Life lived virtually

If there is one thing the modern homosapien is really paranoid about in this networked age, it is about missing out on their online life. It is a phobia more pronounced than anything else, as if our very next breath depended on whether our social network know-how was up-to-date ( which is mostly about where Sam partied last night, or when Rita went for her morning jog, or what Amer had for lunch)!

Many would rather have robust virtual personalities, and active on-line presences rather than real-life friends. So at the cost of being unsocial in real life, we hanker after glorious on-line images. Our holidays are not worth it, if we haven't got sufficient likes for the snaps we posted. That dinner at the up-market boutique hotel is stuck in our throats till we post about it realtime. The party ain't happening unless it makes it to Facebook history as the most 'liked' do.

This fear of being left out or not being liked enough online 'virtually' kills us. It prods us to keep checking our in-boxes by fiddling with our latest toys (tabs/i-phones/ and whathaveyous), and often ignoring the flesh and blood humans in our vicinity. After all virtual beats real any day, isn't that right? The 'likes' and 'hits' you get on-line are worth much more than real hugs or warm interactions, or aren't they?

What would happen, God forbid, if we were suddenly to lose our online presences. Heavens, it would be death itself!

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