The year was 2009 ; the aam-junta was still busy scrapping on Orkut. I too had an Orkut account but I was more committed to my Blogger Account, ‘Spirit of Mumbai’ . After receiving a prize for a blog post, ‘Tapori Mumbai’, I posted the photograph of my prized Chopper-ride on Facebook.
Facebook was a novelty then. Most Facebook_DPs boasted of
fancy cars while my DP showed-off a ritzy Helicopter Raven in its full glory,
ready to take off at Juhu Aerodrome. I was bombarded with Friends-requests and
queries regarding the Chopper-ride. Suddenly I was having more than 1000
FB-friends, who were active in various extra-curricular activities.
The most fascinating and challenging
extra-curricular activity, I loved on FB was the Contest. These online contests
conducted by various prestigious organizations challenged the creativity, general
knowledge, technical knowledge and artistic skills of the participants. The 1st
ever Facebook-contest, I won was Valentine day contest (poetry writing). Next month I
won 10 FB-contests, and then I promised myself, that I will win a contest every
day. It was a hard task, as I had to keep track of the contest happening on
various FB pages. I maintained a special diary for the companies /
organizations holding contests, the company’s contacts, recording my
prize-winnings from FB-pages, the prizes I won but have not received etc. Then
I discovered that Twitter had also started the trend of contests. I joined the
Twitter-contest-wagon within a jiffy and soon became famous on both Facebook’s
as well as Twitter’s contest-circles.
I was so completely committed to winning contests
that I powered on my laptop early in the morning and remained online for 11 to 12 hours daily. Within a year I was a Contest-champ .I joined the secret
group of Contest-winners. I received the golden opportunity to meet the
legendary author Sir Jeffrey Archer and got an autographed copy of “Only Time Will
Tell “. An organization interviewed me about my exemplary talent in winning
online contests.
After a visit to my cousin DR. Sandhya Kadam (M.D. Ayurveda), I
realized that I have started neglecting my diet and social commitments, while
being 24*7 busy with online contests. Now I have decreased my online time from 11 hours to 5 hour daily. It was difficult, initially to cope up with the withdrawal
syndrome. My sister and mother encouraged me to remain off-line.
The most important lesson, I have learned from this
episode is, it’s exhilarating to keep winning and still the health is more
important than prizes and accolades.
14 comments:
Such an insightful article Sujata. Social Networking sites can indeed by very addictive. I am glad you are doing much better now. :)
Thanks Khushboo for prompt and concerned response.
Are u in Mumbai for d weekend. Am sure U have joined IndiBlogger's Elite club. Congrats
Sujataji, It is reported that now a days Facebook is working as tool of American Govt and the CIA and what we must do is a point for consideration. Further thanks a lot of for voting my post on indiblogger.
Thank u ,Sampatji for your consideration.
Thats a very good portfolio. You are a highly skilled blogger. But worrying about health is OK. So is family important, and social networking in real world.
keep winning and all the best.
Thanks for taking out time from your busy schedule and reading this. Your wishes are always sought after and most WELCOME.
Nice article sujata. Keep it up !
Sandhya , WOW , Great , Superb , Fantastic .... at last & Very Best , I received Her Highness's response for this Blog-post. I wanted your permission to attach ur photo in this post .
Great to know, Sujata.
I love Contests too.
Now have stayed away from FB for 3 years. Even haven't received many prizes I supposedly 'won' :)
I love Twitter, but staying away from contests.
Take care of your health. Hope you are better now.
Hi Anita, Welcome and Thanks for sharing your personal experience and your good wishes.
Nice article on Social Media. I read the article lately but it seems interesting.. Keep posting Sujaata
Thanks Hitesh , for the encouragement .
Thats a very good portfolio. You are a highly skilled blogger. But worrying about health is OK. So is family important, and social networking in real world embroidered lawn suits , embroidered lawn suits , embroidered lawn suits , embroidered lawn suits , embroidered lawn suits , embroidered lawn suits , embroidered lawn suits
You are amazing for always winning an event. Congratulations! piano movers Tacoma
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