A long discussion was had fuelled by funny scraps that one gets to read on other people's orkut account. Which set the wheels in motion, the gears turning and the machinery working and now we have a post dedicated to networking sites.
Or that's what they want to be called.
Long years ago, when all was text, if you had to meet new people you irc-ed (Internet Relay Chatted) the results of that are seen here. Or if you had to spread any word you painstakingly typed out all the addresses. Or just called everyone up. Needless to say (then why say it? It's just a expression like notwithstanding) life was without charm and people often died alone only to be discovered by the neighbor while investigating the scary noises.
Then email groups became the rage and suddenly like minded people were joining groups of interest under id's both bizarre and interesting. That element of internet uncertainity prevailed where one was never sure if silvan_elf@whatever was a Legolas or an Arwen. So there were hits and misses and geeky boys were trolling the corridors of pro-abortion groups in the hope that they'd land someone. Well, the logic essentially being that here was a bunch of women whom one was sure would be having enough sex to make abortion a legal requirement.
It was also said of Marie Stopes (wiki if you don't know) that at the time she was living in an arrangement with a certain gentleman which would certainly have required the use of contraception.
Then one had alumni sites where with a little ingeunity one can dredge up email ids of either the 4th standard crush that turned one down or the 6th standard bully who turned one upside down and subscribe them both to donkey porn or some such. The only fallout of the whole thing is the rare chance that someone would actually like donkey porn. Like the song says, there are all kinds of people in this world.
Then the early networking sites came up. And now they're sprouting like mushrooms. Advertising on the internet, appearing in magazines and newspapers and intelligent men and women are unable to understand why there's such an exponential increase in subscription. That might be explained in the lines to come.
So there's Hi5, Orkut, Fropper and a bunch of others that beg, plead, entice and cajole people into signing up. Fropper is probably the worst with the sleaziest tv advertisement I've seen after that MR Coffee thing. Hi5 is ok till one starts getting friend requests from unknown cool sounding people who have porn websites as their webpages. Not that isn't necessarily a bad thing but occasionally donkey porn happens. Even my motherboard, which is a particularly cold, emotionless thing shuts down in disgust those times.
Orkut. Google initiative so it is to an extent remarkably intuitive and reasonably well organised. And it's primary advantage is the fact that the level of anonymity is very low. Your email id is on display as is your face if you chose to display it and essentially so are your friends. That can be a good thing. But also can be disastrous.
Orkut has a few issues of it's own. One is that scrapbook concept. Where whatever anybody wants to tell you is open for public perusal. It is like a friend said, akin to shouting out across a crowded room when suddenly everyone's stopped talking. The only way out is the delete potentially offending scraps. Why can't people just mail instead? The other is the weirdo invasion. This happens either completely anonymously - the "fraandship" bunch or skeletons from your old school closet. The anonymous bunch can very easily be ignored or laughed at the others pose a threat.
There exists a concept that one hasn't kept in touch or taken the trouble to keep in touch with a large number of people primarily because one may not want to keep in touch. This theory is ignored, violated and trampled thanks to orkut. Specimens from 4th grade (not the crush) and the bully from 6th grade is back with pictures to take revenge for the whole donkey porn thing. Old school people, here refers to people from the old school, pose a problem of a completely different nature than most of the weirdos from another planet.
The friends one makes in college or even high school are people who have a fair idea of what they want in life and who they are. So a connection formed then is a reasonably sound one. Now in 6th grade where most people are trying to come to terms with either puberty or pimples is an eminently forgettable time. Now if someone from that shady past appears out of the blue and wants to catch up it's terrible. Conversation never progresses beyond ten minutes even with beer and often you find them married with a kid at a time when you can't see a future in your own life.
But experimentation on orkut by hypolink and me have yeilded the following tips :
- Friend requests expire if ignored for a week
- People can be unfriended without them ever knowing
Use this wisely.
More on the orkut profile and how to ensure you stay single in some time.
