Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The New World Order

Once upon a time I tried to make sense of my virtual life. I thought 'Linkedin' would take care of my professional networking. And 'Facebook' would be for family and friends.

And yeah, 'Orkut' was for fans and readers of my blog/ books/ JAM etc. Coz orkut was THE youth site.

But times change, and with that, so must I. Orkut is dying, LinkedIn has added Facebook features. The fact is, today, FB is king.

One of the reasons I wanted to keep Facebook 'personal' was that, well, I wanted to have some privacy. But the fact is, FB isn't private. So many of the 'friends' I have added are vague and distant acquaintances, people with whom I shared oxygen with in a 7th standard classroom. No shared memories, closeness or experiences as such.

Kai to pehchaan mein bhi nahin aatey (minus braces, spectacles and chotis - all for the better :)

If these distant acquaintances can be my friends, so can the folks who come up to me at a bookstore and say they loved reading 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish'.

Of course, I can start a separate 'fanpage'. But managing multiple websites, blogs, accounts, identities - is all very taxing. I know some people employ 'managers' for all this but the reason people want to be your 'friend' is to have a sense of personal contact.

So even if I log in only from time to time, whenever I do reply or respond or update my status... You know it's 'me' speaking.

I welcome my '781' new friends, in a new world order where we can have a social group of more than 150. Yes, we may not have a deep relationship but the possibility of us getting to know each other better now exists.

And I look forward to it.

Last but not the least, I must mention the character who introduced himself 'Great Indian Gigolo' and explained in his message that he 'cannot CUM online very often'.

No, I am not adding him but hey, it's a free world. Everyone is discovering the power of 'social media marketing'. Bet we'll see him quoted by some journalist out there... very soon!

13 comments:

  1. you will need to create a fan page coz friends cannot go beyond 5K on FB. With this speed and the new book, you will reach that number very soon.

    -Naman
    My friend request is still pending :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah FB is the new King of the world. Initially I tried to ignore it because it was consuming too much of time... now I have to login and check everyday!

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  3. FB is a king. You put it right :)

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  4. Anonymous11:26 AM

    i believe all forms of online networking will die its own natural death... have seen through ICQ, Messengers, Orkut... FB will follow sometime

    nothing replaces plain old keeping in touch the old traditional way... however infrequent they are...

    ReplyDelete
  5. mam, i would suggest u to join twitter...it is the easy medium to get all ur fans with u without accepting them..they become ur followers..and u may talk to them without runing ur homepage..try it...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Madam, what do you say about the advertisers on your comment space ? There is sweta who sells flowers & bouquets in Hong Kong, and shekhar who wants us to watch movies online.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Online School Admissions OSA - One of the best School directory in India, there you will find almost all the schools of India, this is a unique schools directory and is unique of its kind. First of its kind in India where you can fill admission form online in just a few simple steps.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Whether face book dies or not,one day all of us are going to, and one by one each face will be out of the book.Vasanthi emmanuel
    http://www.bullseyeconsultancy.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey Rashmi, please read my 1st novel "LaajVanti" available at http://pothi.com/pothi/book/sridhar-laajvanti

    It's only available online, at Pothi - the Print on Demand site...

    Hope you enjoy it :)

    Regards,
    Sridhar

    ReplyDelete
  10. I got my friend request accepted on FB. Thanks!! :D
    And you are so right when you mentioned about having personal touch and contact through social networking websites.
    Hoping to interact more with you there...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very well said ma'm. FB has really been a king of social media now.

    ReplyDelete
  12. you will need to create a fan page coz friends cannot go beyond 5K on FB. With this speed and the new book, you will reach that number very soon.

    join vietdreamz.blogspot.com .... and get to know more about our college fest

    ReplyDelete

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