We have been internetised

"We don't make friends anymore. We add them"

This tweet by @shakti_shetty of Twitter, made me think.

The fact that the internet has pervaded all aspects of life is a given. That today you can order and pay for pizza, track its progress from 'preparation to dispatch' all while comforting sitting on your laptop or mobile is awesome. The reach and potential of platforms like twitter is infinite. But has the internet, rather, social media, started to own us? Have our actions simply become a product to sell in this online market?

Strangers across computer and mobile screens have become closer than ever, while we have distanced the people close to us. Somebody tweeted this the other day
" It's strange how far we'd go to amuse total strangers on the internet but fail to put a smile on the face of a loved one". That hit a sore nerve and it's not a good thing.

In this age of 24/7 internet, with its own universe, and set of rules, we have started doing a lot of things. We have stopped doing a lot of the others.
Coming back to Shakti Shetty's tweet-

"We don't make friends anymore. We add them"

We don't send thank you notes or say personalized words of appreciation. We like

We don't provide constructive feedback or a witty retort. We troll.

We don't donate blood anymore. We RT tweets/share messages asking for blood.

We don't go out and vote. We make jokes about politicians.

We don't try to understand an issue or get our facts right. We tweet about it first.

We don't celebrate festivals or understand their significance. We trend them.

We don't savour our food and do a small prayer. We instagram it.

We don't play badminton and chess anymore. We beat friends in 'criminal cases'.

We don't photograph for memories anymore. We create albums and pages.

We don't travel anymore. We check-in.

We don't whisper sweet nothings anymore. We tag the lover in a status message.

We don't ask anymore. We google it.

We don't try to make things work or understand what happened. We unfollow/unfriend.


Let's save us. Save our souls from this internetization before we realise we are not living and dying anymore. We are just logging in and logging out.