Notch of Social Media

Excitement was in the air, especially around me and Sheena! Just few days left for the voting day. I would cast vote in Bangalore for the first time. I gave vote earlier too, in Delhi, but that time I was not so much active in Facebook, neither my friends. Sheena was even more excited than me….,it would be her first vote. 

“What will we wear…”, “what should we put on our face…”, “what to do with our fingers to look beautiful in the pics…”, all these messages were filling our Whatsapps spaces last few days before the D-day. Sheena’s boyfriend, Rahul promised to be our photographer. 

We went to parlour to do manicure; our fingers should look good. We bought hats – one yellow and one red; Bangalore was sooo sunny those days! Red was mine. We bought smart western attires to look trendy on pictures. I bought one stylish goggle to flaunt too.  

We decided to reach the voting venue around 7:30 am and then we were sure that we would be free by 8:30 am at least. Sheena planned to go for a date after that, and I was excited because I would be able to upload the pics on Facebook by 9 am….. I had my secret desire to get at least 150 likes on my pics, or at least more than Sheena’s. I would upload three pics – one - of my finger and another me giving a pose in the queue and the last one – with Sheena – I would tag her, otherwise she might feel bad. Now, the question which was disturbing me – “what should be the captions….!!”

***

The Election Day!

I got up early, around 6 am. Shampooed my hair. Dressed nicely.

It was 6:30 am. Sheena was still sleeping…..I called her…no response….

I did my make-up, put moisturiser, powder, sunscreen lotion, eye-liner, eye-shadow, brown lipstick matching with my dress.

7:15 am. No sign from Sheena of getting up from her bed. Again I called her…..no response. I got a bit angry. I shoved her. She asked me, “What happened?” with half opened eyes. I replied, “Let’s go to cast vote! Get up, otherwise we will be late.”

She replied, “No yaar, you go, I fought with Rahul till 3 am. He wants to give vote to BJP and I want him to give to AAP. He is not convinced. And so, neither me nor Rahul are going to give vote.”

What should I do now!!! Who will click my pics!!! My head started spinning…… Ï thought, “I don’t care who wins –BJP or AAP or some other party…but I deadly need some pics to upload on Facebook to show the world that I am a conscious citizen.”

Facebook Freak Aunty

Couple of months back, I saw one of our neighbour aunts in Facebook. Her age will be around 47-48 yrs. I was very happy to see her there. She works as a clerk in a government organization.

She sent me the friend request. I accepted. And I started getting all her updates. Every day she would pose in different style, click pics and upload on Facebook, and accumulate lots of ‘Like’ and comments. She would leave no occasion unturned to click pics in fancy dresses. 

I met her one day and expressed my happiness to see her frequent updates. She replied, “You know na, in govt. office, we don’t have much work, so I thought to engage myself totally into social media to pass my time.”

Gradually, I observed her Friend list picking up momentum, soon it crossed 1500 friends. I thought ‘Wow’; I have less than 1000 friends in my list being in Facebook for so long! Probably her son’s and daughter’s friends are also her friends now. Her kids are in hostels, one in Dehradun and another in Orissa.

My inquisitive mind….just felt like looking at her friend list. 

And I did.....

Ohhh…I was wrong….Her son and daughter, both are not in her friend list, neither her husband. Her 90% friends are male. Chiseled bodied hunks, infamous rockstars, students, open for secret relationship, unsatisfied Man and what not!!! Besides, the list is a global friendlist – crossed almost all the geographical boundaries - some from Russia, some from India, someone from Pakistan, some from Bangladesh etc….

Became nosier. So, wanted to ‘peek a boo’ at the comments she was amassing. 

‘Looking beautiful’, looking attractive’, ‘looking sexy’, ‘looking voluptuous’…….level is going higher and higher…..special comments from those rockstars. Aunty is also equally responding with ‘Thank You’…..… 

I wondered if she is aware of this feature of Facebook that her comments, updates, friendlist can be explored by anyone. I am still thinking, is it her mid-life crisis, time pass or her ignorance. Or am I becoming too speculative in other’s affair….

Social Media

Life without Mobile phones =  Can not imagine!

Life without Social Media = Can we think of???

China is the largest and India is the second most populous countries in the world. But the way, Facebook is picking up its speed, I am sure it will overtake these two countries and set its position as the most populated realm, so that no country can break the record.

In case of other social media components like blogging, micro blogging, news sharing, website sharing,  video sharing, music sharing etc., social media is a powerful tool to aggregate people, bring popularity to individuals/ organizations/products and build the brands too.

Now, gossiping is becoming open….organizations started believing that one’s personality reflects in social media. A groom is chosen believing in the statement – ‘a man is known by the company he keeps’ – looking at the social media friend –circles.

Though social media consumes huge time of the youth, and the young professionals mostly, interest based networking has started making its impact. Common goals, hobbies, social causes, government indecisiveness, eradicating social evils are such areas where social media can evolve.

To give an example, I received a mail from Rajiv Vausdevan via Change.org for signing his petition asking the defence minister to help the brave NSG Commando, PV Manesh get reimbursement for his Ayurveda treatment. Manesh was injured while rescuing hostages in the 26/11 attacks. He has been undergoing Ayurveda treatment that has helped him significantly, but the Army rules don’t allow for reimbursement of Ayurveda treatment. So, Rajiv started this campaign to help him.

I am sure that this kind of common causes can be eradicated through social media collaboration. I believe, the ADVT. of Idea mobile of gathering votes from millions of people for a common cause, now also can happen in a big way through social media. That’s even more effectively as social media is free to cost. 

Not sure if social media can change our political and social systems and processes or not, but will emerge into something very different which is hard to say, as the future will be more connected and more engaged.

And….as the networking rides on the mouse!!!