Digital Islands

This Diwali was beautiful — lights everywhere, laughter at home, the comforting smell of sweets, and the quiet joy of being with family. It felt good. Warm. Familiar.

And yet, amidst all that brightness, one small thought kept surfacing — I didn’t receive a single personal wish or call from anyone.

Not one.

Sure, there were plenty of messages on WhatsApp and social media — vibrant “Happy Diwali” images, festive GIFs, and a few well-designed videos. A couple of people did message me directly, but those too were the kind that end with “– from me and my family” — clearly a one-size-fits-all message sent to everyone in their contacts list.

But no personal calls. Not even from a few I had quietly hoped would call.

Now, I’m an introvert. I talk well when I’m with people, but I’m not great at keeping in regular touch. My networking skills have always been on the weaker side. I don’t often pick up the phone just to check in. Over time, I’ve lost touch with many friends, colleagues, and even relatives.

Still, I try to be cordial with everyone. There are a few people I interact with on social media — a meme here, a quick comment there, a few shared laughs. But even those people didn’t reach out this time.

I don’t blame anyone. Honestly, I think this is just how things are now.

I remember when festivals used to be alive with calls. The phone would ring non-stop for the first few hours of the day. Each call had genuine warmth, a small chat, some laughter. Those were real connections.

Now, our phones are silent. Instead, we scroll through endless group messages that give us an illusion of being connected.

People post, forward, and broadcast their wishes — and feel they’ve done their part. A message in a group chat somehow replaces an actual conversation.

Even my wife, who’s far more social and outgoing than I am, found herself in the same situation this year.

Social media has connected us like never before — but also split us apart like never before.
We scroll through updates, react to photos, and forward festival wishes, all while drifting further into our own digital islands.

To be fair, I’ve always made it a point to send personalized messages to my contacts — usually for Diwali and New Year — through WhatsApp or Facebook. It’s my small way of keeping connections alive. This year too, I did the same. But only later in the day, after thinking about how quiet everything felt.

So I started sending out a few personal wishes — simple, direct, addressed by name, mentioning their family, or recalling a small detail I remembered about them.

Most replies were polite — “Wish you the same :)” — but that’s okay. It wasn’t about the response. It was about the effort to reconnect.

I know I need to do more — to rebuild those small, human bridges that have quietly eroded. For a long time, I blamed myself for not keeping in touch. But now, I realize it’s not just me.

We’re all a little lost in this fast, connected world —
all waving from our own digital islands.

P.S. - I wrote a similar post on this topic, 16 years ago: Digital 'Pseudo-Contact' . It was true at that time when the social media had just emerged. It is even more amplified, 16 years later !