WTF - What’s with The addiction to Facebook? ~ Mind-full musings

When I was ‘jobless’ for 3 months post marriage, (to be precise, a non earning member of the family), there were a zillion eyes staring at me, some with shock, some mildly surprised and some with an annoying attitude, who used to look down upon me, as if I had transformed from something very useful to something painfully useless! Not that it mattered to me then, and not that I cared about it any day (call my skin thick! I don’t care!), but these were the very people whom I used to meet in the virtual world almost everyday most of the time, with most of them (the job going lot to be precise), shooting questions like, ‘What do you do the whole time, sitting at home?’, ‘You should think of going for higher studies!’, ‘How do you sit at home, gal?’ and ‘You need to plan things in life. In life, you should never be so indecisive!’ and blah, bldoommmm……bdnm………blah…bdasdfsdfmmmm…... I have even come across a breed, who sitting in the office complain about their organization, its pay scale and etc quite openly on social networking sites, that too during office hours! Now, I don’t have much to say on that, except that, such people are oblivious to their luck which is considerate enough to let share their ramblings on the very sites that are ideally not supposed to be accessed during working hours at least! In the initial days, I was annoyed. However later, that form of nuisance became quite an amusement for me. And from there, I enjoyed social networking like never before. Also, would say, this was one activity that kept me going in times of utter boredom!

At times I wonder what keeps me hooked to facebook! Let me be honest for a while. Well, it is a perfect platform for sharing ideas and viewpoints and getting updated not only with happenings around, but also in gaining a political and social awareness. Even events, social meets and blocking calendars are being done on facebook. And it is not that bad, I say! Or let me put it this way, facebook is just amazing! It is one such site that satisfies every strain of the society. On a lighter note, I am actually addicted to it because I am convinced for a fact that most of the world is probably a vetti weshtu mokka pottufying crowd which is more interested in scouring through ‘fb status updates’ regularly than giving one’s own status updates at office ;)

Besides, facebook has myriad games to offer to its jillion users. I was amazed at the count of people who enjoy playing any game that ends with a ‘ville’. Although I never played any ‘ville’ rich games (Farmville, Fishville, Petville and what not!), it still is fun to watch people running here and there to collect ‘virtual’ manure for their ‘virtual’ fields, feeding their ‘virtual’ pigs and cows, or hatching ‘virtual’ eggs out of ‘virtual’ hens or to keep their ‘virtual’ domestic pets from straying afar, or even growing exotic ‘virtual’ flowers and vegetables in their ‘virtual’ gardens. Yeah, now that’s definitely too much of ‘virtual’. But then, people do like doing a lot of ‘hard’ work, again ‘virtually’!

And when it comes to sharing music, videos, quotes, photographs or even mindless musings of unknown people, facebook comes across as the best podium. Sometimes certain thought provoking status messages lead to a discussion forum which gets more interesting with people sharing their viewpoints in a common arena. And then there are a lot of jokes and even funny one liners, which after hours of surfing on Internet, you get them instantly on FB. Even more, people also have started recruiting through facebook! Probably, in a few days, or perhaps, in years to come, facebook will become one indispensable site to everyone. However, one has to be careful, when sharing links from dubious sites without checking or clicking on sites with bogus links. If there is fun in surfing facebook, the fun should be availed with caution. Some time back, there was a news afloat about many facebook accounts getting hacked. I am not sure how far that was true, but keep in mind, that if your site URL starts with http:// and not https:// it means the site is not securely browsed. Facebook constantly keeps changing its security policy and privacy settings and so it is advisable to check it twice every month at least. Also make sure you do not share information that is too personal, on facebook! Recently there are many advertisements that ask you to keep checking the security policy of your facebook account.

And then coming to the best part of being on facebook, it is like meeting a bazillion people everyday continually, even if it means ‘virtually’. Sometimes when there are a lot of friends suggestions popping up every now and then, you realize how small this world could be as you still might be linked to a stranger through a string of common, or should I say ‘mutual’ friends. Mark Zuckenberg has definitely shrunk the world with his ‘social networking’. Call facebook, a drug or a pot, the bottom line is, it is highly addictive and that too of the highest order! It is a contentious debate as to whether social networking is good or bad, and I would say, as the pros and cons are just too many and the pros in the present outweigh the cons, just that the debate ends on a vacillating note so far! Till then, enjoy chatting with friends, sharing links and photos and discussing events happening around, with glee! Happy but safe social networking...!!