The Flourishing World of Social Networking Sites

Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, My space blogger, wordpress etc, and many such names has become a part of our life. Those are called internet based social networking sites. Chatting, scraping and messaging on those sites is a part of daily schedule for many of us. Its craze and addiction could be understood from this fact that Shashi Tharoor got a name of twitter minister and finally lost his post in ministry of external affairs due to his frequent expressions of personal views on twitter about government policy matters. Craze of social network sites is not limited towards only young generation; the oldies are also liking to be a part of this new socio-techno phenomenon. Social network sites has provided a new sphere to express our selves, to meet with people across the globe and to transmit our thoughts and views. Off course, it is all limited towards only cyber space; still it has a huge impact on our life.

The celebrities and famous personalities are also finding it a very effective and easy way to communicate with their fans all over the world. Every day a new celebrity, from politics to bollywood, sports persons and many other public figures are joining twitter, Facebook etc. Shahrukh Khan posted his tweets at every half an hour during the release of his new film, “my name is khan”. But at the same time, complaints of fake celeb accounts of celebrities specially female celebrities is increasing, hacking of their accounts and steeling of their personal information has become a common trouble, Anushka shankar’s case when her photographs were stolen from her PC is a genuine example of such incidents. However, such incidents or uncomfortable acts do not stop people to use social networking sites.

Every day we are sharing lots of information about our personal, professional and social life through our profile statements, games, applications and pictures. Important events of our life, things happening in day-to-day life and what we are thinking at a specific moment of time; every thing we are sharing on the virtual world. Without thinking a moment that such information,  we are providing in small-small pieces can become a huge source of information or can be used to make our whole public and private profile in real world as well. It is a kind of stage where everyone has something to say, where everyone wants to express him/herself, without caring of the fact that whether there is someone who is listening or not? Everyone wants to speak more and more, wants to share more and more of his/her life.

These sites have created a virtual identity or say, it is very easy to make fake profiles on those sites. Fake names, fake occupations, profiles pictures of whatever we like, can be added. No one will come to us to ask or verify about that information. E.G. if a girl see a man some where in market or on road, she may not like to talk him or even do not bother to give him a look, but if she receives a friend request on Facebook or Orkut with a nice profile photo and some interesting information given on profile, she could easily add him in her friends network. The same thing can be told about the male users, who merely care about whom they are adding in their friend network, no matter if later on, any of that profile with a fake female name proved a hacker, and the victim has to pay the cost. Recently a couple of friends of mine faced same situation, they added female profiles as friend who not only hacked their account but also filled their profile with a lots of vulgar and obscene stuff and the worst sent such content to their friends also. When I asked them, why you added such profile that is already containing some objectionable stuff? The answer I got “well…men are always men”. It shows the carelessness of people, a negligence, it happens or let it be kind of tendency. Because people take it as a source of entertainment, a time pass where they can full fill their hidden desires without much risk. Because once you signed out from your account and shut down the PC, whole game is ended there, at least for a while it seems to be ended up.

Nevertheless, in spite of such incidents the popularity of social networking is increasing at a faster pace. People, who are not on these sites, considered as old fashioned by those who are actively participating on these sites. At the other side, many people consider these sites as useless and a total wastage of time and energy. So there are mixed opinion about these sites. However, what makes these sites so popular that people cannot imagine their life without login and logout?

It is because here is a wide platform that is not bounded by any strict laws, rules and regulations, a complete freedom of speech and expression. Say what ever you like, do whatever you want. Be a part of various political and social activities such as being supporter of saving girl child campaign, saving tiger campaign, join Indian army and so on… all at a click of mouse. These sites give us a feeling of individualism. It fulfills our hunger of separate identity…a space of my own. Even the friendship on Facebook and Orkut is not so instant, continuous messaging, chatting creates a kind of attachment and bonding among the unknown people, whom we never met in real life but would certainly like to meet and communicate further. It is the charm of these sites that always attract us to use them and to become a part of this virtual world, some times with a real identity and some times with a fake identity.