"Anti Social Animal'

Of all the Television presenters, Fareed Zakaria of CNN is the one I admire the most and Barkha Dutt of NDTV is the one I relate to the most. Barkha and me have almost ‘grown up’ together (though not literally) and I take whatever she presents very seriously. Her Sunday evening talk show (I am bad at remembering names) discussed Twitter, an area foreign to me.

I am among the rare species that don’t network socially. In fact I am on the verge of being declared an ‘anti social’ animal by friends and family who find my abstinence from social networking sites disturbing and annoying. That brings me back to Barkha’s question “Is social networking any good”.

Well yes, it is brilliant for a girl friend for wants to track his beau’s past, present and future conquests. It is the most important innovation for people who have always slept with a loud speaker by their side, and for those who always itch to share, gossip or flit.  Some working professionals have balls of steel (eye balls that is) to stare at a screen for work and for pleasure. On the more serious front, there’s always someone for whom technology and innovation works in the real sense. I keep them off the shelve in this article. There’s another class of people who have a split personality disorder when it comes to social networking. They have two different personalities, one online and one in the real world. They are the real ‘bunnies’ and some confidence is lost in this medium when a ‘bunny’ is busted.

Not that all’s wrong with social networks. Splits and break offs are less painful, lost friends are found and a friend’s friend is a friend. Professional networking sites are ‘chawanprash’ for newborns in the corporate world and ‘chaddi brigades’ are a powerful force in mobilizing a public opinion. Celebrities have a place to spit and followers have a place to admire their spits.

It’s a great innovation and a futuristic approach to communication. It works for some and it doesn’t for others (I’m among the later half). It is a casual medium for exchange of information, ideas and thoughts and I would like it to see it grow as a casual medium. Official procedures needs to be adhered and policies formed to prevent abuse of network effect of this medium (think Tharoor, Modi split).  Barricades need to be set up for kids so that they socialize in the real world and learn to differentiate between virtual and real world.

For me it doesn’t simply works. In a typical day and a few hundred calls, messages and emails later I look forward to meeting friends and family in the real world. No offences to social networks and maybe one fine day I’ll jump on this bandwagon too. Till then my blog captures my thoughts and all invites for the ‘mama bhanja’ sites find solace in my trash box.