20220918

Friendships and Plants, a social experiment in Social Media


I just woke up and I had this idea. 


The context for that, is some friendships that I think I have are not the same in both ways. Maybe I'm not a plant for them, but a decoration in their garden.


I heard that friendships are like plants that you need to put water on. 


The thing is, some people are like cactus and others demand more water to be a healthy plant. 


All our links / friendships are different. It makes me think that even if I like diversity, I need to know my plants.


If I have a plant that suddenly doesn't fit with my watering schedule or the amount of water that I distribute to the rest of them well, it will fade. And it's okay, probably that energy should go somewhere else.



So this is the experiment I want to do. 



I will unfriend everybody on my Facebook and instead of letting Meta decide by the click of a button a friend request to "be friends", how about you actually call me or video call me and tell me why you would like to be friends on Facebook with me.


I would like to be me, the one who needs to make the call... but I think the experiment doesn't work that way. If I make a friend request, people will probably click accept and not engage in any conversation.


So there you go. 


Is this another way to be a digital minimalist?


If you don't even have my phone number, you may know someone who has it. And if not, probably I'm just a savage plant that grows in your garden that you won't miss. 


So referring to myself, if I don't have water and I see my plants need some, I will ask the neighbors if they can help me to have some water to keep the connection with my plants. 


It's my garden. My way of taking care will reflect the type of plants will flourish. 


If it's too complicated and I don't have time for "this plant", because I don't understand how much water it needs (because I never really took the time to get to know this plant) well, probably it doesn't matter for the garden you want to have. 


Probably I'm just a plant that I have appeared in your garden for any reason.


In the end, it's your garden, you have to put some effort to keep it as you want.



Let's start to post this on my feed. 



If we don't interact with each other, then the algorithm will take care that I will not even appear in your feed. And if with time, you realize that I unfriend you, well, it means that we never really interact. It probably was too late and the plant just faded. Who knows? Some plants can come back after a season


But I don't think I will click on accept friend request to be "friends" just because you click on a button and don't engage in a conversation. I invite you to do so.


In the end, this is my garden too. 



Exploring:


  • Ways to accept how I fade on others. 
  • Becoming an observer 
  • Acknowledge the effort I need to put in for things to happen. 
  • Value and impact of Facebook on my life.
  • Is Facebook really connecting me with people?


No comments: