Thursday, January 21, 2016

Social Media Impact

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, ‘Amchi Mumbai’, I posted the photograph of my prized Chopper-ride on Facebook. And it turned me in to a celebrity overnight... Such is a strong and instant impact of Social Media.

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's Pavan Hans 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 Facebook was the Contest. These online contests conducted by various prestigious organizations challenged the creativity, general knowledge, technical knowledge and artistic skills ( drawing / painting / handicraft etc.) 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 contests happening on various FaceBook pages. I maintained a special diary for the companies / organizations holding contests, the company’as contacts, recording my prize-winnings from FaceBook-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 in both Facebook’s as well as Twitter’s contest-circles.

I was so completely committed to winning the 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 family doctor, I realized that I have started neglecting my diet and social commitments, while being 24*7 busy with social media. Now I have decreased my online time from 11 hours to 5 hours daily. It was hard 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.

#TataZicaMarathon 

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the#Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

6 comments:

Hema said...

11 hours to 5 hours! That is a feat! But you've made a point. It's easy to get caught up in the 'web' of social media.

শর্বরী - Sarbari said...

Interesting point, not just the impact of social media but also about the need to "win" everyday, all the time, without considering winning for who and at what cost! Good post.

SUJATA TAWDE said...

Thanks Hema, for your compliment. Since 2 days of #TataZicaMarathon , I have been writing incessantly .

SUJATA TAWDE said...

Good Morning Sharbori. Welcome to 'Spirit Of Mumbai'.

Jyothi Dmello said...

Wow. Blogging since 2009 (or maybe even before that?). That's brilliant.

SUJATA TAWDE said...

Hi Jyothi, Thanks. Welcome to ' Spirit Of Mumbai'. I am a journalist, so I created my 1st blog in 2007. All the best to you.