What Did I Miss On Twitter?

There are four things that I missed today, on my fourth day without social media consumption:

1. That Tito Sotto made an interesting speech about the RH Bill. I will need to research on that. And perhaps finally read the full RH Bill text. It isn’t too late, is it?

2. That PAL offers unlimited domestic flights per month at a very cheap rate. Or something like that anyway. I will definitely need to research on that as well.

3. The #instachallenge0812 theme of the day for the past four days. (Background: I joined an Instagram challenge with some friends in which we’re supposed to take a photo on the theme of the day and post it with the hashtag #instachallenge0812 – 0812 means August 2012, in case you’re wondering. The prize and mechanics? We’re still deciding. It’s just fun I guess! You may still join if you wish. Simply add @installenge on Instagram. The theme for today is Symmetry.)

4. And lastly, what you had for lunch. And as I speak, I am also missing out on what you’re having for dinner.

It looks like I’ll be out of touch from current events in the next 26 days unless I put on extra effort to know things. Social media is my current events lifeline. I don’t watch television. Newspapers depress me. So I guess this month is Flipboard month.

The thing with social media is that you get information so much faster and easier. Simply “pull to refresh” and you get showered with news from all of your friends and all over the world, right here, right now. Now, that’s not a problem at all. In fact, it is very useful. Only last week, it seemed that the whole of Metro Manila converged on Twitter to help and rescue the habagat’s flood victims. I wish I had five thumbs right now so I can have all five thumbs up. That was just amazing.

The problem actually lies with the user. People like me, for example, would spend hours and hours a day reading tweets and posting nonsense. It’s become like a black hole. Imagine what I could have done in those hours… Perhaps finish a real book? Actually converse with the people right in front of me? Um, drive safely?

As I said, for everything that you do, there is something that you do not do. And what thing is, or what those things are exactly, I have a couple more days to find out.

Disclosure: I wrote this whole post during heavy traffic as I was driving to the gym. So for tonight’s drive, at least, this post replaces tweeting. Off to training now!

Also: my informer of Twitter and Instagram news, and also the administrator of @installenge is Jean Ong (@jeanong75).