I often wonder if all the hundreds of hours I spent on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram combined over the years, was just wasted time. But that would be incorrect assessment. I stayed in touch with friends, family and re-connected with a school friend who I ended up getting married to, all thanks to social media platforms.

Social media platforms also helped me make better friends. I suddenly understood their politics, their comfort with being oppressors or their support of violence. It helped me distill my friendships.

As Facebook introduces things like Metaverse where people “live” in a series of virtual worlds, I wonder what the end game of social media is going to be? Will all our interactions become performative, even if no one is watching, because you know the algorithm is always watching, listening and supposedly rewarding or punishing us.