Facebooking

8:30 am

Good morning Facebook. Let us see what comments I received for my photo album of fifty types of grasses.

What? No comments? Not a single “Like”? I tell you. These “friends” have no interest in photography or interesting subjects like grass.

Talking about interesting subjects, I bet folks will be really interested in this article on the decline of Inner Mongolia in today’s edition of New York Times. What a timely well-written piece! It is only 50 pages long. Let me post it on Facebook.

11:30 am

Here you go. Dan has posted an album of pigeons. Why does he think anyone gives a damn about pigeons? Who is going to look at them? Waste of electrons.

Also, I see an article about the fine art of Zen Buddhism posted by Alex. How long is it? Twenty pages? Where does he think I will get time to read a twenty-page article?

2:30 pm

It is already mid afternoon and not a single person has commented on the article on Inner Mongolia. I tell you no one cares what is going on in the world.

Oh, I see. Subhash is now in Bogota. Why does he think I give a crap regarding where he is? Besides, what is he doing in Bogota? May be he is involved with drug smuggling!

While we are on the subject of travel, let me post my daughter’s pictures---yes the ones where she is giving a lecture in the elementary school in Sudan. People will be so impressed with how well we have brought up our children.

5:30 pm

Not again. More pictures of Sam’s son singing in the school? Ok, I get it, he is talented, but how many pictures do I have to see?

No comments on my daughter’s pictures. No one cares. I bet no one has yet read the article I posted either. I give up.

But before I do that, I bet people will be interested in this album of my fifty pictures of icicles.

Overcommunicating

Aren’t these great times?

Facebook now allows me to connect on a daily basis with previously long lost friends and relatives. Blogs provide me with a soap box over which I can stand and provide my point of view on any topic I feel like. With my cell phone, and sensible pricing schemes, calling anyone in the world from anywhere has become a synch. Typing in a few words of SMS is now an impulsive and instantaneous activity. Broadcast emails with extensive mailing lists allow me to reach out to lots of people with my thoughts, opinions, and ideas.

For someone like me who gets kicks out of carrying out meaningful conversations with a diverse set of people, these are indeed wonderful developments.

However, I now realize that there are other types of people around in the world---those who are not much into communicating. These are the people who never respond to a broadcast email. They are your friends on Facebook, but they remain invisible. They are the ones who do not pick up the phone on the other hand---the caller ID having revealed that it is you who is calling.

To some extent, I see their point. In most cases it is us who have imposed ourselves on their quiet nook. We can not expect them to behave the same way as us or have the same needs. They have enough things going on in their lives that these overcommunicating activities play a secondary role. Or they just prefer to be left alone, either because of inherent shyness or fear that their communicating skills are not good.

They do not rejoice the availability of these multiple channels. They have no need share what they feel at any moment, their views on Sarah Palin, or what they did over the weekend. They probably think we are too pushy, self absorbed, and opinionated.

We need to respect their wishes. We need to stop being annoyed if they do not respond to our broadcast emails or do not participate in a hot discussion.

However, I feel that the behavior adjustment has to take place on both sides. The undercommunicators need to observe some level of courtesy in their dealings with people like us. A direct email (not a broadcast one) needs to be responded, the phone needs to be picked up. There are ways of expressing your desire that you don’t want to be bothered without being so obvious.

If these adjustments are not made, I am afraid that some relationships are going to end up being weakened, or even wrecked, as a result of these tools instead of getting strengthened.