Networking not Networking

Social networks are the order of the day. Since the time internet fever caught up and broadband connections were made available in common households the world has found a need to connect (which is good!). So the social network sites became very powerful. You found some, some found you, and before you knew, almost everyone you knew and perhaps would you smile at when you meet, was on your friend’s list. But then you started noticing that you were getting repeated scraps from people who are on your friend’s list but not exactly “friends”, asking the same “hey! How are you?” How many times do you want to answer the same question when you know they are more concerned about the number of scraps they can boast of (apparently commensurate with popularity quotient) than any concern to your good health or the lack of it? And then you get automatically logged on to some messenger and then someone wants to chat too. You have matured (“aged” was the first choice of word) a little, have no patience for chatting, so-what if you accepted a friend request from the person in question. So then you found out there is a brahmastra available which you took pretty long to figure out - the life savior “invisible” mode. Now you can log on with ease without the fear of getting caught and do all the browsing you want.

You are basking in the glory of having fooled this world and in some time you realize if you are ignoring the world, the world is not taking any particular interest in you either. Out of sight out of mind you see. Ah! This is not working too well now. So you start writing into scrapbooks here and there, comment on photos that were uploaded like six months back. You don’t even get immediate responses. You are perplexed why every one has decided to close doors on you. You avoided some but you did not really avoid most. So the prized answer finally comes out in someone’s reply - “by the way I don’t come here too often. FB is much better”. When you get a similar answer from three different people, you know where the world is concentrating these days. So you too try to go to FB. But then the realization strikes, not the entire world this time. Be careful. Since you consider yourself quite a techno savvy person, you know account creation is just a few steps. You immediately create an account and click on all the buttons that appear and will create no delay. So your account is ready, but by then accidentally, since default was checked, you ended up announcing your arrival and sending invites to your entire contact list in the mail service you are using. So everyone in the world not only is aware of your arrival, also has a request from you to add them as a friend. They oblige, and you have more than a hundred friends before you remember logging on next time. Good job, lucky you.

By the way FB is complicated.