Addicted to you, an FB rant

I used to pity them, these white boys and girls who walk into a bus (carrying their laptop in their bag, wearing heavy boots topped with snow jackets); take out their phones and start “leafing” through it the minute they hit their chairs. The “glowing”-faced, dazed-eyed products of the “brave new world” of social medias and the internet, who won’t be able to rub two stones together and start a fire to save their lives. These wimps who can’t say a sentence without adding half a dozen “like”s, are always “so…” something about something “right now”, and can’t finish a statements without the equivocal question mark. These “social animals” with strangers in their buddy list. These occupy-wall-street-ers who “like” things computer aggregators chose for them, follow “tweets” of people whose life style they faithfully try to duplicate, and would sacrifice God and man to escape the curse of appearing “uncool”.

I used to despise them, mock their need to show off, to “roll” with the flow, to appear full of life when infact all the life they have seems to be contained in a small device that understands only [two] binary digits. 0 & 1. Zero life, and 1 for alone (all-one?!).

I despised them, me with my big books that I hardly start and never finish. Me with my afro and typically Ethiopian unseasonal dress code. Me who rarely listened to music, and only as a transition from one radio program to program on npr [Npr! How much do I love thee. Lemme count the ways].

I despised them, until being away from family and friends; divorce, resettlement and single life made me one of them. Until I had so many things to say and no one to say them to. So much to share, and nobody to share it with. Things to prove, photos to show, opinions to release into the world (like a bird with a note tied to her feet), to go tell all how smart, witty and observant i was, became too much to be kept for self [or two short for blog posts].

Unortunately or fortunately, I hailed from the wrong country for fueling facebook addiction. Most of my [Ethiopian] facebook friends are there to compare notes: to know who stayed single or married, who has procreated and who hasn’t, and who gained weight and who lost it.