The inevitable woes of social media

It doesn't require us to read Virtual Reality (VR) inventor Jaron Lanier's book "Ten arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now" to realize all this.

Some thorns currently deep in my back:

A woman "follows" me on Instagram and I feel obliged to do the same although I don't know her identity even if I know we have some mutual friends. Some Maldivian girl friends say that I don't have any obligation to follow back even though I pointed out that I do it out of common courtesy.

But the awful thing is she will be posting on Instagram pictures that are accompanied by long texts borrowed from New Age cult textbooks, in addition to providing a doze of information you can get from any self-help book.

I have a Maldivian science student friend who I hope stays away from her to protect his scientific sanity and rationality. Long ago he cautioned me to be aware of pseudo science.

If I reach a point in future where I feel I have to unfollow people like this, in order to save my time and sanity, I sure will unfollow them, even though total inoculation from people are impossible because we are forced to live in a society in order to survive even at the most basic level.

I have no problems with "following" people who offer a fresh outlook on life - if they keep their ramblings interesting (for me) even if they are lengthy.

But then there are some of my political activist friends who seem to feel that, in addition to spending most time in cafes, they need to flood their Twitter and Threads with unnecessary information. For example, do I need to know every step they take from getting out of their bed to the time they take to reach the bathroom to brush their teeth?

I do understand and appreciate and am grateful how social media is providing people the opportunity to feel a sense of belonging and overcoming loneliness but there's only so much time and energy I can divert to help such lonely souls overcome their feelings of social isolation and societal alienation.

I now don't take the initiative of "following" anyone on social media unless they are friends. And even then I don't plan to get lost in their world of loneliness - however cruel that sounds coming from me.

Don't get me wrong but I do have empathy and sympathy for the thousands of Maldivians who through no fault of their own feel isolated and alienated in our society but I can't or don't have time to provide them my shoulder and they need to get professional help from psychiatrists who are there to help people deal with psychological problems like that.

This is another reason why I don't "follow" people on my own initiative unless I know them or are friends with them. I only follow strangers back if they follow me. So I do have a good reason to unfollow them at will if things come to that.

And coming back to that woman who follows me on Instagram, never through all these years of my blogging has she let me know her true identity. That must mean something. I don't even know whether it's a he or a she - I am guilty of stereotyping that user because of all the pictures of flowers "she" keeps posting.