Sunday, September 12, 2010

Networking shetworking

Hi. Been a long time huh? Oh well I’m not even going to try and apologize for such a long period. Just consider the time period between my last post and this one of being some sort of a hibernation phase. More on that later

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I was reading this article on social networking and its pros and cons. Now I won’t call myself a facebook addict.(orkut addict? Really?) But yes I go online once a day or sometimes even twice. I’ve managed to convince a lot of people about how facebooking is a great way to keep in touch with old friends, how it’s a great platform to share our views and also*ahem ahem* gossip. But I’ve been unable to convert this one friend of mine to a social networking enthusiast. This friend of mine –let’s call her abf for antibody facebook.-has her reasons to not succumb to immense pressure from peers and family alike to join the very appealing (not to her) bandwagon FB. She’s in one of India’s top management institutes and thus her anti fb status came as a shock to a lot of her colleagues. She has her reasons to rebel against this ‘social networking ‘syndrome. Not one of those haiyo rabba I’ve to concentrate on studies! Who has the time for FB?? She maintains that joining FB won’t solve the purpose that it’s known for- SOCIAL NETWORKING. Quote unquote abf- I can call you. I speak to my parents every other day (who btw are proud FBians). Have a bunch of school chums who WANT to keep in touch and so do i. who needs a clucking (may have used a similar sounding word) networking site?? I refuse to be a slave to this modern form of slavery!

And she’s firm on maintaining this social network virgin status even when companies approach her for interviews. Makes me sit back and wonder whether she’s right and I’m wrong?

There’s no hard and fast rule that one has to be on a social networking site are there? I choose to be on FB because of my own reasons. I get to interact with school friends who are in the USA or even in Rajasthan. It’s a great medium to share pictures, update people about certain events and know what’s going on in their respective lives. A lot of teachers from school and college are now my friends on FB. So are aunts uncles, cousins etc. But I CAN survive without knowing a certain piece of information about a certain lady’s relationship status. Likewise I do not like to give out personal information as status messages and let people comment on them. Why put up something personal and then get offended by people‘s comments? They’re going to judge you. It all becomes this plethora of information. One does not know what to do. And I’ve seen cases where misunderstandings have seeped in due to careless comments or seething status updates.

I’m not a FB addict. I can live without it. And know who really is interested in my life. But it’s a hell lot of fun…sometimes. And you can certainly be abf. I’ll get some booster shots from my friend J