Reporting Live from Facebook Sabbatical
My self-imposed month-long exile from Facebook
My self-imposed month-long exile from Facebook
I was quite frequent, if not prolific, on Facebook — that I would concede. However, I did not agree when my younger son, on his 25th birthday said, “Dad, you know what. But you are addicted to Facebook.” My argument was that addicts cannot kick out what they are hooked on to, whereas I could quit Facebook painlessly, at will. Hence, came my self-imposed, month-long exile from Facebook, that was to end on my birthday on 31st July.
Exile begins
So, on 1st July, made this announcement on Facebook for benefit of my 4999 friends and 5278 followers. Of course, I gave no reasons. I had fancied myself as an interesting person on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kbs.sidhu) — funny witty one-liners, puns, inspirational and philosophical posts, bureaucratic and political comments, iPhone X photographs, generally centred around Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh, frequent takes on topical issues, within India and abroad and occasionally, posts about my official engagements as an IAS officer with nearly 34 years of service in Punjab Cadre.
Predictably, my announcement created bit of a flutter in my audience. There was surprise and some disappointment but it was not as if an earth-shaking event had occurred. Some wanted to know the reasons, while others wished me safe and happy return. In any case, the storm-in-the tea cup subsided sooner than later. This gave me more time for reflection and introspection.
The fickle fan-following
What I learnt is that social-media fan-following is quite fickle; there’s nothing like perpetual or cult-like loyalty. People have their lives to live and your absence, temporary or permanent, does not create a huge void in their lives. There are no doubt some ardent friends who continue to bombard your inbox, but you could count those on fingertips. More importantly, social-media marketing professionals and influencers need to learn that your audience does not automatically flock back when you return. Thus, in many ways it may be self-defeating, if not suicidal, to go in for prolonged furlough on social-media, if you are into marketing or brand-building.
I had been accustomed to post early morning posts, wishing my friends “Good Morning!” and a similar “Good Night!” post to wind up the day. When for certain reasons I failed to post, I had this nagging and gnawing feeling that a large number of my friends would perhaps be worried whether all was well at my end. Since I was pretty regular, I thought this would be a normal reaction. My sabbatical from Facebook convinced me that I need to shun this monotonous regularity in posting and at the same time I should not get tense about my friends being concerned about my welfare, just because my regular “blips” did not appear. It was a little humbling at first but now there’s no sense of onus about posting my entry and exit posts as a kind of compulsory drill.
Channelised towards other social-media outlets
If your default device for Facebook and other social-media is a mobile phone, you need not spend much time in order to have a pretty copious set of posts. You can easily use the time when you are commuting or otherwise travelling. Having said that, this sabbatical gave me time and also provided impetus to start writing a few articles (800 to 1200 words), generally about the Civil Service and Bureaucracy, on Medium.com. I also re-energised my Facebook Page which already had over 14000 likes but had been lying dormant. Links of these articles were provided there. I got more active on Twitter, which is far more real-time in terms of the twitterati comments on breaking news and events. I also paid more attention to my Instagram photos, using hashtags with impunity. However, my WhatsApp Groups did not attract any of my renewed attention and all of them remained on “mute” mode.
Most of my posts on Facebook are “public”. This makes sharing easier and visible to the widest cross-section amongst the audience of the sharer. While I got off Facebook temporarily, I realized that many of my potential posts would be rendered superfluous without the topical context of the unfolding events. Thus I continued to maintain my regular diary of Facebook posts albeit with a privacy setting of “only me”. I thought, if it felt right, I would make them all “public” after my return from my self-imposed exile. Let’s see how I am feeling about it on 31st July.
When on Facebook, I was always trying to capture interesting moments on my iPhone camera. During this sabbatical, there seemed no great necessity to do so. Actually, I was able to enjoy the moments more rather than just trying to figure out a scene or a function/ action from a photography perspective. Interestingly, it was also during this period that I finally succumbed to the Netflicks charm to watch, not “The Sacred Games” but the Rajneesh Osho documentary “Wild Wild Country”. However, the TV, whether news or serials, did not catch my fancy and even my World Cup 2018 viewership was limited to the two semi-finals and the final. I also realized that breaking news is quite delayed on the mainstream media, whether electronic or print, and there’s nothing like Twitter to be part of action as it unfolds.
In my Facebook abstinence, I was by and large true to my promise but I did make an exception on the day of the “No Confidence Motion” vote (20th July, 2018) when “hugs” and “winks” were trending. As an exception, rather an exemption, I posted, with good old Hindi film songs in comments that would kind of fit into the occasion. This guest appearance may also have assured my friends that I was alive and kicking and, at the same time, it gave me confidence that my fans had not literally dissolved.
Two takeaways
Two takeaways, finally. There’s a whole real world outside of Facebook and social-media, where your real loved-ones are to be found. Do not neglect them just because it’s time for your next Facebook post. Secondly, creativity begets creativity and it does not deplete with over-usage. So figure out the right balance and keep ticking, on and off Facebook.
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KBS Sidhu. The Author is an IAS officer of 1984 Batch of Punjab cadre. The views expressed are his own.
He can be reached on kbs.sidhu@gmail.com or @kbssidhu1961 or https://www.facebook.com/kbs.sidhu