Social Networks … A Misery!

I am addicted to technology; I am here running windows 7 RC 1, with beta version of antivirus software on my official laptop! Big fan of xBox 360, play like a teenager (which of course I am…), I can tell you that next move on LCD is 3D TVs.

But for some reason I cant absorb concept of social network be it facebook or orkut. Why will I be interested in someone on my list “is ready to take a nap”. People are addicted to it, not only that they prefer to ‘talk’ to a friend over these websites. I know this for a fact as my list shares ‘phone-numbers’ on their friend’s wall, which is actually their way of staying in touch!

I am a firm believer in internet, I will look up practically everything or anything on internet be it home theater details, or when hacking Hard drive for my xBox, my wife have also looked up Mendhi (henna) designs for up coming wedding. But I strongly believe we are going overboard with these social networks. Are we as a global society so deprived of actually meeting with other people that we need to have these crutches? What does the global psychologist has to say about this?

There ought to be a balance between your personal and official friends, and I try to keep this balance – though this is a very small world and everyone is linked with everyone else, but there are better ways to use that. Linkedin, for example, is an excellent tool – its meant for professionals and is good when its comes to sharing the required professional details.

[Update Nov 17th, 2009] Read this article, by King-SlaveOfAllah. Quoting him:

“It was one of those normal evenings when Parmeet Kaur (name changed), a software engineer in Chennai, logged on to Orkut to unwind from work and catch up with friends.But one and a half minutes later, the evening turned shocking and miserable for her.

What she saw was a cheeky scrap and forward to a profile that had her semi-nude photo in another girl’s profile, tagged as her sister who flagged joint hints of intimate advances and indecent invites. Parmeet’s photo had been brazenly and easily tampered with.

After many weeks of tension and repeated requests to Orkut, the ID was removed. She vowed never to be vulnerable again.

Victims like Parmeet, are not one-off. They belong to the new breed of cautious Orkuters,Facebook users who either have said goodbye to networking or have got extremely careful with their communities and photographs.”