Difference Between Talking and Communicating
This is the worst post I'll ever write*.
Ever since man has known Facebook, he has learnt to laugh at
a glaring screen. He has learnt to cry at the screen too. The social animal
that he is has learnt to be "more" social than ever before. Today,
one can talk to someone miles away through instant messages and share emotions
reduced to certain emoticons (which don't even make sense at times). Our
feelings, opinions, ideas are reduced to a random Facebook post or comment.
People read on. I wonder how many of them bother to understand. I wonder.
So, are times so bad that we need to advertise our feelings
today? Are people so selfish that they do not bother to even ask us about
ourselves? We're spending a large part of our lives doing stuff that does not
make sense. Stuff that does nothing to evolve us, improve us, prepare us for
tomorrow.
I check my News Feed. I see sad people. I see others making
fun of them. I see ideas. I see others mocking those ideas. I see happy faces.
I see wonderful comments. I see hatred. I see annoyance. I see boredom. I see fights.
I don't know how much of that is real. I don't know how much
we actually respect others. I don't know.
We're trying to present ourselves to the world in a good
way. That's what everyone does, right? When you meet a stranger, you don't go
on telling him about your nasty habits, your delusions and your insecurities.
You try to make an impression. And want it to stick. And it sticks. People view
you through that good impression. I don't know the truth. I can't even tell
anyone about myself in the most honest way, because it is just an opinion or an
opinion resulting from what all I have known from the reactions of my
environment. We want people to take and accept certain opinions as the truth.
See the first line of this post. Wasn't it just MY opinion? How can I predict
the future? I can't. Facebook is that. It makes you see things how it wants you
to see them. "It" here is its users (and some brands and companies).
We have words but we are losing substance. We have so much
to say yet so little to make others understand.
Dalai Lama was right.
"It's a time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room."
-The 14th Dalai Lama
People make fun of other people just because it's fun and
they want the world to take it as fun. It's for happiness, right? Where does
that happiness go when you are feeling like it's the end of the world? When you
look back, you will not cherish that meme you see telling you to "Kill
Yourself" or whatever, you will cherish the laughter you shared with
people. The smiles. The happy moments. The insecurities. The pain.
So, what is my point here? Ban Facebook? No. Learn to laugh
with people, not at people. Communicate only when you feel your words are
better than your silence. Approach that friend who helped you a lot and whom
you haven't talked to for days. Thank him. Talk to that enemy you once bore a
grudge against. Make peace. Communicate, not just blabber.
I'm guilty of these things too. I want to change things for the better too. It starts with me.
*though you never know, my standards may fall at quite
unexpected times
Live life, love life.
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+Yashraj Talan is a self-proclaimed sane person, yet to be forced under psychiatric consultation due to lack of any scientific proof to the contrary. Apart from troubling the world with his annoying but innovative antics, he also finds time to sleep and wake up every day as well as live life beyond his online existence, fighting procrastination every few hours a day.
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THE HAZY ROAD
Many a map I consulted,
Many a call for help I did shout,
The darkness was overpowering-
Strange animal calls dominated the bout.
The path was hazy:
The going, not so easy,
The cloudy day was dark,
I, fearless, went far and far
Until I came to the end of forestry,
The orange sun shining bright
And there I stood at the end of the woods,
Thinking, which hazy road I had travelled by…