Misanthropic Experiment
Friday, May 31, 2013
Social suicide Journal
This was born out of bad PMS and an overall horrible day. I was beginning to miss my mum a lot and was angry at a lot of things. Things which are better kept away from this page. One of the first things that came to my mind was how I was going to "go off the face of the earth" and quite literally so, I did.
It feels great to know that no one is genuinely interested in trading a conversation with you if it costs them money or time. Which is why I opted out of BBM and Whatsapp. Getting off from Facebook was slightly hard. Initiation was abrupt. I started out without thinking why exactly do I need this break but then the reasons were always there. I needed to read a lot more, be productive- comedy writing and well, in general, look beyond lives of those who had cash enough to take them to Paris and other exotic vacation destinations. I had my room, which had water seepage problem (two days old, because of which I began this whole quest of social suicide- the reason).
Day 1
My morning routine for the past few months has been reading the newspaper and checking my mail, since I'm disconnected from mail services on my blackberry. It was different today, since most of the graveyard mails are from friends on Facebook and one odd mail each evening from Cagle Post. Today, inbox just read one mail and there it was, gleaming new cartoon off Cagle's box. My first instinct was to open the Facebook app on iPad but then it dawned upon me, what I did last night. Determined to make it last for a while, I switched it off and went to brush my teeth.
Through the day, I've to admit, I had several withdrawal symptoms. There was pretty much nothing to do and no one at home. I've been avoiding meeting friends in general and following that, I had nothing planned. A ordinary day would have panned out with me logging in and out of Facebook multiple times and probably baking something. Instead, I ordered in Chinese and saw Big Bang Theory season 3, revised basic Japanese, signed up for NaNoWriMo, read extensively on spec scripts, art of comedy writing and planned a few things to accomplish over the next few months- tops September.
Day 2
I woke up spectacularly late and indulged in over 3 hours of television watching. Caught up on lazy reading- few magazines and Catch 22. I was battling body ache as well as mood swings so decided to add my cell phone to this giant experiment. Cheated twice, once because i saw it turned on and second cause I was bored of playing Bubble Explode. No messages both the times. No one misses me, apparently.
Also, gave up twitter today. iPad doesn't allow me to log out. Restraining myself from checking all sorts of portals is hard but then I'm keeping myself occupied by reading all sorts of lifestyle related crap online. A tip or two for writing comes my way. If this sort of crap is published and loved, I will be truly successful.
Day 3
Truly pissed at the moments when I see friends making desperate attempts to reach me. Flashback: I ditched a sleepover and a night out and since my phone was off, friends were wondering how to reach me. Other ones are now realizing I'm off Facebook. It's a bit of a relief, really. I drove for about 5 Kms today and then let the driver take over since mother and grandfather were panicking out of their wits. Surely the highlight of my day. Picked up stuff to bake cookies and mousse since cake was getting a little boring. However, tomorrow I'm baking cinammon banana bread. Yay me.
Day 4
Good. Fucking. Day. Banana bread (baked by yours truly) topped with tutti fruity ice cream and sliced mango was one highlight as was meeting two of my classmates. Spent the day watching Dexter and reviewed my colleagues' work. I don't know if it's the end of menstrual cycle or what, but I was generally cheerful. Maybe, it was cheese croissant for breakfast with latte. I can only speculate. Itching to read something that is unputdownable but can't seem to find anything. Planning to read first in series of Campus Trilogy by David Lodge.
Cheated slightly with twitter. For work and other reasons. Indulged in a bit of texting yesterday and today. At some point I almost held myself back from opening Facebook. This is exactly like quitting cigarette. I don't know which one's harder but indulging in Facebook is surely more dangerous than lighting a dunhill.
Day 5
I'm drunk outta my wits. Vomited everything that I had for dinner (salad, rice and kidney beans). I think I saw the Masterchef twice tonight but I can't debate with a drunk me. Had a fairly average day, actually more sucky than average. Started reading the new Lodge I bought for myself. Good for me, right? A classmate called me saying something funky at not having me on Facebook but I can't remember? I shuts stop chewing my nails. Gah, need to vomit again. Bye. L
Day 6
By far, the most productive day this week. Cleaned my closet, battled a terrible hangover and made a plan to meet an old friend for Italian lunch. Saw fairly normal amount of TV and read some stuff online. Only to top it with David Lodge. Feeling very good about doing this much. Some new plans in the pipeline. Let's see. Super excited about goal setting and reading much more. Social media can go suck monkey balls. Didn't miss it one bit. I'm getting better.
Day 7
My statement these days has been this,"sorry man, no clue. I'm off Facebook." It's freaky how every aspect of life is on Facebook. So much so that the idea of personal interaction means a Facebook inbox/twitter DM. Strange ways. Last night I saw seven episodes of New Girl straight. To be honest, I'm a bit guilty of everything I watch online now. I'd much rather read. Something I realized after watching shit for over a week now.
I met the said friend for lunch- rather relaxed afternoon topped with drive. Spent majority of my day reading blogs and archived articles online. Stumbled upon quite a few things that I may have missed out as a kid. That progressed to family dinner at Chilis. For the first time in all these years, I had a fairly average dining experience there. Ambience was too loud, folks weren't particularly impressed and the steak was over kill. The perfect elements to ruin a night out.
Since my seven day long Sabbatical is now over, I can activate my account and be available to everyone on the face of the earth. Only reason why i'd do that is because Facebook has become a part of life. Whether one wants it or not, it's a crucial part of one's existence. All these cross party platforms and almost every software connecting to work via Facebook is a vehement proof of the same. However, I'd much rather not give in to Whatsapp just yet since I am not in any way desperate to establish contacts like I did on BBM. Would I miss BBM? No, partly because I've had my time and secondly cause my entire group has moved on from RIM to IOS et al. Also, this is called growing up and moving on. Let's embrace it.
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