Daily Prompt: Call Me, Maybe

I have to admit that my relationship with my phone is pretty much complicated. The main reason is that I use it for everything except to make calls, which is funny considering the basic function of a telephone is to make calls. I don’t know why I don’t like talking on the phone much. My friends already know that I am not much of a caller. I mostly receive calls, and except for a few people, I tend to end conversations quickly.

Maybe it’s because my favorite mode of communication happens through writing (message, whatsapp, emails, twitter, facebook…). But maybe it goes deeper than that. When I was in school, my fellow schoolmates used to call me only for help in their schoolwork, and it used to really depress me. I would complain to my diary that they’re using me and that they never even bother to tell me if they’re hanging out or something. So basically, the ringing phone was an indication for “School SOS.” And when it was exceedingly silent, the phone used to act as a reminder that I didn’t have many true friends and that I was a “loser” (in high school terminology), though now I just have to correct that by replacing the ‘s’ with an ‘n’.

But as my close friends would testify, I sorta make up for my lack of interest in making calls with my obsession with social media – which is why I have a phone in the first place. Since social media/emails requires me to type everything out instead of talk, they’re my favorite mode of keeping in touch with people, and of course, the fact that there is a wordpress application for the iphone is always a plus since I stay up-to-date with the interaction on my blog, which is why a phone like the one below would never have cut it…#ThankyouSteve

Remember those phones? I don’t remember my first phone, but my bro had this one for ages…

In response to Call Me, Maybe

#Bestof2012 Ahechoes Posts

So the year is coming to an end, and I would like to take a few minutes to thank everybody who has been visiting this blog. With all the stuff online fighting for your attention, it is an honor that you’ve been spending some time here, so thank you very much. Thank you for your comments, likes, shares and retweets. I’ve been going through some of the comments that my friends have been sending me, and there seems to be a pattern, can you find it?

Person (A) on Facebook says, “long time no talk, but recently started reading more of ur writings and they are really good. i just want to thank you that some of ur writings i find them helpful esp to tough times in life. keep up writing and think of colletcting ur blog posts and put them in a book.

Person (B) shared my stuff on twitter, with the message, “write a book someday “

Person (C) on Linkedin said, “Write something, like a novel or maybe a children’s book for starters (JK Rowling!)”

So until I get to that, I’m listing below some of the top posts for my ahechoes.wordpress.com compiled for new readers. Some of these were actually published in 2011 but they still made the “most read” list of 2012. Enjoy!

1) The Masks People Wear.

2) How to Stop Hurting Too Much.

3) Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, Stay Curious. 

4) On Introverts. 

5) Sands of Time.

6) 9 Traits of Successful People

7) Dear Single Ladies

8) When Failure is a Success

9) The Road Less Traveled 

10) Losing Your Person

Overview of April and May’s Posts

So I’m hoping to pick up the habit of writing an “overview” post every other month for the sake of my occasional readers.  The most recent post I put up was dedicated to Syria and had information on how to donate, “Bleeding Syria“.

A friend of mine called me the other day and said why my posts sounded “sad”. She called to check up on me, and it seemed interesting because during the course of the discussion I figured out that the posts made her feel her pain. And that’s how I tend to measure the success of my posts; how many of the posts resonate with people, and whether people can relate to them such that it induces an emotional reaction within themselves.

I posted on relationships with “Acidic People” and I tried to answer the question, “Who’s Your Person?” only to figure out that I have more experience losing my persons over time in “Losing Your Person.”  There was a post discussing events in our lives and learning to deal with them in  “Corrosion, Life and Three Little Words” and how sometimes we think our lives may be crumbling down around us when in reality it’s just “Crumbling Up.” There was also a post on zoning out and where I go in “This is where I go, when I go“

Furthermore, we spoke a bit about violence; first in the “Irony of School Shootings” and then in “School Violence” discussing the act of violence against Lujein in a school in Abu Dhabi.

Finally, there were some mundane discussions on Facebook or Twitter , Graduation and “TCA After the Storm” .

Facebook vs. Twitter

So I have to admit I’m becoming more of a twitter fan nowadays. Facebook is becoming Face-boring, maybe it’s because what fills one’s wall is the specific details of people’s lives not limiting itself to the milestones like weddings, graduation and a baby’s birth, but going into as many details in between as possible, like what food was there at the wedding, what happened behind stage during graduation, the progress of a mother’s size before delivery….

In other words; B-O-R-I-N-G!

Facebook is becoming the new-age platform of stalking others. The funny thing is, in real life, the stalkee doesn’t want to be stalked by the stalker, but on facebook, the stalker doesn’t want to stalk the stalkee but is forced to because their life is out there for all to see. Since facebook has become an expert in inundating our lives with the details of all our friends’ lives, twitter came along to clear the clutter and limit one’s status to 180 characters (Phew! What a relief). Pictures and videos are posted as short links so if you don’t want to see what food someone is having for dinner, you don’t see it!

Then there’s the fact that the people on your twitter do not have to be friends you know in real life. So you’re not left wondering how that person who barely graduated from high school is making millions right now. What joins tweeps are the tweets (or the ideas in the tweets that are highlighted by hashtags). So I personally tend to follow aspiring writers, quote pages, and news accounts, because that’s exactly what I want to see on my timeline. If someone’s statuses become annoying, just unfollow them and life goes on. They won’t necessarily come to you in real life and tell you, “Why did you unfollow me? We are no longer friends in real life…” the way it can happen on facebook.

Even though twitter is not entirely anonymous. After all, the virtual accounts are updated by real people, and there’s no such thing as anonymity in the social media anyway. You can read about the 4 people jailed in Abu Dhabi after Twitter spat, and thieves caught after one forgot to log out of Facebook.

So I personally think that twitter is more efficient at delivering what I want from social media than facebook, even though I still use facebook to post my blog posts only because most of my audience is there until now. But it might be different for you, so which do you prefer, facebook or twitter?

If you have a twitter account, follow me @ahechoes

Quote of the Day: Eleanor Roosevelt said “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” So guess which social media platform is better at initiating discussions about ideas and which one is better at initiating discussions about people?