The social bug

The social bug had infected the world. Its symptoms are visible in our fingers, which are constantly at work. Typing away furiously on blogs, social media apps, chatting. Churning out our thoughts, converting our imagination into text. All over the world, the story repeats. Irrespective of age, race, gender, financial status, the effects are the same. It dramatically increases the amount of time we spend on our smartphones or electronic devices. It forces us to keep churning out messages and posts.

Libraries report a decrease in readers. Neighborhood bookshops are going out of business. In their place, smartphone shops are springing up all around. A whole new lexicon has emerged. Emojis are being invented every minute. Emotions that would need multiple lines of text can now be conveyed with a single image. A couple of decades ago, a landline was a status symbol in most homes. Distant relatives, school friends, communicated through mail. We even had something called pen pals. Today, our day does not start unless we wish Good Morning to folks with whom under normal circumstances we would rather not speak.

In our social media posts, we write about ourselves, about our life, what we eat, how we eat, where we eat. We are the superstars in our own home production. All with interesting photos showing ourselves pulling weird faces. Maybe this is the next stage of evolution. There is no treatment for the bug other than to throw your smart device away and move to the amazonian rain forest. That is, if you are not surrounded by nature lovers taking selfies with anacondas wrapped around their neck. It is a tough situation. I hope we survive this.