There seems to be some rush to get attention. Yes, believe me there is rush which is so big there seems to be tripping all over the place. I mean with almost every one of us seem to be hurrying to make it to the ‘popular person’ podium. That must be some place which must be hopelessly overcrowded. Am I the only one to think that there seems to be some trend setting in and digging ever deeper! You know it looks that if you’re not out there on the social media or whatever you don’t exist! Scary! So featuring or not featuring on the social media could be an existential question! (OMG!)
This happened several months back. I bump into this lady with whom I used to work in the same organization for years. After the hugs and all the niceties she says she has been looking for me and couldn’t locate where in the world I was. It’s funny; you’re there and have been there right under their noses for ages and they still couldn’t locate you! Isn’t that a very minor issue? I mean after all they say if there’s the will there’s a way: And I think this lady, if she indeed had the will the ways would have been there to choose from.
A very minor issue where she could have called up one of our common friends and asked for my number or something like that to help her trace my whereabouts. She didn’t do that. I’ll tell you what she actually did. She browsed the internet not looking for things I might have written or anything like that. She said she searched for some recent photos of me! What! What the hell does she have to do with my photo recent or old!
Of course, I didn’t put that word for word to her. I just grumbled “Here you got me in person!” maybe that was my idea of putting a little humor into things. She didn’t laugh. She looks at me in the strangest of ways and says “You’ve changed!” it was more of a kind of surprised comment rather than an innocent one. I would have liked to push you into some corner with the question, “What do you mean by that?” But I didn’t do that. After all with more than a decade having elapsed since I last met her maybe there is no much harm in what she said. Indeed these days change seems to come on your person every few months rather than every few years.
“You too have changed,” I said because with the tins of extra flesh all over her anatomy it wouldn’t be fair if I overlooked that fact. And I said it in some tone I thought sounded good-humored while trying to put up my best smile, if I ever had any. She wasn’t much impressed because she either didn’t hear what I actually said or heard it and just ignored it.
Then her ‘drone’ comes in crushing; “You’re getting old!” It was not what she said but the tone in which she said it. It sounded that my getting older was the last thing she expected to see! What in the world did she expect me to be? Getting younger? ‘Pausing’ on year such and such both mentally and physically defying nature in the most outrageous way! Then her ‘second drone’ hits home;
“I browsed the Internet looking for your photo to see how you looked like!”
“I don’t post my picture anywhere; In fact I don’t post much of anything.”
“Are you telling me you don’t use the social media?”
“I use it in search of reliable news and good commentaries. I don’t do much posting.”
“You don’t even follow TikTok.”
“Especially that!” And I wasn’t dramatizing. The few times I logged into that platform I wasn’t comfortable; so there is no reason why I should look up anyone over there.
Then she tells me she had addresses on almost all social media platforms and was a popular TikToker with thousands of followers. Yes, I must be the odd guy out who still has a lot to learn about all this social media stuff. This lady being well past her fifties was that quite young girl who rarely speaks loud enough for everybody to hear. Now she is a famous TikToker! In fact she went on telling me the level of her popularity just as any emotionally charged teenager would have told you. She was basking in the limelight of popularity! I’ve promised my old time work colleague that I’ll log into her address and see what she has to offer; still pending! One fact I realized was that the lady was enjoying the popularity she says she commands like all the teenagers and the young ones do.
So don’t be surprised if some middle-aged or older person asks you, “Are you me you don’t do TikTok?” You answer; “No, I don’t.” Don’t be surprised if the person feels “…sorry for you…” because you are still so far back as the rest of the world speeds forward.
There were times when all the curses and blames for social media mess were heaped on the young and restless. In fact many times there could be reasons to say; “Well they are young and not much experienced in life. What more do you expect from them.” Still in the quest for popularity and multiplying the ‘likes’ and the ‘subscriptions’ much harm is being done. However no more are such things only the problems of the young. We seem to be in an age where other people fare removed from the younger ages still act restless on the social media platforms in actual day-to-day life too. Yes, I mean it when I say, “In actual day-to-day life too!”
Recently a group of youngsters were thrown behind bars because of all the mess they were doing on their multiple social media addresses. It’s real sad to realize that the young who must have been looking far ahead and supposed to strive to ensure life worth living find themselves in such despicable messes. It is said the problem is far more serious than we think it is. The older guys who are giving all these cooked and totally fictional ‘confessional’ and other forms of ‘interviews’ are part of the mess while they should have been trying to steer the young onto the right path. Sad, real sad!
“I don’t do TikTok!” “What!”
EPHREM ENDALE
The Ethiopian Herald July 7/2024