Why I have two Facebook accounts?

On 24 March 2016, I created my 2nd Facebook account. Why did I do so?

I created my 1st Facebook account in September 2009. Since then, I had been making a lot of friends on Facebook. I used to think that the more friends I have on Facebook, the better it is. Whenever someone sent me a friend request, I would always accept it, even if I didn't know the person. My family members also became my friends on Facebook. I never liked to let my family members know my activities on the internet, I prefer to keep it secret from them. Initially, I hardly posted anything on Facebook, so it wasn't a problem.

In August 2012, I took photos with a group of girls in my school. They then posted the photos on Facebook and tagged me. I thought my family members wouldn't be able to see those photos, as they were not friends with those girls on Facebook. It turned out that I was terribly wrong, as the photos that I was tagged in were visible to all of my Facebook friends. My family members saw all those photos and they asked me about it. That made me feel quite uncomfortable.

Since then, I added all my family members to the Restricted list of Facebook. Anyone in the Restricted list is unable see my Facebook posts, except for the posts that I set to Public. I thought that had solved the problem. In 2013, I became more active on Facebook and I posted on it more often. Occasionally, when I posted something that I didn't mind my family members seeing, I would set it to Public. In that way, my family members wouldn't suspect that I added them to the Restricted list, since they could still see some of my posts.

However, I later realised that while those in the Restricted list are unable to see my Facebook posts, they can still see if I liked or commented on someone's post that is set to Public by the person. Worse still, my family members added me to their Close friends list. As a result, whenever I liked or commented on a post, it would appear on top of their News Feed. Moreover, if I accidentally set a post to Public, they would automatically receive an e-mail notification about my post. The only way to stop this is to unfriend or block my family members, but then they would know about it when they try to open my Facebook profile.

Every now and then, my family members would say to me 'I saw your friend's photo that you liked', 'I saw your comment on that news article' and so on. I really disliked that and I told them to stop stalking me, but they would say 'I didn't stalk you, it just appeared on my News Feed!' Sometimes, after seeing my comment, they would tell me not to mind other people's business or waste my time.

In March 2016, I wrote a post on Facebook where I mentioned about my brother and cousin getting A+ for English in the SPM examination. Out of my expectation, my brother could see the post and he told my parents about that, even though I had blocked him on Facebook. It turned out that one of his friends was my Facebook friend which I didn't add to the Restricted list. He saw my post and showed it to my brother. That was the consequence of me accepting friend requests from everyone without even trying to find out who they are.

After that incident, I decided that the best way to stop my family members from seeing my activities on Facebook is by creating another Facebook account. In my 2nd Facebook account, I will only add my close friends. I won't add my family members or anyone I don't know personally. I created my 2nd Facebook account one day after my 21st birthday on 23 March 2016. The fact that I have now reached 21 years old justifies my decision to keep my activities on Facebook secret from my family members.

My 3 remarkable dreams in 1 night

One night in February 2016, when I was sleeping, I had 3 different dreams, one after another. They were not interconnected and were unrelated to each other. I can remember the dreams very well because I rarely have more than 1 dreams in 1 night, so they were quite remarkable.

On that night, I fell asleep at about 12:30AM which is quite early compared to usual because I was quite tired. Then, I had the 1st dream.

1st dream:

I was eating with my grandparents at a restaurant in SS2, Petaling Jaya. When eating, I thought of MyBurgerLab which is located not far away. I walked around to have a look at MyBurgerLab, but I was unable to find it. My grandparents then came to call me and said that I should not simply walk around without telling them. They took me to find MyBurgerLab after we finished eating, but we still couldn't find it. Later, as we were leaving SS2, I searched on Google Maps and realised that I was at the wrong place because MyBurgerLab was in another part of SS2.

(MyBurgerLab is a burger shop in SS2. I went there once on 4 June 2014 with my college friends and that was a very interesting experience.)

I woke up from the 1st dream at about 4AM. I continued to sleep. Then, I had the 2nd dream.

2nd dream:

I and my cousins went on a holiday trip to Pakistan (not sure which city) for just 1 day. At the airport in Pakistan, there was an education fair. There, a few students were promoting NUMed Malaysia, and they stated that they have received offers to study Medicine at NUMed. I was happy that NUMed is gaining popularity internationally. Then, I brought an SD card from a computer shop at the airport as souvenir. We had lunch at a restaurant and stayed in a hotel near the airport for a few hours. After that, we boarded the flight back to Malaysia.

(In reality, I have never been to Pakistan before.)

I woke up from the 2nd dream at about 7AM. Since I usually wake up around 8:30AM, I continued sleeping. I had the 3rd dream at that time.

3rd dream:

I and my parents were in Penang. My father decided that we take a submarine ride. I did not oppose his decision, but I was actually worried of a submarine accident. As the submarine descends rapidly into the sea, I experienced extreme ear pain due to change in pressure. For some reason, I was unable to swallow my saliva to relieve the ear pain and I almost fainted. Finally, the submarine reached the bottom of the sea and I did not faint.

(In reality, there is no submarine ride for tourists in Penang, and I have never taken a submarine before. In the past, I used to experience severe ear pain whenever I take a flight during take-off and landing, but it is not so bad now.)

I then woke up from the 3rd dream at about 8:15AM. I got up from bed to get ready to go to university.

Thinking back of the dreams, I came up with possible explanations for each of them, although I do not know exactly why I had them.

Possible explanations for the 1st dream:

- Now I am living in the hostel away from my family. Therefore, I do not have my family members, particularly my grandparents, guiding me in my daily life. Sometimes, I feel lost and do not know what is the right thing to do. Just like in the dream, I was looking for MyBurgerLab without realising that I was in the wrong place.

- I miss my college friends very much. Ever since I entered university in September 2014, I couldn't meet up with them very often. I particularly miss the time where I went to MyBurgerLab with them on 4 June 2014 and I hope that I can go there with them again in the future. This is probably why I thought of MyBurgerLab in the dream.

Possible explanations for the 2nd dream:

- In the past year, I became closer to my cousins compared to previously. We often have some interesting activities together whenever we meet. The dream about going on a holiday trip with them could be a representation of this fact.

- There are many students from Pakistan who read this blog. Some of them have contacted me personally for advice about education. I have even recommended NUMed Malaysia to those who are interested in studying Medicine. This may be why I had the dream about Pakistan.

Possible explanations for the 3rd dream:

Medicine course which I am currently studying is very challenging. I need to go through a lot of hard work and high levels of stress before I can successfully complete the course. I am also worried of failing the course. In the dream, the bottom of the sea represents success, the ear pain in the journey down the sea represents hard work and stress, while submarine accident and fainting represent failure.

If you liked this story, you may want to read this too:

http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2017/05/my-dream-about-movie.html