Why we love the metaphorical album called Facebook?

The internet is swamped with articles on social media taking away family time. Then there are articles crying foul that people do not present their real selves in FB posts as their posts always depict smiling, happy people. But then, who wants to check out gloomy photos of their friends, relatives or acquaintances?

Beep. Pause. Let’s for once go to the age before the digital revolution. One invites relatives for a Sunday lunch. Every one sits across the table sharing bland and not-so-bland jokes. After a hearty meal followed by a dessert, all of us are seated in front of the television.

Within a few minutes of watching TV, there emerges on its screen a tourist spot,which our hosts had the good fortune of visiting in the summer of 1987. Now on the suggestion of a heart-deep-in-nostalgia relative, out comes the heavy, hard bound family album in which our hosts have carefully preserved their holiday memories. It is not the digital age, and yet, do we see anything different? We still see, as the R.E.M band of 90s would have put it, “Shiny, happy people laughing.” And for the overly nostalgic, do not sigh for an era gone by, this is what we still do on FB: post photos of shiny, happy people on FB.

The album is understandably a page turner for the guests, but not for our host with an indefatigable will. He will explain to you in detail what prompted him to take such and such photograph often accompanied by an uproar of laughter from all present. Our host narrates with such conviction, that the guests have no option other than to nod their heads in agreement.

Thanks to Facebook, we exercise our free will in determining the duration of our attention span on each of the photos posted. For those among us hard-pressed for time, we click “Like” for the entire album even without opening it. To say the least, we are often spared the narrative of our host. And some of us may even post a casual comment, “Nice”, lest it should appear ungracious.

Variety, my friends, is undeniably the spice of life. Our bulky, two-people-must-hold-on-their-laps albums inevitably pale in comparison to the infinite number and variety that the FB album exposes us to in seconds. Take for instance the case of this young man in his early thirties searching for a beautiful bride. On a breezy, post-lunch Sunday noon, he takes out the old album from the almira. After leafing through a few pages, our friend stumbles upon a young, beautiful relative standing in a corner in one of the photos. Excitedly, he turns over the remaining pages to catch one more glimpse of the girl. As luck would have it, there aren’t any more pictures of this pretty girl in the album. Not sounding too concerned, he checks with his mother the name of the girl, and in the pre-face book age, may or may not pursue the matter further.

Fast forward to the present day. The moment our friend gets the name of the girl, he keys the same on his face book account and is able to see a much clearer picture than what he had previously accessed. Unless one is a miscreant, this saves much time and labor for all parties concerned.

On a serious note, one cannot deny the fact that a vibrant social media is a sign of an equally vibrant democracy, allowing easy dissemination of information that would otherwise have been bottled up. It was the social media in Brazil that brought to light the corruption scandal involving Petrobras, the state-owned oil company.

Before signing out, do check out the “Shiny, happy people” song from REM as that is what I want all of us to be.