Problem:How to fill the “About Me” section in Facebook/Orkut and other networking sites!
What do I like to do, what are my strengths, my weaknesses, my dreams, my ideologies…I keep thinking and nothing comes to my mind. It’s not that I can’t make up something...but just to fill up an about me section on a social networking site, why would I go through all the pain of thinking and making up stuff that not only describes me, but its witty enough for a networking site. I would never read the “About me” of a person if it went on and on, without providing me with any kind of entertainment.
So, I mostly leave it blank….and I know for a fact that I am not the only one to suffer from this predicament! Some would fill it up with things like “I am fun loving”, or “I love to hang out with friends” or “I am a party animal”. Again this goes to show that the person is filling it up just for the heck of it. At the same time, there would be a select few, who would conjure up a paragraph about themselves at the same time making it lively enough to keep the reader’s attention. I would often think of just copying it, tweaking it a bit, and pasting it in my about me…but plagiarism in social networking sites can be detrimental…especially with the growing number of mutual friends!
However, this was not such a big problem to worry about till I heard someone telling me that only ignorant sould don’t know much about themselves. “IF you don’t know yourself, how in the world do you think you will survive in your life, job, society etc. Who would listen to a person who doesn’t even know about herself?” …Now that really got me thinking as to what all did I actually know about myself. Yes, I do have hobbies, I do know that I am short tempered, little introvert, I know that I love my family, Delhi, my friends. I do know that I like to go for trips, read books, watch movies, listen to music, eat out….but there wasn’t anything significant in knowing all that.
Some of the significant question still remained unanswered…I don’t know what would I actually do 5 years from now, I don’t have any dreams per se, I don’t have any political views, no religious views, I don’t know what kind of philosophy I follow in life..so much so that when people ask me what kind of music I like, I normally say anything that pleases my ears. I never follow any genre of movies, music, books! I read if I find the first 50 pages of a book interesting enough, I listen to music if I find the beats catchy enough, I like watching movies that keep me engrossed till the end. And sometimes, I read when I don’t find the book interesting enough, I listen to music even when I don’t like it that much, and I finish a movie just coz I started it in the first place!
I realized that I actually knew very less about myself.
Solution:I made a slight change in my about me, to take care of the friend who had pointed out that nothing can be worse than not knowing oneself ! Now it reads, “Only shallow people know themselves –courtesy Oscar Wilde”!
