The Facebook Craze
Outlook has a cover story on the facebook craze in India. Apparently 1.6 million are on facebook. Most of my cousins are on it, and I have met friends who I went to middle school with. So it is actually quite a cool social networking system. The ability to post pictures is good too, a nice way to share memories world wide!
It's an addiction as essential as her morning cup of tea. First thing when Rupa wakes up, she leaps out of bed and logs onto Facebook, eager to see what surprise, what gossip, what ghost from the past, awaits her.
Oh, there's that long-lost cousin who moved to Detroit 10 years ago—looking smug and prosperous in front of his neat suburban house. And look who else has popped up—that nasty class bully, who now declares "I've added you as a friend". And has she finally broken up with her boyfriend? Yes, there it is, the status update, which announces it, broken heart and all....
Sachin Pilot - Politician
"Yes I'm on Facebook but I'd rather like to keep that part of my life private."
Are you on Facebook yet? It's one question that drives more than 1.6 million Indians to the wildly popular social networking site everyday, one that prompts them to send out a message or a poke to all the hundreds of people that they've ever come into contact with during their lifetime: playmates in nursery school, old neighbours, friends in school, distant cousins and close relatives, buddies in college, colleagues at work, even passing acquaintances.
Once "added as friend", you can access one another's profile pages: altars of personal trivia bedecked with flattering portraits which, like that of Dorian Gray, remain immune to the depredations of time, which visiting friends may "poke" by way of hello. The profile shares details on where you've worked and studied, your addresses and numbers, your favourite books, films and quotes, your close friends' nicknames for you, their opinion of you, the photos they've posted of you, and, through their public messages to you on your "fun" or "super" wall (a sort of virtual notice board), a blow-by-blow account of the happenings of the day before. Your plans for the rest of the week, as they unfold, and any additions you make to your profile, all go into a "news-feed" on your friends' accounts, so they can see what you're up to. You can also modify what's known as a "status message", to update friends on your current state of mind or location: to wit, 'Neema has gone to Phuket' or 'Matthew is very hungover'.
Salman Khan - Actor
His Facebook page, in sharp contrast to his real life, is free of drama.
This selective exhibitionism, and the ongoing commentary it attracts from your friends, draws on natural human traits like curiosity, sharing and socialising. But, as sociologist Dr Radhika Chopra points out, "it's also a reinvention of the notion of privacy.... The need to display ourselves, to breach the public-private divide is part of consumption culture. It's like the people who use their mobile phones in malls or parks, carrying on private conversations in public. In the same way, Facebook users are drawing attention to themselves, saying, 'Look, I'm connected!'."
Then there are the usual reasons to which people attribute their Facebook addiction—long hours spent tied down to workstations, distances in metro cities, the fact that many more people now live and work in cities and countries other than the ones they grew up in, all of which make it difficult to meet friends as often as one would like.
But what sets Facebook apart from other networking sites? What makes journalists, babus, businessman, intellectuals, sports stars and actors set up their own Facebook profiles, and prompts billionaires to try and buy a piece of it?
Plenty, as it turns out. For one, it's clean outstripping the competition. Friendster, the grizzled progenitor of all social networking sites, has practically fallen defunct.
It's an addiction as essential as her morning cup of tea. First thing when Rupa wakes up, she leaps out of bed and logs onto Facebook, eager to see what surprise, what gossip, what ghost from the past, awaits her.
Oh, there's that long-lost cousin who moved to Detroit 10 years ago—looking smug and prosperous in front of his neat suburban house. And look who else has popped up—that nasty class bully, who now declares "I've added you as a friend". And has she finally broken up with her boyfriend? Yes, there it is, the status update, which announces it, broken heart and all....
Sachin Pilot - Politician
"Yes I'm on Facebook but I'd rather like to keep that part of my life private."
Are you on Facebook yet? It's one question that drives more than 1.6 million Indians to the wildly popular social networking site everyday, one that prompts them to send out a message or a poke to all the hundreds of people that they've ever come into contact with during their lifetime: playmates in nursery school, old neighbours, friends in school, distant cousins and close relatives, buddies in college, colleagues at work, even passing acquaintances.
Once "added as friend", you can access one another's profile pages: altars of personal trivia bedecked with flattering portraits which, like that of Dorian Gray, remain immune to the depredations of time, which visiting friends may "poke" by way of hello. The profile shares details on where you've worked and studied, your addresses and numbers, your favourite books, films and quotes, your close friends' nicknames for you, their opinion of you, the photos they've posted of you, and, through their public messages to you on your "fun" or "super" wall (a sort of virtual notice board), a blow-by-blow account of the happenings of the day before. Your plans for the rest of the week, as they unfold, and any additions you make to your profile, all go into a "news-feed" on your friends' accounts, so they can see what you're up to. You can also modify what's known as a "status message", to update friends on your current state of mind or location: to wit, 'Neema has gone to Phuket' or 'Matthew is very hungover'.
Salman Khan - Actor
His Facebook page, in sharp contrast to his real life, is free of drama.
This selective exhibitionism, and the ongoing commentary it attracts from your friends, draws on natural human traits like curiosity, sharing and socialising. But, as sociologist Dr Radhika Chopra points out, "it's also a reinvention of the notion of privacy.... The need to display ourselves, to breach the public-private divide is part of consumption culture. It's like the people who use their mobile phones in malls or parks, carrying on private conversations in public. In the same way, Facebook users are drawing attention to themselves, saying, 'Look, I'm connected!'."
Then there are the usual reasons to which people attribute their Facebook addiction—long hours spent tied down to workstations, distances in metro cities, the fact that many more people now live and work in cities and countries other than the ones they grew up in, all of which make it difficult to meet friends as often as one would like.
But what sets Facebook apart from other networking sites? What makes journalists, babus, businessman, intellectuals, sports stars and actors set up their own Facebook profiles, and prompts billionaires to try and buy a piece of it?
Plenty, as it turns out. For one, it's clean outstripping the competition. Friendster, the grizzled progenitor of all social networking sites, has practically fallen defunct.
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