THE SOCIAL NETWORK:

5 Years after I logged in, and created my 1st social network profile on Orkut and a few months after I changed my loyalty to Facebook, I finally thought of writing in about my experience in and out.
Wikipedia defines the term as “A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.”..Well all said about what a social network is, let me get in some details from my past, my 1st foray to Orkut, the lean phase I spent with Orkut with no value addition to my scrapbook and friends and finally the quite phase when like my most Orkut friends, I shifted to facebook literally scrapping the mystic Orkut.
It all started in my 2nd year when a girl next to me logged in www.Orkut.com in the Bio-informatics lab. For the 1st time, I noticed the site rather the girl at the 1st go. Though I did check out her later on but it was totally futile. The reason why I chose to give my 1st look at the Orkut home page was genuine enough. The interface was neat, and mostly the images of various chicks who are present in your friend list or maybe your friends friend list gave enough opportunities. Orkut proved to an instant hit and rage among the college and school goers. Having an Orkut account was the owner pride and others envy. More than that owning an Orkut account meant, you could invite others too and this made the owner the most sought after person. It sounded cheesy and one felt complex browsing sites like Rediff.com and meebo.com(for yahoo and other chat rooms) when the person sitting right behind you browsed Orkut and received scrap from any random chick he knew. Any happening like this with me, I said “Son-of a bitch, he has an Orkut account”.(obviously in my mind) and made desperate attempts to find any remote friend or acquaintance who could grace me with an invite for Orkut.
Technology spreads like wild-fire. More because the developers of the technology want to spread in that way as it means earning some quick bucks and they know for sure that any new technology on internet(except Google) which sees a high would for sure see a low after it attains its saturation point. So the motive it makes enough financial gains as possible from your product. Orkut garnered enough publicity mostly from word-of mouth and some weird stories from media which described how a guy found a girl on Orkut. The buzz around it was enough for anyone to create or look for creating an Orkut profile. The Yahoo chat rooms and groups had lost it sheen mostly because of bots infiltrating the chat rooms and guys often hanged with bots rather than real chicks on yahoo. Moreover, unlike yahoo chat rooms, the Orkut found an instant hit among girls too who found the site safe and trust-worthy enough to make a profile on it. Girls and technology are two independent entities and no where relates (exceptions do exist..!!)..Orkut in the year 2006 was void of any privacy settings. Its scrap book was public, so was the photo albums and any one write on your scrap-book unless you had takes extra care of making your scrap-book a private affair. Changing the privacy and security settings was pain in the** and most of the users were unaware of it. And still girls found it a safe horizon..!!..This made Orkut one of the most infamous hunting grounds for guys looking for girls.
My long awaited and cherished desire did not prove to be too long as a class mate or a friend asked me over SMS if I was on Orkut or not. As I wasn’t really interested in that girl, saying a No and being honest was my reply, to which she asked me my gmail ID and sent the invitation rather than replying to my SMS.Thinking of being the 1st person to be there and realizing that lots of people have already been there was my 1st reaction after I logged in for the 1st time.I realized that it more of increasing the friend count that the girl send me the invite of Orkut. She sent similar request to more than half a dozen people too. Crap..i thought…how does the count of your friend even ever matters.2 weeks down the lane I found the answer when I was busy trying to find people who I knew even remotely and scrapped people whom I met a minute back, the content of scrap being “Hey buddy…wassup man..!!”…all these efforts intended to increase my friend as well as scrap count.It was always a feeling of virtual victory when you knocked down your closed friend in terms of friend as well as scrap count.
Chat rooms became a matter of past and people found their new love in scraps. Though Orkut found it popularity mostly in South Asian and African countries, an Indian in USA used Orkut more than MySpace or Facebook (the most common social networks of USA).The About Me section of one’s profile defined how cool a person was. Using metaphors,similies,Barrons high frequency words and humorous content were the hot trends, some losers did made a mockery of themselves by really describing themselves like I am Smart,handsome, blah blah kind of stuff(in most cases it was just the opposite).As the count of friends lost it relevance, the number of testimonials one possessed defined the incandescent persona of an individual. Testimonials were more of a statement which went ga-ga about an invidual saying how smart,unique,cool the person was , the matter was to say how good a girlfriend/boyfriend one would be.Most of the testimonials were written literally at gun-point or under the pre-text of a promise of a similar reciprocation.
The period or the phase saw many heart breaks and cheers.The initial offering of Orkut which made the scrap-book public had extreme affects.Guys found their area of interest(read the girl they liked) being some other guys love-interest while girls found the guy they had crush on having all other girls except her in that guy’s friend list. Technology has it pros and cons. Talk of the cons and am forced to remind how Orkut during my college days proved to be prankster’s hay place. An unlogged account of a friend proved to be a key to may doors and people played jokes at the owner’s cost.
The final year and a year after proved to be a season of lull for Orkut in my life. Two factors contributed it. First being at home for most part of year after college with no internet connectivity and the second being strangled with a job thereafter. My interaction with Orkut limited itself to any updates like an incoming scrap or a friend request on my Gmail id.Even the updates changed it frequency to once in a blue moon. The phase saw no value addition to my scrap-book count which by this time has become a (s)crap-book for me. The friend list count dwindled as users facing similar issues preferred trying some new stuff rather than experiencing the vintage.
The Face-Book 
Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard extravaganza proved better than Orkut Büyükkökten’s official work. Facebook though have had invaded the western countries way before Orkut made its appearance, started to infiltrate in India. Though I created a profile on Facebook way back in 2008, I became an active user only on the early part of this year, when Orkut developers innovative ways came to an end. To add to my Orkutting ways, most of the times I logged in, the server of Orkut crashed pathetically further diverting me attention and time to Facebook.Further my workplace seeing Orkut doing a potential damage to its culture,banned it.however, Facebook is yet to come in company’s websense radar.This gives me an extra liberty to stay connected to the social network via FB.
However, facts to be told. As my instincts reacted for the 1st time , I still find FB a cluttered act with numerous apps all messed up in a page with people asking some help for their farm or their cows going somewhere..seriously..what crap.If I were given a task I would go on to write 101 reasons why I hated FB.However, considering the fact that how painstaking and daunting that task would be, let me innumerate a few of them.
a)A daily request to join Mafia wars or feed someone’s something in a farm freaks me out.Seriously what the f*** is Farmville and Mafia wars..and why the damn should my participation would ever make a difference.Have been very sporting right from Nursery days and sportingly accepted the fact that sports do not form a part of me and neither do I belong to the sports cult. The other day an update which is marked a News feed(how the hell it’s a news..maybe yes someone’s farm is getting scrwed maybe a news for me) popped on my facebook homepage saying
“**** found a lost little White-tailed Buck on their farm. Oh no!.. **** was tending some new sprouts when a White-tailed Buck wandered onto their farm. The buck go...” and I went into an introspection why I was even on facebook getting such stupid news feed.
b)Unlike in Orkut, I never sent a friendship request to any random chick.It was always sent to a friend, or an acquaintance in certain cases. However, there are a few people (read girls) whom I know but am not really sure of their knowledge about me(am pretty sure they must have seen me..If at all they are observative as I am), who I did extend the prospects of my priceless friendship. Yet they have never been approved. Worse still, I do get updates of these people approving other friends and I seem to be the only one who under-went the sledge-hammer. Well, this can’t be reason for hating face-book, but the reason why do is the option of taking back the friendship offer is surely missing.After being denied an approval, I would never ever want to give my request a 2nd thought.Yet facebook doesn’t give me such a liberty and in the while compromises with my very principles.
c)I truly feel like screwing the guys more than facebook, when they make a comment on every other girl’s updates, no matter how cheesy it is.Even a crappiest of pics posted by a female receives more than a dozen likes and similar count of comments explaining how gorgeous, out-of-universe she looked.On the other hand, guys with the most amazing and thrilling updates have to like his own post and if ever get comments, includes “whr did u copy it from” and “seems u have gone crazy” kind of updates.Pics posted of himself is mostly un-noticed and is seen by noone other that him or his siblings.Such a kind of gender discrimination and a female chauvinistic attitude certainly leads to FB not being ranked as my top 10 sites to browse or go for when I reach my laptop.
d)The FB apps seem to be more of a curse than an option.They create a hell lot of humor which can be phrased as more of a tumor.Example this:
I checked out an App, how my life partner’s gonna be..(i vividly remember the name but am not sure of the exact name of the app.)..The application could have extracted my details as in my month of birth, my last name and other crap from my profile(and i thought the apps were smart enough).However, it asked me to enter the details.Curious to know i did painstakingly entered the bare as details only to find the result same as the friend who checked out the app last.After cursing FB for a minute i found that so called smart FB found me of the sun-sign LIBRA(am born on 1st Nov..and a Scorpion).These idiotoc apps which though creates extreme curiosity but prove to be a mere dud r another reason my hatred towards facebook.
Despite of these endless and countless reasons i use facebook on a daily basis, not because i love if, but because Orkut sucks as of now and for the very same reason i took to IT after doing my grads in Biotechnology, and for the same reason, i go for the work daily and lastly for the same reason why i do respond to my supervisor at work, though my every inch of body feels like thrashing the crap out of him.


P.S.:It may be a bit of irony, but the blog SOCIAL NETWORK makes it way onto unscocialgaurav’s blogspot.It reminds me of basic physics which taught us the very principle of Like charges attracting the unlike charges and vice-versa. Hail the Physics..!!

15th August: Independence Day..!!

Finally Independence Day creates a buzz among the urban denizens of the country. Contrary to some 5-6 yrs back when the day(15th August) meant nothing more than an official and school holiday, now the scenario has changed when people take a pride in endorsing the tri-colour on their vehicles,pin up the flag on their shirts and do wish each other the Happy Independence Day. All thanks to the movement(no its not Celebrate Independence Day movement..!!) started by a few email-happy people, which criticized people for wishing each other on Friendship’s day, Valentine’s day and other non-sensical western days but giving out very own Independence day a miss. Unlike last year, this year my facebook New Feed was flooded with people wishing Independence day and all updates of my friends(and acquaintances) who described how the over whelming feeling of patriotism imbibed them today. Some even wanted to India to go back to shackles so that they could do the Bhagat Singh or Azad’s kind of act and redeem freedom back to the country. Sheer patriotism I should say..!!..What was more surprising was that this year Friendship’s day which happened exactly a couple of weeks back seemed dud in comparison to the Independence day..Once again kudos to my dear netizens who created an enormous awareness and their campaign seems finally paying off.
I was really intrigued to give a thought about this day after people waked me up at 6 in the morning to wish on this day. A talk over phone for 2 minutes meant an abrupt end to my sleep. With nothing to do around, I thought how does it mattered to wish each other a happy independence day…my answer didn’t matter at all..Then does the Independence does really matter?? Yes it does..And my final question got me in real tizzy when I asked myself if am enjoying it..and my answer was..hmm..No..Don’t know..but it tends highly towards No.
Now why I think so..here are the few points:
a)In a Country where I do have rights to settle anywhere , but is forced to move out by local goons do not define independence of movement.
b)Though my company talks of ethics ,asks me to come to office even on weekends and even on Independence day..Is it the freedom are we talking about.
c)The inflation has marred the country.Despite of this millions of tonnes of food stock gets damaged due to improper storage and the Agriculture Minister says, it happens..
d)The Commonwealth Games which would be a 1st International event to be staged in the country after the 1982 Asiad, seems badly hit by corruption. Few days for the games, people are showing keen interest in doing exposes and blackening the games further rather than really trying to help it happen. Is it the freedom all about..
e)The outsourcing firms based in the country charge a hefty $200-300 per day per person from clients but pay a meager $15-16 per day to its employees. Is it what we call equality..??
f)The Maoists have inflicted a huge damage to the nation and is on the verge of India’s civil war.Yet the vote frenzy politicians create a buzz and hold dharnas when talks of using Army at them are concerned.
g)As the nations celebrates its yet another Independence Day, Kashmir burns echoing a separatist voice. Some elements of society who have an issue with peace and harmony ruling over, invoke a group of mis guided who go on violent terms. And instead of holding proper talks, the leaders make some crappy statements and continue to hold the state under siege. This is certainly not freedom atleast not for Kashmir. I am pretty sure that all the people there want is peace and have always been let down by some weak governance and the unruly , brain washed people there.

Am not a sadist who tries to conceive a negative image of things. Rather am critical of how things happen and whether it really makes sense the way it is happening.
Once again rather than sitting back and seeing the tri-colour being unfurled on national television, standing up for the next 52 seconds for National Anthem lets perceive, conceive and do something for a better tomorrow, a better India and in a real sense an Independent India.
--Jai Hind..