According to an interesting survey, the first thing that most office-goers do when they log into their system is open their social networking account/s, with Face book, My Space and Orkut ruling the roost. Let me clear the air about my own networking habits. I was on Hi5 a while back (when the idea was quite novel), and soon thereafter upgraded to Orkut. I purposely resisted repeated requests from friends and family to join Face book, although I was warned that ‘you are a non-entity if you are not on Face book’. I’ll gladly wear the garb of anonymity, thank you very much! I’m pretty clear about accepting “friend requests” only from people who are my friends or at the very least, acquaintances. My privacy settings are so fine tuned as to give access to only those who are genuinely my friends. Despite all safety measures, I feel certain “friends” who, in reality, are merely familiar faces, crept into my private world. They hardly ever drop a line or utter a “hello”, and yet continue to lurk there. I think I would like to de-clutter my life a bit, and let go of a few of them.
Honestly speaking, Orkut has become slightly irritating of late. It’s a great medium for locating old friends, and I’m glad to have hunted a few down. Having said that, it peeves me to no end when I watch people play long lost bosom-buddies to the very people they didn’t bother saying “hi” to, during school days! I seriously feel it’s a mild form of hypocrisy.
Then there is this whole “projection of happiness” thing going on, which seems a tad bit fake. A case in point: A girl I know migrated to foreign lands and her idea of announcing her success to the world was to post pictures of her house, cars, wardrobe, dishwasher and even her loo for the world to view and admire. (Of course she conveniently forgot to add a picture of her work place - a soup factory).
To be very honest, I don’t know what my grouse against her is. I really don’t… ‘coz I find myself posting “happy” pictures quite often too. And here’s what came out of it:A couple of people I know (including my own self) got married recently. Giddy with happiness, we posted pictures of our wedding on Orkut. The idea was to put them up for the benefit of friends who couldn’t make it to the wedding. However, some of the comments I received from the friends on my list gave me the idea that my social status “post marriage” was being evaluated. As if they were judging, going by my pictures, if I had got elevated/promoted from “middle class” to “rich”. I refuse to comment on that. I will, however, let you in on another secret: I jumped two positions and received close to a 60% raise recently. If that’s a parameter of financial success, then yes, I am rich.You get the point.
Not to discount the benefits of Orkut, I have to agree that it’s a great medium to stay in touch with 70 friends at one go. To share bits of news, pictures and even blogs. Another plus is that the control lies with you. You get to decide who to accept and who to reject/block. I may not have the guts to tell certain people off to their face, but thanks to Orkut, all I need to do now is click “No”. I am done accepting friends just ‘coz they went to the same school/college with me. I am also done peeping into people’s profiles (and their dishwashers). After all, one has only so much energy!
Disclaimer/ clarification: The abovementioned applies ONLY to those it is intended for. If you suddenly find yourself out of my list, no, it’s not Orkut playing tricks on you, I did it on purpose. Kindly do not send a request again.And the ones who are still on my list as we speak (errr… read), please do not feel threatened! I love you still :)
Honestly speaking, Orkut has become slightly irritating of late. It’s a great medium for locating old friends, and I’m glad to have hunted a few down. Having said that, it peeves me to no end when I watch people play long lost bosom-buddies to the very people they didn’t bother saying “hi” to, during school days! I seriously feel it’s a mild form of hypocrisy.
Then there is this whole “projection of happiness” thing going on, which seems a tad bit fake. A case in point: A girl I know migrated to foreign lands and her idea of announcing her success to the world was to post pictures of her house, cars, wardrobe, dishwasher and even her loo for the world to view and admire. (Of course she conveniently forgot to add a picture of her work place - a soup factory).
To be very honest, I don’t know what my grouse against her is. I really don’t… ‘coz I find myself posting “happy” pictures quite often too. And here’s what came out of it:A couple of people I know (including my own self) got married recently. Giddy with happiness, we posted pictures of our wedding on Orkut. The idea was to put them up for the benefit of friends who couldn’t make it to the wedding. However, some of the comments I received from the friends on my list gave me the idea that my social status “post marriage” was being evaluated. As if they were judging, going by my pictures, if I had got elevated/promoted from “middle class” to “rich”. I refuse to comment on that. I will, however, let you in on another secret: I jumped two positions and received close to a 60% raise recently. If that’s a parameter of financial success, then yes, I am rich.You get the point.
Not to discount the benefits of Orkut, I have to agree that it’s a great medium to stay in touch with 70 friends at one go. To share bits of news, pictures and even blogs. Another plus is that the control lies with you. You get to decide who to accept and who to reject/block. I may not have the guts to tell certain people off to their face, but thanks to Orkut, all I need to do now is click “No”. I am done accepting friends just ‘coz they went to the same school/college with me. I am also done peeping into people’s profiles (and their dishwashers). After all, one has only so much energy!
Disclaimer/ clarification: The abovementioned applies ONLY to those it is intended for. If you suddenly find yourself out of my list, no, it’s not Orkut playing tricks on you, I did it on purpose. Kindly do not send a request again.And the ones who are still on my list as we speak (errr… read), please do not feel threatened! I love you still :)
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You can check this post @ :http://thoughtbubbles07.blogspot.com/2008/06/thing-about-orkut.html
2 comments:
Well said .. On the same lines left Orkut months back.
We do find long lost friends however even the experience of finding a long lost friend doesn't turn out to be a cherished one in most cases. Most of them have usually moved on in life. Though at times it feels great discussing old times.
On the other side these sites are meant to expand your social network and not only for your close friends. In case you feel your privacy being compromised you better be off these sites. There are a number of other ways to say hello !!!
You might be interested in this piece-
http://nitasha2007.blogspot.com/2008/11/pinch-of-orkut.html#links
a lot of this is uncannily similar to your article.
Some lines are exactly same such as-
1. "According to an interesting survey,first thing the people do while logging in to their system
is opening social networking sites in which ofcourse orkut rules d most",
2. "Not to discount the benefits of Orkut, I have to agree that
it’s a great medium locating old friends and to stay in touch with all of your freinds at one go."
3. "It becomes slightly irritating also when some unwanted people who in reality are mere familiar faces tried to crept in to my private world..but Thanx to Orkut!!! which license us to say 'no' to people, whom we may not have the guts to tell off to their face"
4. "I am done accepting friends. I am also done peeping into people’s profiles.
5. After all, one has only so much energy!"
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