Social Networking - the good, the bad and the ugly!

"It's not what you know but who you know that makes the difference" 

                                                       -Anonymous

I am a self-confessed social networkoholic. I am neither proud nor ashamed of this statement. I wouldn't go to the extent of calling myself an addict because I'm confident that I can bear the trauma of all my connections to the world of social networking being severed 😆 Although I must admit that on occasion, I do have to keep myself in check to prevent crossing the fine line into addiction. 

I used to be a member of several social networking sites but when it started eating away my free time (which was meagre to begin with), I restricted myself to Facebook (FB for short). I often wonder how I used to spend the time that I now spend on FB before it became an irreversible part of my daily routine. I'm assuming that my life must have been far more productive back then. 

For me, personally, the rock bottom of social media usage was when I was hooked onto a motley assortment of games. I used to fervently go about tending my make-believe crops, virtual fish and imaginary restaurants on a daily or sometimes even hourly basis. Don't judge me for it takes guts to admit this 😆 Fortunately, after a while the whole ritual started to tire me out. Not to mention the annoyance at seeing all the invitations and news feeds by similarly idle people (I finally was able to see how lame the whole thing was). I decided from then onwards that I would not waste my time on such frivolity. 

For a while after that I began to play more mentally stimulating games like Word Challenge and Geo Challenge but that slowly lost its appeal as well. On the upside, these games did contribute significantly to my vocabulary and geographical knowledge. Hey, I can correctly identify the flag of Lesotho you know 😏 

If games weren't enough to distract people from their "real" lives, absurd and trivial status updates are considered useful tools to provide an alternative route of escape. In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm guilty of that too! 

I remember when I actually used to call my friends more often and send them emails from time to time. Nowadays it is just so easy type a quick note on someone's wall or send them an insipid message on social media. I often even wish my friends and family for birthdays or anniversaries on FB and then feel guilty about not making a greater effort in remembering and conveying my wishes. It is a bit sad that one doesn't even need to apply the slightest bit of brain power to remember a loved one's birthday...FB will even do that for you. It is rather tempting to become lazy (and stupid) with the advent of these social networking sites.

Many times I wish I could go back to the era of the 80s and 90s where people used to write letters to each other and when long-distance phone calls were a luxury. At least the anticipation of hearing from someone would be the highlight of the day. Being a little private and inaccessible is more mysterious and exciting. Makes people wonder what you are up to!

I don't think social media is all bad though. In today's times where everyone leads busy lives, I feel like I roughly know  what is going on with my friends and family through status messages and photo updates so I do feel like I'm a small part of their lives. But then again, that element of personal touch that is such an incredible human quality is lost. You just become one among the crowd of people that are "liking" or commenting on a person's updates. If you want to put a positive spin on it, you could convince yourself by saying -  well, something is better than nothing. 

Another good thing is that through FB, I have reconnected with so many of my old school friends and distant family members. It feels nice to see their latest pictures and to get to know what they are doing. It also makes you realize that the world is such a small place because everyone seems to know everyone else. I often find so many mutual friends that I didn't know of before I was a part of FB. Generally, my mom is my main source of information on the latest happenings/news relating to the people we know but I almost always seem to know before she tells me in spite of living overseas. She is quite amazed with how up to date I am on the information front. I guess cyber news travels only slightly slower than the speed of light!

One of the biggest shocks that I recently received was when my Dad (of all people) sent me a friend request on FB. My Dad is a busy doctor and someone who really has never been interested in anything to do with technology unless for medical purposes. He got acquainted with email only a few years ago and only because it was a professional requirement. I would have picked him to be the last person on the earth to join a social networking platform. I laughed out loud when my news feed indicated that my husband and my Dad "are now friends". I thought it would be a temporary thing and within no time his FB account would be a thing of the past. Much to my surprise, he stuck with it and sometimes comments on my photos and likes my status messages. Such is the power of social network. Mark Zuckerberg....you sure knew what you were doing 😏

Nowadays with all these different social networking mediums like FB, Orkut, Twitter, Myspace and Google+, its like privacy has gone on a holiday. And it is not even unintentional. People want you to know exactly what they are doing, who they are with and where they are going. I am guilty of the same too. Now I don't think I could slip into oblivion even if I wanted to. Sigh!

With that I'm signing off. It's good to be socially active but then again, too much of anything seldom is a good thing. It would be such a pity if virtual relationships taking precedence over real life relationships. Don't you agree?

What do you think of social media? Love it, hate it or are you on the fence about it? 

Cheers,

Megha