In the modern world, with the ideas of a ‘global village’
and ‘the world is a family’ scheme of things, we make many friends. Some
instantaneous, some in hesitant steps, some with caution and some that are best
kept a hand’s length away. However, connections are made every day and every
hour possibly, in the life of a person, because though one cannot speak for the
entire world, a large enough part of its population is connected to the
internet today, thus voluntarily or involuntarily becoming part of a global
endeavour to better the human civilization and build a tight web in order that we
may not be nations in the future, but a World.
Taking what is explained above in macro and putting it in a
scale that becomes inclusive in the bigger scheme of things, we come to social
networking. And out of the many social networking sites, there is one that has
stood out in this decade and much of the previous one. That small step
giant leap was the development of Facebook as a tool or means to reach the
above mentioned destination, and as they say, ‘the journey is more important…’
Image Courtesy: Google Images. |
One makes so many contacts on Facebook. Friends,
acquaintances, friends of friends, visitors, relatives, teachers, students,
colleagues, seniors, juniors, drinking partners, business associates and even
complete strangers are added to people’s accounts every day. It serves the
basic human need to be connected and be recognized. The need to know people
everywhere and to be pleased in the knowledge that others, in various places,
know them.
Then there is the need for communication. To be able to
communicate with people, regardless of distance, time and availability; albeit
not without an internet connection. The need for rapid, cheap and easy
communication is facilitated by it.
There is also a requirement for short-term connections. A
need wherein two or more people need to stay connected for a certain amount of
time after which they go their separate ways, sometimes without even a single
glance backwards. It is this that is the crux of what is to come next.
I've observed, through personal experience that it so
happens that after a while, maybe a year or two on Facebook, when one goes
through their friends list, they find that there are people that they don’t
know. People that they have no memory of and who are just there, God knows how.
Actually, they did know that person once, but with passing time, the memory of
that person has either become too hazy or has been wiped out totally. This is
of course taking into consideration only those who do not keep adding people
indiscriminately for the heck of it.
There have been times, when I've gone through my friends
list (I do that every six months) and found at least five or more people who I
recollected only faintly or who I didn't remember having a decent conversation
with, even virtually for over a year.
And sometimes, I'm just like,
“Who the Hell is
THAT?”
Image Courtesy: Google Images. |
No comments:
Post a Comment