The New Leaf

It was December. A decade was closing. Social media was furious about a lot of things but one thing that didn't seem to cross many minds was new year's resolutions. It made sense really, because every other day a new piece of 'technology' sees a new way to lead an aspect of your life. Where would you be if you couldn't communicate to random strangers that you had walked 7,000 steps? Where would those same strangers be, if you didn't re-iterate to them that the world was going to hell in a handcart?

And there it was. A tweet from a young mother, mixed amongst the constant deluge of polemic. "#newyearsresolutions I'm giving up my smart phone for 2020". There was a few replies from her friends saying she was foolish and ill advised. A comment from a guy who said, she wouldn't last long before she returned to a handheld digital world. And a reply from @sadfred saying "You go girl!".

And that was it. On December 31st at 11:59, she tweeted "#laters . . ."

About 2 minutes later, @Valerie225 replied "Happy new year @hilda". If you knew the context, it could have appeared to be a taunt. If you didn't, it may well have been good wishes. 10 minutes later @sadfred replied to @Valerie225, "I think this is the beginning". @Valerie225 tweeted back "#gonebutnotforgotten".

The next morning, @sadfred checked the tweet and there was no more conversation attached to @hilda's last tweet. @sadfred didn't know @hilda but he was now very curious as to who @hilda might be and what brought her to this momentous point in her life. He started to look through her twitter profile.

She had 56 followers and she followed 1187 profiles. The profiles she followed were mostly celebrities. Transient celebrities, forgotten sooner than they rose to fame. Then there was her social circle, which extended anonymously to an unknown sphere. Her profile was exactly that; a profile. An average woman in her 20s. A demographic. A sales and advertising unit. A vote that wouldn't count.

Of her 56 followers, 18 were family, 23 were school friends and the remaining 15 were people she had no inkling of who they were. Random people she picked up along the way of her online document of her daughter's progress in early life. @sadfred was one of these 15.

Her selfies display someone of youthful exuberance and confidence. Someone who clearly adored her daughter. Was there a sadness there that she was glossing over daily? Or was there a life changing event somewhere in the not too distant past? @sadfred couldn't fathom @hilda's motives for her new year's resolution and grew concerned.

He didn't want to tweet her because he didn't want to be the one to tempt her to break her resolution. He didn't want to be the smoker who didn't give up in the social group who did. But then if she had ditched her smart phone, maybe she wouldn't get the tweet anyway. In one sense, @hilda's world was none of his concern, yet with this modern norm of communication, it was his concern.

He checked the profiles of who she followed, but no one mentioned her in any of their tweets. @Valerie225 was almost wrong. @hilda was #gonebutnotforgotten but only by @sadfred, a complete stranger.

As the days went on, @sadfred got more and more agitated. In his head he needed to resolve that @hilda had safely abandoned her mobile phone, and not her life. He was powerless though, as any sort of reach out would only be perceived as stalking, or if in fact she was missing. If she was missing, he would be even more powerless.

He typed curious things into Google, that if there was an algorithm listening, he would be monitored. "What to do if you think someone is missing", "hilda missing new years day". It was quite an investigation.

@sadfred was a decent human, but his world revolved around his phone. Emotionally he was a product of a handheld device. Paranoid, unfit, single, unable to look after himself, lonely.

Then came the reprieve on January 5th. It was a Sunday at noon. @hilda tweeted "Well that lasted all of 5 days". @sadfred was emotionally spent. He was overwhelmingly relieved, and much as he wanted to, he knew it wasn't his place to tweet "lol".