What happens when suddenly some friend block or unfriend you from Facebook or WhatsApp or other social media chat sites? You feel desolate and crestfallen. Think of the school days. You have intimate friends and then those school bullies. Social media is just like that. The old school ties are sacrosanct and everlasting but FB and other social media friends are ephemeral. Of course, Facebook helps you connect with people as it says, not only your old school time friends who have got scattered but also gets you new friends, who are unknown to you. When we leave the last day of school, we splash ink from our pen on friends’ shirts and vice versa. Sorry, that was before the invention of ball point pens. Now school children don’t have ink pens or known as fountain pens. So today you scribble on the shirts or kurtas of your friends all kinds of loving words which will remain intact till that cloth disintegrates during the cycle of seasons. But then we also have those bullies we keep away even while parting.

In social media, that parting or blocking or unfriending is a painful experience even though you have been friends only for a few months or couple of years. It leaves heartburn like the long time lovers part ways over minor hick ups. But here we don’t have that ‘tu-tu, mein-mein’ thing because there’s no rule as to when you should or shouldn’t be friends with someone on Facebook. One can easily take the time to learn the privacy settings and even exclude someone on your friends list from viewing a sensitive post if you choose.  The point is, sometimes we take inventory of our friendships. Even though you may know someone for a long period of time, it doesn’t mean that you automatically grow together decade by decade.  While you can’t pick your family members, you can certainly choose your friends. Incidents like these are red flags and having less friends is quite fine. The number of friends or followers on social media just doesn’t matter. It’s the quality of the friendships that endure. So no etiquette. It is Net, stupid!

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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