On the name of 'development', the list of necessary evils goes on increasing...! A major inclusion in this list has been Facebook.
As per Wiki, Facebook is:
"a social networking service and Web site launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. As of July 2011, Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile."
True, that it has been a revolution in itself. Emerging from possibly one of the most important/basic concepts of human existence - the concept of society and that humans are social beings, it provides one of the strongest and widest base to connect to those whom you know/don't know, friends/enemies (well you can..or at least stalk them), inland/out-land, home/away, acquaintances/complete strangers. It makes distances disappear. You can get in touch with those whom you have not met for a decade. Find friends, check updates, arrange events, 'poke' people (though I am yet to decipher the real use of it...!), create fan pages (useless for me...!), create posts, comment on posts, like posts and what not! True, Facebook has been a meteoric success!
So, when it comes to Facebook 'To be or not to be' is indeed not the question anymore...it's just about how long when you are in finally in there..............
But then what's the catch here? Is it all so goody? Personally, I don't think so...perhaps I am still to find an ideal world...or maybe I am just overly pessimistic. Have we lost something during the process of being represented only by our Facebook profile? Have we lost the emotional aspects of a human interaction to a 'poke' or a 'pinch' - I don't care!
When I started my engineering studies in 2001 (yeah has been 10years now...phew !), we used to remember the birthdays of our friends (remember no Facebook then to give an alarm that its my friends birthday today!)...used to make greetings cards for them, either by hand or just fetch one from Archies Gallery or Hallmark...! Every card I used to receive made me feel good, made me feel that I know one more person who took enough trouble to remember this date and made some effort to make this day more special to me...in his/her own way. Then the closest of those friends probably arranged a birthday cake for me...and I had to pretend to be surprised... :) but it was fun and joy - all in one ! Last month, I celebrated by 28th birthday. I got loads and loads of wishes (way way way more than I used to get 10 years ago), though, yeah you guessed it right, on Facebook...coupled with a few phone calls from family and close relatives. A few of my 'Facebook friends', in order to make their wish 'stand-out' threw a 'Virtual Cake' on me...! Infact, the height of everything was the conditional wish from my girlfriend who actually wished me birthday only after I surrendered to her condition to upload a picture of ours on Facebook, a picture which was already on my profile, but then she wanted me to upload the same picture once again and so it had to be so...!!!
Among all of the wishes that I received, one of them stands out to me...the one I received from a college friend of mine. She actually sent me an e-card...! Sounds old fashioned...but that possibly was one of the best wishes I received this year! It made me feel that there is still some hope left, some people still care, some people still think that there exists a life outside that woven by Facebook...some people still remember your birthday not just because there was a birthday alarm on Facebook...but because they genuinely remember!
From 2001 till 2011, there have been lots of changes...our lives have become faster, we are running against time...always playing a catch-up game...we don't have time to stop and say 'Hi! How are you today? How is the weather in your city? How is your family? Have a very nice day ahead and send my regards to your family'. We don't find time to stop by our neighbour's house to have a cup of tea and discuss about 'other stuff'. We are now more like machines, working hard to make our ends meet or just working hard as we have nothing better to do...but...that one e-card made me realize how much difference personal touch can make...and sometimes, doing a lot does not count, but just making someone smile does...!
Well, I started from Facebook, but wavered somewhere in between onto our lives and how those small things can make your life appear more than worth just 'ahh...Friday is still way far off'...! So just do something, not necessarily of magnanimous proportions, but something that makes someone smile: crack a joke, give a rose to a friend, give a dime to a needy, help someone cross the road, listen to your friend...or just send a card to someone you care about.........................
