Are you 'Socially Network'ed?

Hello! This is Rakesh again with a new post and this time its about the common thing we all know and come across in our daily 'Net' lives. Please leave your comments after reading it.


Digital age is what can be used as an apt term to describe the current scenario of the world. With eeverything from eating to washing clothes to work now becoming 'Digital', there's hardly anything left that is 'traditional'. Coming to think of it, I feel though the 'Digital Age' and the pervasion of computers in everyone's life has done good, there has been a feeling of disruption of personal life and relationships. It is not uncommon these days to come across a person engrosed in working on his laptop even in his leisure time rather than going out and meeting his kith and kin.


Over a last few years, there's been a new trend shaping up among the 'Digitizens' - as we may call them - which is 'Social Networking'. What is this? It is basically a network of people comnected to each other on wire - or Internet as we popularly know it. these people are geographically diversified, they are of different ages, classes of life, and lifestyle. It all started when websites like 'Orkut', 'Facebook', 'iBibo' etc came into light and brought about the change in people.


But the question to think about is "Is 'Social Networking' really useful?". Well, I feel 'yes'. The reason - we being so busy in our daily lives, can't go out and meet everybody personally. Thanks to Internet and Social Networking sites, you can connect and to any person, view their profile, share pictures, videos and what not! I have come across cases where a whole new relationship was born just out of 'Orkut'ing.


But that is not all. As every coin has two sides, this social networking has also a dark side to it. The prolific penetration of these web sites has actually increased the number of 'Computer Addicts'. I have personally seen the profiles of people with more than 15,000 scraps in Orkut. That is a real big number...right? Moreover, there are so many fake profiles to lure the gullible people and thus only increasing the security threat. And there's always a 'Porn' effect out there!


There are quite a number of variety social networking sites depending on their purpose/function. There are generic social networking sites such as 'Orkut', Facebook', 'iBibo', 'BharatStudent' etc. and 'LinkedIn' for Professionals, and there are other sites which help to share the 'downloads' they have made, 'softwares' they have, sites for uniting the family members, and there are sites to form groups to actually 'fight'...ummmm ;) The bottom line - there's something for everone.


Over the centuries, mankind has evolved, survived and flourished due to one reason - communication. The new concept of 'Social Networking' in the 'Digital Age' has definetely brought out a new dimension of communication - thus leading towards betterment of society and mankind.


So the question remains "Are you 'Social Network' ed?"