a nuisance value for everyone in the neighborhood. They were staying on rent and we stay in the flat above that is owned by us. Besides bearing the smell of fish being cooked at their home 24 x 7, we also had to deal with this incessant shouting and shrieking. The people living in the apartment opposite

our building then lodged a complaint with the flat owner and the Bengali family was asked to vacate the premises. But if you look at the pictures posted by this family on social media (Pinterest/ Instagram) you will be shocked to note how these pictures were far removed from reality. What was projected in those pictures was that of a happy family - going out for brunch, cutting cakes for birthdays...

Do not believe all that is posted on social media... Reality may be something different. This is the lesson that I learned from the experience.