Social Networking and me

The unhealthy craze and addiction to social networking sites is something that has always amused me. I do not exactly remember when this frenzy of ‘face book-ing’ caught up with everybody! But, I have vivid memories of being at the receiving end of “Which-world-are-you-from” looks when I said I don’t have a fb account. If I happened to confess that such things do not excite me and I am not ‘not facebooking’ due to parental pressure, people would stare at me like I were practicing and advocating strict celibacy!!! When I meet old friends or end up meeting cousins at a wedding, they ask me for my virtual id as if I cease to exist in front of them there!

I have a friend of mine, who genuinely feels terrible that he is unable to keep in touch with me, because I am not on orkut or facebook! (No!No! We do not live in different cities or countries!! We live ten minutes away from each other!! Just about the same time it takes to boot the computer, connect to the internet and open the world of orkut)

At a time when I was still unfamiliar about the social networking parlance, I overheard my friends talking about communities with a rare kind of interest and zeal. I was overwhelmed at the thought that these guys are discussing something sociological about communities and community development – that happiness didn’t last too long because in a matter of few seconds of my expression of happiness, everybody burst out laughing and eventually explained to me the existence of virtual communities and how involving they are!

For the past 4 years I have been fighting pressure to find my space in the air- to create a virtual existence for myself. If you ask me why, I would say......... maybe it comes out of a generic fear of adding one more dimension to my (already confused) identity and image of self!( Well, that’s something that sounds intellectual enough and people don’t bother to prod further!)

But if you do, then I might just admit that I do not have the patience to go through the process of creating it, reading messages, replying to them , hoping and praying that your id’s not hacked by some creepy guy who decided to crush on you and so it goes........!! If you prod me further, I may agree that time is what we make and not having patience is not strong enough a reason....

No! No! This abstinencece from social networking doesn’t rise from me being happy by myself. In fact, I am a people’s person and passionately believe in making and keeping friends for a lifetime!! (Any of my friends who at some point or the other been at the receiving end of my lectures about ‘keeping in touch’ would vouch for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

Well, heart of hearts I guess this abstinence from social networking sites comes out of my true love for people, and all your true alive selves! Any day I would rather see a beautiful smile curving from a warm heart than the smiley I see on the computer screen! Any day I would rather hear a wonderful voice that spells happiness, strength and cheer rather than see a few letters arranging themselves on screen conveying a message! I would rather see a pair of eyes becoming wide in excitement and a beautiful excited smile than seeing a bunch of exclamations that my brain registers as a sign of excitement!! May sound archaic but I would rather hear and see people around me living their lives, living their emotions, expressing their most extraordinary selves rather than see them through the messages or profiles hanging in the air!!!!!! After all, watching the IPL live is not the same as reading about it the next morning in the paper!! Watching a movie is just not the same as reading a review!

Social networking sites to me, seems like it reduces the thrill and excitement of an alive life to a mad scramble of letters (With a lot of typos because people are in a hurry to reply to a whole lot of other messages!!!!!!!!) To all you social networking maniacs- I do buy your arguments like this saves time and shrinks the world – but is that what we want? We save time by social networking to do what? To do more social networking?

Disclaimer Note:This is not some kind of text that is trying to convert you from a theist( a believer in social networking) to an atheist!!

Definitely not!! All I want to do is to gently remind all you networking kings and queens that there is a life beyond the social networking. There may be your grandmother who would love to take a walk with you and who would smile a smile that is hundred times brighter than the smiley on screen if you do take her for a walk! Try this! There is a life beyond social networking.....live that for a change......!!!!!!! In exchange I promise to get myself an identity in virtual space! From an atheist am moving to being an agnostic – going to find out of in truth there is a sense of keeping in touch through social networking... Let’s taste a bit of each other’s world... What say? After all...variety is the spice of life...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Face book...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here I come.............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!