A Diorama of Social Networking

Looking back, I keep wondering why it took me 6 months to actually start writing this blog entry after my last one in December. The usual excuses pop into my mind but the blatant truth is that I have been plain lazy to incorporate writing into my string of daily activities. Or it could be the fact that it usually takes a long train journey of introspection and reflecting on my thoughts to convince myself to put finger-on-keyboard (Read as "pen-to-paper").  My recent procrastinating nature (Ok, maybe not so recent) encouraged me to conduct a post mortem of how I actually spend my free time and I was shocked to find the amount of time I actually spend on social networking sites. And since I realized this, I am starting to connect everything around me to social networking and its after effects. It's a plague I tell you!!

We have all read countless articles on how technology have corrupted the youth, making them stare at their laptops or handheld screens for hours and in effect corrupting their childhood and all that. So I won't get into all that. The picture I would like to paint is to portray how social networking is ruling our minds these days and everyone, including me, is or have been a part of this picture some time or the other.

Gone are the times when people used Facebook to simply connect with people and maintain existing relationships alone. It has become much more than that. I realised this when my 11 year old cousin sent me friend request (What did I do when  I was 11 I wonder?). Facebook has now become your identity. What was intended as a window for people to share more about their life has now become life itself for many people. In short, Facebook is an ongoing, never ending popularity contest. And each and every one of us is participating as well as judging each other. I grin every time somebody asks me to like their profile picture. In such cases I remember an initiative where you could donate 1 rupee for a charity while booking movie tickets online. The "like" button transforms in my mind into the photo of a poor, attention seeking child holding out a carton for "likes", with a hyperlink saying "donate a like". And like a good Samaritan, I oblige.

What happened to the times when renowned personalities judged competitions? Nowadays the winner is the one who gets more number of likes on Facebook. The organizers must live in this Utopian society where they perceive that the contestants will put up their work for display, like in an art gallery, and the public will just stroll by appreciating every ones work and "liking" the ones which they feel should win. What really happens is a well planned campaign that involves the contestants calling on every single relative, friend and acquaintance since kindergarten and practically guilt tripping them to "like" their work on Facebook. Did I mention you have no option to even review the work of other contestants? I must have forgotten that when I add a friend on Facebook I agreed to the terms that I would chose to "like" all of their work, i.e. swear my unconditional allegiance to them till my dying breath.

Amidst all this, there is a huge group of people who have benefited from Facebook personally. Like those who realized that their true skill lie behind the lens of an expensive camera. Hey, I am not complaining. We all know how important it is to have that one friend who owns DSLR in every group of friends (I am talking new display pictures. Every. Week). Last time I went to a cultural fest, I saw a booth were photographers were offering to click potential display pictures against a nice back drop for a reasonable price. 15 rupees for a DP. They are, no doubt, inspired by Joker from Dark Knight as he famously says, "If you are good at something, never do it for free". Throw them a tip and they would probably Google for an awe-inspiring quote or wise saying to add as the tag line for the picture. We see them all around Facebook every day, but it's all so common now, we just scroll-on.

 I recently heard an anchor for some event use the word "troll" as a verb for something that happened on stage. It is a funny how a collection of cartoon like 'memes' govern how we react to situations on a daily basis. I myself have often used now common phrases like "bitch please" and "you don't say" to express myself, leaving 'normal people', like my mother for instance, completely clueless and sometimes offended. This is when I realized that most of us "browse through Facebook like we keep checking our fridge even when we are not hungry" (Read this line, ironically, on a "troll page"). Not only that, we pounce on any opportunity to pull our friends down, embarrass them with something downright silly and cruelly "troll" them. Apologies for sounding like them 'Grammar Nazis' but as a true Harry Potter fan, I keep imagining a huge ogre like monster beating the crap of a guy when I hear someone has been "trolled".

In times where new social networking sites keep popping up on a weekly basis, it must be quite hard to keep track of what to do and what not to do on each of them. I admit, when I was initially not on Twitter, I had no idea what a hash tag did. After repeatedly observing people using these hash tags on Facebook, I believed that the hash sign with a message written next to it was a way of explaining what you wrote. I assumed its literal meaning to be 'with reference to' and I still use it at times when one my posts are hard to understand or an internal joke or something. After a while, when I joined twitter I realized it has a function built into the Twitter platform. Strangely though, loads of people still mark their 15 word long posts, on Facebook mind you, with half a dozen hash tags ranging from "cute" to "funny". Makes me feel like studio audiences who sit in for the shot of TV shows who are forced to laugh (Or in this case, feel something) whenever someone holds up a sign saying "Laughter".

In similar fashion, the idea for making an anonymous setup where people could post their spiced up confessions for the world to see was probably the biggest development on Facebook in recent times. It was surprising to note how the promise of anonymity empowers the common man. A mask, like Batman says, makes all the difference. (Hey, it worked for Fernando Torres) After a while, when the posts started making people wonder how uninteresting their lives are or when the pages become a huge bitching fest, the fad slowly died down. Those that didn't, were shut down by universities.

 Our lives have been sown together with social networking. Every generation had something to be known by, something crazy to call their own. From lava lamps and bell bottoms, we have come a long way. And like everything in the past, social networking will die a slow death when something new, better and more interesting comes by (Remember Orkut anyone?). Till then, we will continue to like, re-tweet and '+1' our time away.

Some of you are probably wondering whether to stop social networking under the influence this article has had on you (Yeah, fat chance). If you are, then brilliant. I am glad that I could inspire such a thought. But I am sure as you think it over, you would  be chatting with an old friend on Facebook or following a celebrity on twitter. Meanwhile, I will be in the process of sharing this article with my friends on Facebook as well. I remember the iconic song 'Hotel California' by Eagles which ended with the lines, "..You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave...". Never leave indeed!

(This article is a reflection of my wayward perspectives and is not intended to hurt anybody's sentiments. The article is to be read in the tone of, "WHAT has this world come to?!".)